WSJ Editor Attacks The Non-Existent ‘Public Option’ In Massachusetts
WSJ Editor Attacks The Non-Existent ‘Public Option’ In Massachusetts
On Saturday, the conservative editors of the Wall Street Journal editorial page used their weekly Fox News show to attack every aspect of the health care reform that President Obama is trying to work through Congress. To criticize the idea of public insurance plan, assistant editorial page editor James Freeman claimed that health reform in Massachusetts shows what would happen with a public option:
GIGOT: All right, James, let me ask you about this–the public option. Because the president says, Look, all this is, is going to compete with the private plans, keep them honest. The insurers are making a lot of money right now. We need to keep them honest.
FREEMAN: Right, and I think the beauty of this is we don’t need to guess or estimate or just posit what might happen, because the people of Massachusetts since 2006 have been running the experiment for all of us, and we can go to school on it.
Gigot: Thanks to Mitt Romney, former Republican governor.
Freeman: That’s right.
Gigot: Or no thanks to Mitt Romney.
Freeman: And it’s very clear what happens. Private insurance goes away, more people go on the public plan, costs explode, more costs go onto small business, and people lose their jobs or they get salary freezes.
Watch it:
There’s one problem with Freeman’s analysis: Massachusetts doesn’t have a public plan. As former MA governor Mitt Romney, who implemented the plan, told CNSNews last month, “Our plan did not include a government insurance plan.” “Instead, we relied entirely on private market-based insurance plans to help people get insurance,” said Romney.
Instead of a public plan, Massachusetts uses an employer mandate and subsidies for people under 300 percent of the federal poverty level unable to afford coverage. Massachusetts has successfully expanded coverage to all but 2.6 percent of its population, but unfortunately, the program deferred “until another day any serious effort to control the state’s runaway health costs.” Proponents argue that a public plan would be key to cost control.
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Freeman is typical of the mainstream media today. He is so well paid that he identifies with the rich and the powerful, and will go to bat for their interests at any time. WSJ is owned by Rupert Murdoch of FoxNews. What else would you expect?
These people don’t give a crap about the survival of this nation. They do Murdoch’s bidding with no exceptions.
The WSJ has long since lost any claim it once had to independence.
July 27th, 2009 at 12:34 pmEditors of a newspaper who don’t even know the facts of an issue they pretend to be experts on. Pathetic.
July 27th, 2009 at 12:35 pmMake
Up
Shit
As
You
Go
MUSAYG!
July 27th, 2009 at 12:36 pmMA is an example of what would occur, at BEST, under the co-op idea for healthcare.
Republican agenda: obstruct anything positive for the country, maintain the status quo, protect big business and its profits.
July 27th, 2009 at 12:37 pmHey, if the facts don’t support your position, just make up some “facts” that do.
July 27th, 2009 at 12:37 pmHere is an excellent must read article written by Bill Maher regarding privatization of everything for profit including defense contractors, the prison system, the media and the health care industry.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-maher/new-rule-not-everything-i_b_244050.html
July 27th, 2009 at 12:38 pmLittle excerpt from the Maher article:
And finally, there’s health care. It wasn’t that long ago that when a kid broke his leg playing stickball, his parents took him to the local Catholic hospital, the nun put a thermometer in his mouth, the doctor slapped some plaster on his ankle and you were done. The bill was $1.50, plus you got to keep the thermometer.
But like everything else that’s good and noble in life, some Wall Street wizard decided that hospitals could be big business, so now they’re run by some bean counters in a corporate plaza in Charlotte. In the U.S. today, three giant for-profit conglomerates own close to 600 hospitals and other health care facilities.
They’re not hospitals anymore; they’re Jiffy Lubes with bedpans. America’s largest hospital chain, HCA, was founded by the family of Bill Frist, who perfectly represents the Republican attitude toward health care: it’s not a right, it’s a racket. The more people who get sick and need medicine, the higher their profit margins. Which is why they’re always pushing the Jell-O.
July 27th, 2009 at 12:39 pmI don’t know what more we expect from Fux News…
July 27th, 2009 at 12:40 pmThe Wall Street Journal and Fox News needs to publish a complete apology for this out and out lie.
July 27th, 2009 at 12:41 pmDoes anyone really expect a Murdoch lackey (Freeman) to actually convey factual information?
If so, I have a bridge to sell you, really cheap.
July 27th, 2009 at 12:41 pmDamn those facts and their liberal bias!
July 27th, 2009 at 12:42 pmMeanwhile, back at the ranch, Inhofe continues to throw red meat to the “birthers”
as other GOOPers engage in idiotic grandstanding like this:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/27/gop-rep-will-offer-resolu_n_245287.html
GOP Rep. Will Offer Resolution Demanding Obama Apology To Cambridge Police
At a time of economic distress, two wars, and a health care reform effort stalled by political friction, Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, (R-Mich.) is set to introduce a bill calling on Barack Obama to formally apologize to the Cambridge Police.
The Michigan Republican announced on Friday that he would introduce the resolution unless Obama apologized to Cambridge Police Sgt. James Crowley for criticizing Crowley’s handling of Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.’s arrest last week.
__________
They’ve lost their F-in’ minds…
July 27th, 2009 at 12:42 pmMake up facts? o.k. … let me give it a shot:
A government run public option for health insurance would harm the health insurance industry, and by extention would cause the collapse of hospitals and the sudden rise of abortion mills everywhere in place of hospitals. And when the private health insurance industry fails we can clearly see what happens by looking at the poor people of this country who don’t have private insurance. They get no regular care, and are sicker on average, they over-use the emergency rooms, clogging them up with issues that could have been prevented had they had private health insurance, thus running up the costs of care for others, and they die off younger causing more unpaid bills and a weakened unskilled workforce. All because they didn;t have health insurance.
Therefore, it is clear that the private health insurance industry is absolutely necessary for the well being of the people and for the stability of the nation’s economy, as well as sustaining the profits of the healthcare industry.
July 27th, 2009 at 12:45 pmI guess this is a good example of why Murdoch got involved with the WSJ. Fox News can basically use this paper (whose name is still meaningful to the general person on the street) to reconfirm whatever BS they send out there.
It’s like those weird press releases that use other press releases by the same company to confirm their data.
Gross.
July 27th, 2009 at 12:46 pmI remember a time when the Wall Street Journal was a respected paper. Biased, yes, but at least it understood the “journalism” part.
Since Murdoch purchased it, it has become nothing more than an extension of FuxNews. Which is ironic because the majority of the Fux viewers can’t read.
When Mittens himself has been out talking up the MA plan in which they didn’t create a public option, it’s not that hard to find the facts. If one is actually looking.
PEACE
July 27th, 2009 at 12:47 pmThe Republic of Stupidity says:
They’ve lost their F-in’ minds…
July 27th, 2009 at 12:42 pm
To be fair, they are Republicans — we shouldn’t assume they were in possession of minds in the first place.
July 27th, 2009 at 12:48 pmWhy is everyone offering bridges for sale? I don’t want a bridge.
Now, if you have some “prime real estate” going at a special low price we may have to talk. Oh, it is a little soggy within the boundaries? Well, as long as it is just a little soggy….
July 27th, 2009 at 12:49 pmThe Republic of Stupidity says:
They’ve lost their F-in’ minds…
I kinda noticed that a few years back =)
July 27th, 2009 at 12:49 pmWayne says:
I kinda noticed that a few years back =)
______________
The pace seems to have picked up… kinda like a sh*tball rolling down hill.
July 27th, 2009 at 12:52 pmZooey says:
To be fair, they are Republicans — we shouldn’t assume they were in possession of minds in the first place.
_____________
And yet they’re so… so… defiantly ***PROUD*** of it, ta boot.
July 27th, 2009 at 12:53 pmCageyCretin says:
Why is everyone offering bridges for sale? I don’t want a bridge.
Now, if you have some “prime real estate” going at a special low price we may have to talk. Oh, it is a little soggy within the boundaries? Well, as long as it is just a little soggy….
How about some future beach front property in Arizona then? Just one big earthquake away from being soggy. LOL
July 27th, 2009 at 12:53 pmEveryone on the WSJ editorial board is a lying idiot, starting with Gigot.
July 27th, 2009 at 12:54 pmpoliticscorner says:
The Wall Street Journal and Fox News needs to publish a complete apology for this out and out lie.
___________
Let us not forget… Fox is, to date, still the only “news outfit” that has defended itself in court by claiming it had a Constitutionally protected Right To Lie™ and call it news… and WON the case on that basis.
Prolly brought a tear of joy to Rupert’s eye…
July 27th, 2009 at 12:56 pmLakefront property in Texas is going cheap these days…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/27/off-the-charts-drought-in_n_245317.html
July 27th, 2009 at 12:57 pmWayne says:
The Republic of Stupidity says:
They’ve lost their F-in’ minds…
I kinda noticed that a few years back =)
I think that they had been tenaciously hanging on to something resembling sanity for a long, long time. Then there was the public announcement of a “permanent Republican majority(TM)”. At that point they lost their minds, and the megalomania really came to the surface.
THEN their “permanent Republican majority(TM)” bubble was completely burst as they lost their majority everywhere pretty much at once (politically speaking), and their megalomaniac minds snapped. They could not deny the reality that their dream of absolute control had been shattered, yet they cannot ever admit to being wrong. Paradox.
Their solution: they decide that they didn’t lose their permanent republican majority — it was stolen from them illegally, and it is still their rightful position. Since it was stolen, everything right now is just a big game — a farce — as they believe that it is they and only they who should be making decisions and being in charge.
We are witnessing the results of this collective psychotic breakdown.
July 27th, 2009 at 12:58 pmThis is the same newspaper that made up things about the Clinton health care program. One thing I remember was that if you didn’t use an approved doctor you would be subject to criminal penalties
July 27th, 2009 at 12:59 pmHere’s the little fact that I have been using when talking to conservatives who complain about a public plan.
The right always says that government can’t run programs like this sucessfully.
yet they are now complaining that it will be too much competition for private insurance companies.
Which is it? You can’t have it both ways.
July 27th, 2009 at 1:00 pmThe Republic of Stupidity says:
Wayne says:
I kinda noticed that a few years back =)
______________
The pace seems to have picked up… kinda like a sh*tball rolling down hill.
Yeah, its making me worry that this brand of crazy might be contagious. Maybe we need to start putting GOPers into isolation wards for observation…
July 27th, 2009 at 1:00 pmWayne says:
How about some future beach front property in Arizona then? Just one big earthquake away from being soggy. LOL
Mmmmmmm… soggy sand……
O.k., you got a deal! Call my office on monday and set up a meeting for tuesday with my secretary. And if he makes the appointment I’ll fire him. Wait, better make that wednesday, I’m going to Mexico on thursady. Hi, my name’s Cagey, I’ve always wanted to meet you, Mr. Wayne.
July 27th, 2009 at 1:02 pmThe Republic of Stupidity says:
And yet they’re so… so… defiantly ***PROUD*** of it, ta boot.
July 27th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
Pretty astonishing, huh?
July 27th, 2009 at 1:09 pmIt’s been my understanding that the Wall Street Journal is fairly accurate in its basic reporting because they have to be but the editorial page pushes an agenda that benefits their corporate benefactors.
July 27th, 2009 at 1:21 pmProud to be liars
July 27th, 2009 at 1:23 pmAccountable to no one
Admired by the fooled
If the WSJ hates it we are duty bound to love it…
July 27th, 2009 at 1:24 pmI still don’t understand why Big Bidness, overall, doesn’t support a public option. It would help lower their costs. The only thing I can think of is they don’t want employees to hop-skip away to another job because they didn’t like the pay or didn’t want to put up with the BS anymore when they treat us like crap.
July 27th, 2009 at 1:25 pmBasically, Big Bidness has a gun to our heads with the reality that some have healthcare and others don’t.
July 27th, 2009 at 1:27 pmMr. Cobb says:
Basically, Big Bidness has a gun to our heads with the reality that some have healthcare and others don’t.
____________
I don’t know if it’s Big Bidness as a whole, or just certain sectors… like Health Care itself, or Walmart. Isn’t Walmart, by itself, the largest private employer in the world? A public option/lower health care costs in general would certainly have benefited the Big Three auto makers.
July 27th, 2009 at 1:39 pmZooey says:
_____________
The Republic of Stupidity says:
And yet they’re so… so… defiantly ***PROUD*** of it, ta boot.
_____________
Pretty astonishing, huh?
_____________
The Know Nothings are back, w/ a vengeance…
July 27th, 2009 at 1:43 pmThere is no surprise that WSJ is disseminating disinformation. They go hand in hand with Fixxed News.
July 27th, 2009 at 1:44 pmFred says
July 27th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
The right always says that government can’t run programs like this sucessfully.
yet they are now complaining that it will be too much competition for private insurance companies.
Which is it? You can’t have it both ways.
_____________________________________________________________
They attempt to reconcile the two diametrically opposed concepts by claiming the government will cheat to win. And we’re supposed to wrap our minds around this somehow.
First up on the “the government doesn’t play fair” hit parade is that the government is going to be subsidized by the taxpayer and the private insurers are not. Yes, but this is offset by the private insurers getting to pick and choose who they insure, while the government plan will be required to take anybody who wants it. Kind of like how private schools get to take the best and brightest and richest (and kick out anybody who’s any sort of a problem or can’t afford to pay), and public schools are required to teach every child who shows up — including all special ed kids, all learning disabled students, all disciplinary problem students etc. Except, unlike public schools, public plan option participants will be required to pay for their insurance, and the “subsidy” money will mostly be used to pay for people who can’t afford to pay on their own.
Second up on the hit parade is the claim that the government will be able to negotiate lower costs from health care providers. Um…yeah, that’s the general idea. This is a game the private insurers are already playing, by merging into larger entities and creating geographical monopolies. The only difference is that the government (being non-profit) can pass the savings onto the insureds, whereas the private companies pocket the change. Which brings us to…
Third in the line-up is the somewhat absurd claim that the government has unfair advantage because they aren’t in this for the profit, they don’t have a bloated advertising budget, and they don’t have to pay gazillions to lobbyists. In other words, the health care industry think it’s cheating to operate with less overhead.
And finally, there’s the relatively new opposition talking point about “page 16″ of the house bill, which the naysayers claim will “outlaw private insurance”. Of course, the bill says no such thing, and I have already debunked this canard at length on a previous thread — http://thinkprogress.org/2009/07/16/right-wing-dies-health-care/#comment-5727311
In other words, the wingnuts are acting like a bunch of poor sports in a playground softball game. They refuse to play an an opposing team because they’re afraid they would lose, but they claim the other team is no good (and besides, they cheat).
July 27th, 2009 at 1:55 pmmisscoleopteramolly says:
Excellent post at @39!
July 27th, 2009 at 2:05 pmThe government already pays over 60% of the health insurance industries’ revenue. They honor the charter the government gives them by screwing us and then whine that they can’t “compete” with a public option. Sucks not to have a monopoly, huh?
July 27th, 2009 at 2:12 pmMr. Cobb says:
I still don’t understand why Big Bidness, overall, doesn’t support a public option.
I suspect that there is a bit of “the old boy network” mentality in ‘big business’. Thus, any other “big business’ is, pretty much, an ally, in principle and on general terms at least.
When it comes to protecting profits, or issues of business ethics, etc., it seems that the big business sector pretty much marches shoulder to shoulder. If one can be “taken down”, that threatens the others, so they stick together on such issues.
A little extra profit does not, for them, justify allowing several other big business buddies to lose their wide and generous profit margins. Particualrly since it would be because of a government run program, as it would cause the populace to have a greatly improved support of the government in general, and could lead to more and enforced regulations and such that hinder their wide profits. Big business fears the government more than any birther mouth breather repug, because the government is the only entity that can regulate them and control them.
My 2cents.
And I’m out for that day.
July 27th, 2009 at 2:14 pmKentucky is to blame for the latest CNN investigation of Canada — a “Reality Check” on Canada’s health care. It seems the state — known for fried chicken and racehorses — is also home to Senator Mitch McConnell, a high-ranking Republican of impeccable conservative credentials. Senator McConnell does not like President Barack Obama’s plan to reform health care, and he’s decided to use Canada as a weapon to help him fight the battle.
As CNN reported, McConnell recently made a speech to the Senate referring to the “bureaucrats who run Canada’s health care system” and using the Kingston General Hospital as an example of the horror of Canada’s health care. KGH supposedly had waits of 340 days for knee replacement and 196 days for hip replacement. McConnell also fussed that Ontario’s wait time for breast cancer surgery is three months. CNN did interview Dr. David Zelt, KGH’s chief of staff, who pointed out the wait times are actually 91 days for hip replacement, 109 days for knees, and that these aren’t the average wait times, but the time that nine out of 10 people have had the procedure. Many have them done much faster. For breast cancer surgery, the wait time at KGH is 23 days, across Ontario it’s 34 days.
Both CNN and McConnell made a big deal out of Shona Holmes, an Ontario woman who claims she was forced by Ontario’s health system to go to the United States for life-saving surgery for a brain tumour. She claims that in 2005 delays in access to treatment at home made it necessary to go to the Mayo Clinic in Arizona and pay $97,000 for her care.
In 2007, Holmes was part of a court case brought by the Canadian Constitution Foundation against the government of Ontario. The case challenges Ontario’s “government-run monopolistic” health system that prohibits the sale of private health care and private health insurance for essential health services. It is still before the courts.
Holmes has become the darling of conservatives and the stop-public-health-care movement in the United States. She’s testified before Congress, been on Fox TV as well as CNN, and her story is retold on hundreds of right wing blogs. She’s now doing a nasty TV ad for Patients United Now, a Republican-led group opposed to Obama’s reforms. You can see the ad at http://www.patientsunitednow.com. The group is spending almost $2 million on it to target politicians in Washington.
For a person living with cancer, the idea that someone’s care could be unreasonably delayed is truly scary. It also doesn’t reflect the experience I’ve had or the experiences that have been shared with me by so many other patients. Even CNN interviewed Doug Wright, a more typical patient in Toronto who is receiving very speedy treatment for his cancer.
Still, I found Holmes tale both compelling and troubling. So I decided to check a little further. On the Mayo Clinic’s website, Shona Holmes is a success story. But it’s somewhat different story than all the headlines might have implied. Holmes’ “brain tumour” was actually a Rathke’s Cleft Cyst on her pituitary gland. To quote an American source, the John Wayne Cancer Center, “Rathke’s Cleft Cysts are not true tumors or neoplasms; instead they are benign cysts.”
There’s no doubt Holmes had a problem that needed treatment, and she was given appointments with the appropriate specialists in Ontario. She chose not to wait the few months to see them. But it’s a far cry from the life-or-death picture portrayed by Holmes on the TV ads or by McConnell in his attacks.
In Senator McConnell’s home state of Kentucky, one out of three people under age 65 do not have any health insurance. They don’t have to worry about wait times for hip or knee replacement or cancer surgery — they can’t get care. The media household income in Kentucky is $37,186 — not quite enough for the $97,000 bill at the Mayo Clinic. CNN didn’t mention that in its “Reality Check.”
As the debate on health care reform heats up the United States, it seems certain that Canada’s public health care system will be used, or more accurately misused, in the battle for hearts and minds. For years, Canadians have feared the American health care system; now Americans are being told to fear ours.
July 27th, 2009 at 2:28 pm© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen
If you take away the Republic’s ability to lie, they will then be at a total loss for words.
For the life of me I don’t understand why the GOP thinks what this country needs is more people without access to health care. Because that’s exactly what is going to happen when the government’s subsidy of COBRA runs out and we have all those unemployed people who, living on unemployment, can’t afford the full COBRA premium. This will happen to me in January. My premium will go from $154 to over $500. Since I only get $382 a week in unemployment, it isn’t hard to understand that I won’t be able to pay that premium. Even if the Democrats are able to push through some kind of health care reform, it won’t happen fast enough to help me and the millions of other unemployed. The plan currently before Congress won’t even start until 2013l.
July 27th, 2009 at 2:50 pm