Policies and Regulations

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Speakers: Jeffrey D. Straussman, Dean of Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy, University at Albany;
Theodore R. Marmor, Adjunct Professor of Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School;
Alan Altshuler, Ruth and Frank Stanton Professor of Urban Policy and Planning, Harvard Kennedy School

President-elect Barack Obama created history by being elected the first African-American President of the United States of America. In his acceptance speech he declared that change has come to America and also acknowledged the difficult times facing the country. Set to assume office in less than a week, the incoming administration is concretizing its plans for change and preparing to address the ongoing financial crisis as well as many other challenges and constraints that face him in a range of areas. In so doing, Obama will have to cope with the double edged sword of unusually high expectations of both Americans and people worldwide. What strategies will Obama need to adopt to use presidential power effectively in this time of significant turmoil? How will he prioritize among competing issues calling out for his administrations attention? And how he will proceed to keep a workable political coalition intact while making difficult choices that will alienate some supporters? The three panelists, all distinguished senior analysts of executive power and American public policy, will discuss the challenges of Barack Obamas transition and will also respond to questions from the audience.

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Lost in the economic crisis, the lousy horserace numbers for McCain, and the personal attacks of the McCain camp is the ongoing health care crisis in the United States. With our current system, there remain 47 million without care and millions more who are underinsured. Cost issues exist alongside inequalities of care access. And now, with unemployment rising, the issue is becoming more acute.
Paul Krugman: Conservative Republicans still hate Medicare, and would kill it if they could — in fact, they tried to gut it during the Clinton years (thats what the 1995 shutdown of the government was all about). But so far they havent been able to pull that off.

So John McCain wants to destroy the health insurance of nonelderly Americans instead. But but Not good. Obama’s idea is different. Today, he signed on to the Health Care for America Now principles, which do not endorse specific legislation, but are compatible with single payer and other approaches. From a press release:

Today, Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) signed the Health Care for America Now statement declaring that he is on the side of quality, affordable health care for all and opposed to leaving Americans on their own with unregulated health insurance.

There’s still plenty of room to argue about the best way to get there, but with a recession looming and people in danger of losing their jobs, this is not an issue that can be ignored any more. Expect it to be brought up in the town hall debate tomorrow – unlike the phoney stuff being brought up by McCain’s campaign and his increasingly shrill VP candidate, who caters only to the shrinking Republican base, this is an issue that all Americans actually care about.

“Health Care for America Now’s goal this year is to get the next President and a majority of Congress committed to the principles of quality, affordable health care for all and opposed to policies that would tax our benefits at work and leave us on our own with the unregulated, bureaucratic private insurance industry,” said Richard Kirsch, National Campaign Manager, Health Care for America Now. “With Senator Obama’s signature, we are taking a major step towards getting the next President and Congress to make comprehensive health care reform a priority in 2009.”

John McCain’s plan is anything but acceptable. Since it’s all about saving money and nothing else, he proposes, according to the WSJ: McCain Plans Federal Health Cuts…Medicare, Medicaid Spending Would Be Reduced to Offset Proposed Tax Credit
Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Sen. McCain’s senior policy adviser, said Sunday that the campaign has always planned to fund the tax credits, in part, with savings from Medicare and Medicaid. Those government health-care programs serve seniors, poor families and the disabled. Medicare spending for the fiscal year ended Sept. 30 is estimated at $457.5 billion.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/10/6/124346/441/758/621648
Those of us who analyze health policy and trends for a living have struggled to follow John McCain’s health plan through its many seemingly-improvised changes. First he was taxing health benefits through both payroll and income tax. Then he said he only intended to apply income tax, which meant that his plan would create even larger deficits. Now he says there won’t be deficits, because he’s going to make up the cost of those tax credits by slashing Medicare and Medicaid.

When a candidate suddenly, almost whimsically changes the way he proposes to handle $1.3 trillion – which is the amount of money his plan puts in play over the next ten years – it’s time to get nervous.

We already knew the McCain plan was going to cost most Americans money (in at least three different ways.) Now we know it could jeopardize their medical care when they get older, too. The end result of this off-the-cuff planning could change the way Americans receive, or don’t receive, medical care in this country…at least three kinds of health “tax increases” (more accurately described as increased personal cost) under the McCain plan: a “slow bleed” for people who retain coverage as the tax credit falls behind inflation, a $,7000-plus spike for people who lose their coverage immediately, and an increase in out-of-pocket costs (and denials, etc.) for people who still have insurance. What do we get in return? According to that neutral study, three million uninsured would gain coverage – briefly. After five years the number of uncovered would go up.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rj-eskow/mccains-erratic-health-st_b_132242.html

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Presidential candidate Ron Paul proposes major changes to U.S. foreign policy. We caught up with him in Iowa.

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economist, nationally syndicated columnist, and former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan Administration, Paul Craig Roberts.
http://www.vdare.com/roberts/all_columns.htm
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Joe Biden spoke about Barack Obama’s judgment and readiness to lead the country in a new direction from the failed Bush-McCain foreign policies of the last 8 years in Cincinnati, OH September 24th, 2008.

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Barack Obama, May 16, 2008

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Join MPP-TV as we review five of the 2008 presidential candidates’ positions on marijuana policy.

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Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2008/09/16/The_Future_of_Health_Care_The_Candidates_Plans

E. Richard Brown, founder and director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and a health advisor to the Barack Obama 2008 Presidential campaign, summarizes Obama’s plans for health care reform.

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Health care is a major issue in the current presidential campaign. Candidates Barack Obama and John McCain have laid out very different visions, and each believes his plan is best for our nation’s citizenry.

Come learn about each plan from the top policy advisors of each candidate, and take the opportunity to ask your own questions and get answers – The Commonwealth Club of California

Dr. E. Richard Brown is a professor at the UCLA School of Public Health and the founder and director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. He received his PhD in sociology of education from the University of California, Berkeley.

Dr. Brown has studied and written extensively about a broad range of issues and policies that affect the access of disadvantaged populations to health care. His recent research focuses on health insurance coverage, the lack of coverage, and the effects of public policies, managed care, and market conditions on access to health services, particularly for disadvantaged populations, ethnic minorities, and immigrants. Dr. Brown and the Center’s studies of health insurance coverage, uninsurance, and eligibility for public programs have been used by California’s governors, legislators, and advocates in crafting health insurance legislation and programs.

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