Originally Published in The Palm Beach Post, July 27, 2013
By Robert Weiner and Nakia Gladden
This
was the headline across cable TV news shows on July 23: "Sen. Mike Lee,
R-Utah, threatens a government shutdown over Obamacare." Opposition to the
Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare") -- with 39 House-passed repeals but
none in the Senate -- and the administration agreeing to delays and funding cuts
are reminiscent of opposition to the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act, originally written by former Florida U.S. senator
and congressman Claude Pepper.
Mr. Pepper's bill was enacted in
July 1988 and repealed 16 months later. We should have learned from that
lesson. Instead, Affordable Care Act supporters are battling not just attempts
to repeal the law but a more subtle, bit-by-bit "defund-and-destroy" strategy.
Mr. Pepper believed that
catastrophic protection, which he introduced in 1987, was necessary to protect
persons who suffered from long-term illness, treatment for which could deplete
their families' savings. The bill capped out-of-pocket expenses, expanded
nursing-facility and hospital benefits, and offered outpatient prescription-drug coverage. The bipartisan bill was signed by President Reagan. It created
The Pepper Commission to address the issue of long-term care and home care. Mr.
Pepper was chairman until he died in May 1989.
Healthcare lobbyists and insurance
companies put their PR machines in motion to repeal the law. They organized
hundreds of protests and bombarded members of Congress with irate mailers. As
now, they converted seniors' support to opposition. Seniors were told they were
paying too much, and they mobilized. The pressure drove Congress to repeal the bill
on Nov. 22, 1989.
Fast-forward to Obamacare. The
health industry is conducting a similar lobbying campaign, and has targeted
seniors to repeal or defund the law.
Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and
Sarah Palin first pushed the notion that the bill would create "death panels"
for senior citizens, to determine if they were too old or too at-risk to
receive benefits, ignoring that insurance companies do exactly that.
Claiming, "We don't want government in our health care," opposition leaders forgot to tell seniors that's what Medicare is, and seniors love it. Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Tex., stated,
"How
much more socialist can you get than a government telling everybody what they
can do?"
Whether out of common sense or a
desire for money, some former opponents have come around. Rick Scott became one
of seven Republican governors to favor the law's Medicaid expansion, saying,
"While the federal government is committed to paying 100 percent of the cost, I
cannot, in good conscience, deny Floridians that need it access to health
care."
Unfortunately, his decision has not
been welcomed by other Florida Republicans, including former Gov. Jeb Bush and
Florida House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, even though nearly 1.3
million new Medicaid recipients under the law would have their insurance paid
by the federal government.
Florida's 22nd congressional
district, which includes parts of Palm Beach and Broward counties and is
represented by Democrat Lois Frankel, has 147,000 residents who lack healthcare insurance but are now eligible for it. According to Rep. Frankel, "The
Obamacare plan is going to take 33 million (uninsured) people and put them into
the insurance market" across the nation.
Supporters need to remain firm. In
December, as part of the "fiscal cliff" deal, the administration agreed to take
out the CLASS Act, which provided long-term-care insurance benefits to
employees: Mr. Pepper's dream. Last month, President Obama delayed the
Obamacare employer mandate. Republicans earlier required the administration to
bar educational funding for the bill, forcing Secretary of Health and Human
Services Kathleen Sebelius to do outside fund-raising to inform people they are
eligible. Twenty-four Republican governors are refusing to authorize the law's
optional insurance exchanges or Medicaid expansion -- denying any coverage to
over 15 million Americans.
Last week, President Obama
re-launched an effort to keep the law in place, and stated that it helps to
"deliver more choices, better benefits, a check on rising costs, and higher
quality care. We're already seeing those effects take place." The law has
already put millions of young people on parents' plans, covered patients with
pre-existing conditions, and given families insurance rebates from overcharges.
It is a myth to say we have the best
health care. The U.S. spends almost twice as much as the rest of the world
while ranking 51st in life expectancy and 52nd in infant mortality, according
to the CIA World Factbook. If we ever want to catch up, it's important that we
learn from the repeal of Claude Pepper's Catastrophic Coverage Act and not have
reform blocked by insurance industry-driven repeal.
Robert Weiner was a
senior White House spokesman and chief of staff for Rep. Claude Pepper's House
Aging Committee and Health Subcommittee. Nakia Gladden is policy and research
analyst for Solutions for Change.
Originally Published in The Palm Beach Post, July 27, 2013
By Robert Weiner and Nakia Gladden
1
1
1
