Gephardt: Universal Coverage ‘Cannot Pass This Year’, Health Care Reform Should Be ‘Incremental’
Gephardt: Universal Coverage ‘Cannot Pass This Year’, Health Care Reform Should Be ‘Incremental’
Former Rep. Dick Gephardt (D-MO) is urging the White House to defer the goal of expanding access to health insurance “until it enacts cost-saving reforms in health care delivery“:
“I feel so much now like déjà vu all over again,” said Mr. Gephardt, who now lobbies for corporate America on issues including health care. Universal coverage “is absolutely imperative, and it needs to be dealt with. But the way to get to it is to show that we can deal with some of these problems first”…According to Mr. Gephardt, incremental additions of coverage for children or low-income workers may be the most Congress can muster to complement cost containment.
The administration and most progressives typically argue the contrary: one can’t control health care costs without extending health insurance coverage to the 47 million Americans without insurance. That is, to eliminate the $1,100 an average family is now paying for uncompensated care for those without health insurance, provide families with financial security, and to address the skyrocketing costs of chronic disease management, reform must ensure that all Americans have access to continuous health care.
In fact, during the 2004 presidential campaign, Gephardt spoke of the need to expand access to coverage in such dire and emotional terms, that one would expect the former majority leader to embrace Obama’s commitment comprehensive health reform. During the campaign, for instance, Gephardt promised that if he were elected president, he would “immediately” ensure that “everyone who works will have health coverage.”
Gephardt argued that “access to quality health care is the moral issue of our time” and portrayed himself — in a rather dramatic fight with Gov. Howard Dean (D-VT) — as the only candidate who could address the health care crisis:
- “Howard Dean and the other candidates may think leaving tens of millions of Americans uninsured is acceptable….I think they’re wrong.” [NYT, 01/03/2004]
- Gephardt promised that if he reached the Oval Office he would immediately seek to repeal recent tax cuts. The money would be used to give tax credits to businesses, which would be required to provide health insurance to employees. Pension systems also should be simplified, he said, because too many Americans reach retirement without their finances secure. “Everyone who works will have health care,” Gephardt said. [Chicago Tribune, 02/20/2003]
- “It is immoral to have people without health insurance,” he said, speaking to about 70 people on the lawn of a Manchester home. “This issue is in my heart. It’s in my head. It’s in my soul. I will not rest until I get the people health insurance.” [Chicago Tribune, 07/22/2003]
- “Today in this country there is a great divide, a Grand Canyon between those who have health coverage and those who do not. And for too many, trying to cross from one side to the other is a hopeless pursuit.” [Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 04/24/2003]
- “We have proven our mettle at liberating oppressed peoples. Let us prove our worth at liberating millions of Americans from economic oppression and a life without health care.” [NY Daily News, 04/24/2003]
The current economic crisis demands health reform. Approximately 14,000 Americans are losing health insurance coverage every day, and skyrocketing health care costs could threaten America’s economic growth and prosperity. Containing health care costs is impossible without expanding coverage, and today, the “great divide” “between those who have coverage and those who do not” couldn’t be wider.
15 Responses to “Gephardt: Universal Coverage ‘Cannot Pass This Year’, Health Care Reform Should Be ‘Incremental’”
Register
RSSLogin
Topic Cloud
ArchivesBlog RollAbout Wonk RoomContact Us
Donate
Former Rep. Dick Gephardt (D-MO) is urging the White House to defer the goal of expanding access to health insurance “until it enacts cost-saving reforms in health care delivery“:
This is the for-profit health care line, espoused by Triad Hospital CEO Denny Shelton after he sold his company and pocketed over $40 million. White House health czar Nancy-Ann DeParle made $1.4 million on the same sale. She sat on Triad’s board.
Nonprofit community hospitals are already stressed financially. Gephardt’s wait means more implode, maybe selling out to their for-profit brethren.
Funny, Nancy-Ann DeParle sat on the Board of Denny Shelton’s latest venture. Legacy Health Systems does joint ventures with nonprofit community hospitals. It provides them capital in return for an equity stake and majority of the profits.
What’s the method in Gephardt’s madness? Does he believe the current burden of uninsured is fairly shared by providers? It’s not even close in my community. The nonprofit sees 80% of the uninsured vs. 20% by the for-profit hospital.
Gephardt’s comment makes no sense, unless he saw the piece over the weekend on the uninsured having no political power.
http://wbztv.com/health/health.insurance.federal.2.982731.html
April 13th, 2009 at 12:33 pm“Lobbying for corporate America”, that explains Gephardt’s spin. He’s in the Chamber of Commerce, for-profit health care camp.
Deja vu is finding out my health insurance costs are going up yet again. How much do I cut coverage to keep it affordable. How high can the deductibles and co-pays go?
That’s my deja vu, Dick Gephardt. It’s because you failed to act while “serving the people”. Now, Dick is a shill for the Corporacratic ruling class. A pox on all such houses.
April 13th, 2009 at 12:37 pmOnly $1.3 million in corporate lobbying revenue for The Gephardt Group in the last election cycle.
http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/lobbyist.php?year=2008&lname=Gephardt%2C+Richard&id=Y00000334820
Show your true green colors, Dick.
April 13th, 2009 at 1:05 pm“Today in this country there is a great divide, a Grand Canyon between those who have health coverage and those who do not. And for too many, trying to cross from one side to the other is a hopeless pursuit.”
Gehphardt today:
As a corporate lobbyist, I’m working hard to keep the pursuit of health care coverge a hopeless task.
April 13th, 2009 at 1:08 pmThe Gephardt Group’s lobbying revenue grew from $590,000 in 2007 to over $1.3 million in 2008. That’s Podesta Group like growth.
Now Dick sells out his principles to corporate America. Sad.
Neither party stands on the people’s side.
April 13th, 2009 at 1:23 pm2007 three clients $590,000
2008 six clients $1,310,000
2009 ten clients (including PhRMA) ?
A pox on the influence peddlers, Dick Gephardt especially, but it includes the Podesta boys.
April 13th, 2009 at 2:03 pmdisgusting sell-out…yet another reason to go for single payer, not-for-profit universal insurance as a firm starting position. if you give these guys a millimeter, they will take you right down a mile-deep hole.
April 13th, 2009 at 3:20 pmIf one of your FAMILY members were turned DOWN REHABILITATIO how would you RESPOND? We spend OUR hard worked TAX DOLLARS, on al people who are not even U.S.CITIZENS, but will not even take CARE of the AMERICAN people, who PAID TAXES as long as they were able, but they get DUMPED, when they get SICK, like MY WIFE! OUR HOME is now BROKEN up from this type of ABUSE at the present time, and we are being put in a FINANCIAL BIND, due to the FACT: “MEDICARE” only pays for 100 days in a REHAB and then the PATIENT is just left to LAY there! Would you like to be treated like this for the past 20YRS.? Not ME!
April 13th, 2009 at 5:39 pmBehold the reason why the Democraps lose (when they lose). Gephart sells us out to the jackals. The only reason the Democraps ever win is that the Republicans are so much worse.
BARF.
April 13th, 2009 at 6:53 pmA man will not understand that which his salary requires him not to understand.
-Upton Sinclair
April 13th, 2009 at 7:56 pmIs this the same Gephardt who told Clinton not to negotiate a prescription drug bill with the Republicans because the Dems were sure to win the House back at the next election? Or the next one? Or the next? Who sold out his own caucus on the Iraq war resolution? Who left the House in 2004 only to see the Dems become the majority in 2006? I would argue that these two events are not unrelated and that looking to Gephardt for political wisdom would be idiotic.
April 13th, 2009 at 10:31 pmLie down with dogs, wake up with fleas. Dick Gephardt is symptomatic of the current smash-and-grab culture. Take the money and run, screw yesterday’s opinions I may have espoused. These greedy bastards gravitate toward House and Senate seats: surely not for the (middling) salary, but for the lucrative graft they make possible.
April 13th, 2009 at 10:50 pmFor all of you youngsters, wet behind the ears and reveling in BHO’s election and the Dem gains of the past 3 years, take a good look at why we don’t have universal health care, why Wall Street has run wild for a generation, why public transit sucks, etc.
Mealy-mouthed “stalwart” Dems like Gephardt, Bill Clinton, Joe Lieberman, Daschle, et al, managed to scuttle any true reforms over the past 20 years, and if given the chance their heirs Bayh, Landrieu, Lincoln, etc will do the same.
The only way to get any progress will be to keep the heat on BHO, who’s a better man than this whole crew combined.
April 14th, 2009 at 12:37 amA complete total arse
April 14th, 2009 at 11:20 amAre you uninsured in America? You should check out the website http://UninsuredAmerica.blogspot.com – John Mayer, California
April 14th, 2009 at 11:50 pm