Guaranteed Healthcare

It is now widely recognized that we are in a global recession of historic proportions, raising comparisons with the Great Depression of the 1930s. The failures of deregulated markets, whether in housing, banking or other industries, has become obvious to all. So far the private health insurance industry has not been called to account, but its day is coming soon.

In a Letter to the Editor of the Wall Street Journal just days ago, John Goodman, president of the conservative Dallas-based National Center for Policy Analysis, repeats this classic premise of Milton Friedman's economic views:  "capitalism confers its greatest benefits on people at the bottom of the income ladder.  People at the top would have done well under any system. It is people at the bottom who are most liberated by markets." This view of the world has dominated U. S. politics for several decades.  As we saw in our last post, however, free markets in health care are driving up costs at three and four times the rate of cost of living and family incomes.  It is long overdue to hold this theory to account for its actual track record and its impact on people needing health care.

Last week’s action by Congress to override President Bush’s veto of the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act (HR 6331) was a landmark step toward reversing the tide of privatization of Medicare over the last three decades. The votes in Congress were a resounding defeat for conservative policies and the lobbying efforts of the insurance industry. There was no ambiguity in the override votes — 383 to 41 in the House and 70 to 26 in the Senate, with 153 Republicans in the House and 21 Republicans in the Senate defying the president. The courageous leadership of Senator Edward Kennedy, long a champion of better access to health care, helped to head off a disastrous veto of this legislation despite his current medical problems.