Jackson Free Press

Blane McClellan, co-owner of Security Services Inc. of Jackson, says he wants a public option in the national health-care plan to compete with insurance companies that routinely refuse to cover his daughter due to her history of medical ailments.

"It's the nature of the industry. My father and I own and operate a small business here. We have a small group plan that is very expensive," McClellan said.

"I pay $1,000 a month to cover myself and my family. I also have a 5-year-old daughter with a genetic condition, and my insurance company is horrible."

McClellan said his company uses Blue Cross Blue Shield because Security Services Inc. employs people in parts of the state where Blue Cross Blue Shield is the only insurance provider. He said Blue Cross Blue Shield "constantly denies" claims on his daughter, and that he had to certify his daughter as disabled to get health-care coverage through Medicaid.

Blue Cross Blue Shield spokesman John Sewell said his company could not comment directly on McClellan's issue because of privacy concerns. Sewell said the company had recently begun a new policy, since McClellan began his coverage, of no longer excluding coverage for pre-existing health conditions on group policies.

McClellan says his family has yet to see the benefit of this new policy.

Mississippi Health Advocacy Program Director Roy Mitchell agrees with McClellan that Congress should marry a public-health insurance option with any health-care reform demanding that U.S. residents invest in health insurance.

"In terms of a poor state like Mississippi, I think it is essential that health-care reform be affordable," he said. "It needs to reach working people who will have trouble making co-payments, especially in our state. The public option would guarantee affordability in the health exchange."

Lawmakers are fighting over whether a federally managed insurance option should be made available to people in a plan designed to lower skyrocketing health-care costs, which have been outpacing average citizens' income over the last 10 years.

H.R. 3200 creates a health-insurance exchange under the guidance of the federal government that would maintain a marketplace for individuals and small employers to compare insurance plans. It would issue affordability credits based on income, to help low-income and middle-income customers buy insurance. However, the bill also contains a requirement that all American citizens have some form of health insurance, be it private insurance, the new public option or coverage offered through Medicaid or Medicare.

The most controversial aspect of H.R. 3200 is language creating a new government-run insurance plan, known as "the public option," to offer competition to insurance companies that boast huge profits by cherry-picking from lists of mostly healthy customers with few medical risks.

The Senate bill differs from the House bill by forcing the government to literally pay insurance companies in an effort to coax them to take on customers they normally reject as applicants with a pre-existing health condition.

Mitchell said he endorses the public health plan over incentives: "There's no question in my mind that the public option would be significantly cheaper in the long run, and more effective."

Most customers with higher health risks and a history of medical problems currently get shown the door by private insurers, or have to pay huge monthly payments or high co-pay demands. Some customers doubt whether insurance companies will comply with federal incentives to cover the unhealthy, arguing that nothing less than a government-provided insurance alternative will force the industry into compliance.

Faced with repeated rejections from the private industry, McClellan said he would happily take the public insurance option if the federal government would only provide it. He is one of a growing number of people who would choose the public opinion, according to polls. A New York Times survey based on nationwide telephone interviews conducted between Sept. 19 and Sept. 23 revealed that 65 percent of all voters support the government providing Americans the choice of a public option, and only 26 percent oppose it.

The public option also appears popular in rural areas populated by conservative Democratic lawmakers as well. An Anzeloni Liszt poll shows 54 percent voter support of a public option in battleground districts that could go either Republican or Democratic in future elections. The same poll showed 58 percent of voters wanted the national health-care system to get improvements, with 59 percent doubting Congress had the guts to actually make those improvements this year. The poll also revealed that 74 percent of respondents feared the insurance industry was having an adverse affect on Congress' ability to enact change.

They may have a point. The insurance and pharmaceutical industries are happy to support the Senate version of H.R. 3200, authored by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont. According to lobbying watchdog group The Sunlight Foundation, Baucus drew political contributions from 37 outside lobbyists representing drug makers and 36 lobbyists who listed drug maker Amgen Inc. as their client. Also, 11 major health and insurance firms steered contributions to the senator.

The findings of the Anzeloni Liszt poll don't square with attitudes of Mississippi representatives—at least white ones—who are dead-set against reform. Democratic U.S. Reps. Travis Childers and Gene Taylor embody the Blue Dog sentiment in Mississippi.

Taylor made firm his commitment against health-care reform proposals endorsed by President Barack Obama, arguing that the Obama plan would create about $1 trillion in new debt.

"We can't afford new promises," Taylor stated on his Web site. "We have to keep the promises we have already made."

The American Heart Association, which endorses H.R. 3200 and a public option in the Senate bill, explains that Taylor's $1 trillion figure is the cost as reflected over a 10-year period, with an average of $100 billion a year. In contrast, the Department of Defense' annual budget is around $500 billion, with scant conservative opposition each consecutive year it is approved.)

Congressional budget rules require that the health-reform bills coming out of the House be fully paid for, so that they won't add to the national debt. AHA says on its Web site that the $1 trillion cost also "doesn't take into account the private savings that would result from health reform" through provisions such as improved care coordination and a greater emphasis on disease prevention.

Nevertheless, Blue Dogs are skewing the debate. "The real fight seems to be with the Blue Dogs. They're really digging in," Mitchell said.

The public-health insurance option failed to survive the Senate Finance Committee last week, with five Democrats joining Republicans in the committee to reject an amendment in a 15-to-8 vote.

Three Democrats then joined Republicans again to defeat a second public-option attempt with a 13-to-10 vote.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters after the meeting that the issue was far from dead, but it remains clear that the fight is strictly between Democrats, with Republicans content to squat in a ditch with their arms crossed and heads shaking.

Political author Jere Nash, a Democrat, told the Jackson Free Press that Republicans had largely removed themselves both from the picture and from the debate in hopes that the new Democratic president fails and heralds a new Republican victory in 2010 and again in 2012.

"They need to tell voters who they are, what they're going to do and what they believe in. But they haven't gotten past first base on this because they've regressed to the party that says 'no.' Personally, I hope they keep this attitude up," Nash said, adding that it would serve Democrats well in the next election as Republicans gain a reputation as obstructionists.

Mississippi Republican Party Chairman Brad White said the Republicans have plans, but they're not getting heard by the Democratic majority in the House and Senate.

"When you watched the president's health-care speech, you saw Republicans holding up health-care plans that they wanted the White House to consider, but none of them have been heard," White said.

"As far as being obstructionist, I agree. It is very important for the party to be for things and not just against things, but they can't make the accusation that the Republicans are holding up things when (Democrats) are vast majorities in the House and Senate. The reality is that some of the things the president wants are so far off base that many (conservative) Democrats don't want it."

Previous Comments

ID

152492

Comment

Love my baby cousin Blane!! How did two kids from a very conservative Delta family turn out as good as us, huh? ;)

Author

Lori G

Date

2009-10-08T08:15:19-06:00

ID

152494

Comment

Poll after poll shows that the people (who are supposed to have the power in a DEMOCRACY) support a public option, even here in MS. Yet, the MS House members keep voting against it. It seems the power lies not in the people, but in the corporate lobby. We don't have a democracy, but a "capital-ocracy" or a "purse-ocracy", only the wealthy people need apply. This is why we need more grassroots candidates in these elections, people who aren't bought and paid for, in order to really be the voice of the people. Childers and Taylor are a joke!!!!!

Author

Renaldo Bryant

Date

2009-10-08T10:02:48-06:00

ID

152496

Comment

Amen, Blackwatch.

Author

justjess

Date

2009-10-08T10:39:43-06:00

ID

152498

Comment

I'm not so worried about the House as I am the Senate, since there are six Democratic senators who have the power to block reform, especially Max Baucus of Montana. He has the insurance companies in his back pocket and his ear tuned to them rather to the people of his state. I was watching Rachel Maddow last night and she broke a story via a source who told her that if any Democrats go along with a Republican filibuster may find their chairmanships revoked, as well as other leadership positions in the Senate. We need a public option. Poll after poll do show a majority of people and an even larger majority of doctors favoring it. We don't need to listen to John Boehner (R-Ohio), who said he doesn't know of a single American who supports it. He must doesn't get out much.

Author

golden eagle

Date

2009-10-08T10:59:16-06:00

ID

152604

Comment

I also say Rachel's show when she broke the story about the plan to out any democrat who supports the expected Republican filibuster. It's about time that the Dems run the "money changers" out of Congress. We can not sit idly by and watch a few folks get richer and richer while others become poorer,sicker and DEAD.

Author

justjess

Date

2009-10-12T10:33:58-06:00