Debicella: There's So Much You Don't Know About Obamacare

Dan Debicella is the challenger to Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT 4th District) in this November's congressional race. Although Debicella lost to Himes in 2012, he is well funded and Hime's re-election should not be taken for granted. This op-ed, which appeared in Greenwich Time, was written in collaboration with Sean Goldrick, a fellow member of the Greenwich Democratic Town Committee. It was written in response to an op-ed written by Debicella.

“It’s not what he doesn’t know that bothers me, it’s what he knows for sure that just ain’t so.” Although the provenance of this quote about politicians is debated, it undeniably fits Dan Debicella, the Republican challenger to Rep. Jim Himes.

In his recent op-ed, “Fixing our health care mess,” Debicella claims the Affordable Care Act “neglected to address the out-of-control costs squeezing middle class families.”  Apparently Debicella is unaware that over the five years since ACA implementation began, health care costs have risen at the slowest rate in half a century.  He also neglects to report that ACA stopped insurance companies from gouging people in the individual market, requiring insurers to put at least 80 percent of premium income towards medical care. Obamacare resulted in millions of dollars of overcharges being rebated to middle class consumers over the past two years.  

Debicella claims the Affordable Care Act fails to cover “most of the uninsured” due to the ACA’s “convoluted exchange system.”  In fact, despite the initial problems of the federal exchange website, more than 8 million middle class Americans enrolled in marketplace plans, and another 6 million received coverage through Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). After decades of consumers being locked out of the private insurance market, the uninsured rate hit an all-time high just before the healthcare exchanges opened late last year. Since then the rate has fallen more than 20 percent, “a sign that the Affordable Care Act…appears to be accomplishing its goal of increasing the percentage of Americans with health insurance coverage.” reported Gallup in April.

While criticizing Obamacare for failing to cover the uninsured, Debicella neglected to reveal that 25 states controlled by Republican governors and legislatures refused to extend Medicaid coverage, a key component of Obamacare, leaving millions of vulnerable Americans without access to health care. A study by Harvard University published in Health Affairs estimates that up to 17,000 Americans will die each year in the 25 “refusal states” due to lack of access to health care. 

Thanks to Gov. Malloy’s leadership, CT’s state exchange worked beautifully, extending insurance to nearly two and a half times more residents than was originally estimated. Of the 79,000 residents who signed up for private sector health insurance policies through Access Health CT, nearly four in five received subsidies to help pay premiums.  That isn’t “squeezing middle class families,” it’s helping them.  Over 150,000 low-income Connecticut residents who couldn't afford health insurance before are now benefitting from the Medicaid extension.  

Debicella’s alternative to the ACA is a “market-based system.” He is apparently oblivious to the fact that we’ve had (and still have) a largely market-based system that drives the highest costs in the world, while leaving millions uninsured and delivering sub-par performance when compared to the government-managed systems that Republicans love to denounce as “socialist” failures.  

As a fix for high costs, Debicella proposes that insurance policies be sold across state lines.  What he is really proposing is that junk insurance that used to be marketed in lightly regulated states be sold to unsuspecting consumers elsewhere.  In another example of how Obamacare is helping the middle class, it put a stop to the peddling of junk insurance, requiring a basic level of services be offered in every state.  That has lowered cost through standardization, while enhancing the quality and coverage of insurance policies.

Debicella also proposes tort reform as a means of reducing health care costs. Malpractice costs are a favorite Republican bogeyman even though they account for a small fraction of total healthcare costs. Commenting on proposals to restrict malpractice suits as a way to attack healthcare costs, Forbes (“the capitalist tool”) commented “Given the small percentage of the health care dollar spent on medical malpractice issues, that would hardly appear to be the case.”

There’s just so much that Mr. Debicella knows for sure that just ain’t so.

It’s more than disheartening to believe that one vote in the Senate could make the difference between beginning to address the health care crisis in this country or accepting the status quo. Which is why I believe it is particularly important to stand up to Republican obstructionism on the issue, and encourage Democrats to push forward.

I’m off to watch President Obama take on the Republicans for six hours. How delicious!

Any way one looks at it, the evidence demonstrates that Republicans are fundamentally opposed to health care reform that would enable all Americans to actually enjoy “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”, rights enshrined in our Declaration of Independence. Republicans would have us believe that they are for cutting costs, extending coverage, reducing the deficit, improving health care and working collaboratively with Democrats, but the facts paint a different picture.

Despite months of good-faith negotiation to accommodate Republican demands, only one Republican out of more than 250 actually supported the health care reform legislation passed by the House and Senate. This is despite the fact that Democrats significantly compromised on key priorities: a public option to make insurance affordable and introduce competition into the market, truly universal coverage (millions are still left uninsured in the current proposals) and protection of women’s right to choose.

Republicans are not committed to universal health care and protection from the catastrophic impact of serious illness on working families, leaving the United States alone among developed nations in not protecting its citizens. The latest Republican proposal would cover just three million uninsured, only 10% of what the Democrat’s legislation covers. By their own admission, Republicans question why universal coverage is a priority. Sage Eastman, a spokesman for Republicans on the House and Ways Committee asked, “Why is coverage the dominant theme?” For those who believe that Republicans are on the side of the middle class, consider the facts. Millions of the uninsured that Republican proposals won’t cover are working families and their children; universal coverage is not just about providing insurance to those in poverty.

By their words and actions, Republicans are demonstrating that their primary motivation is obstruction, not solving the health care crisis. They rail about “government takeovers” of health care and burgeoning government expenditures, but stand in the way of Medicare reforms to cut government spending without cutting benefits. John McCain attempted to block nearly $500 billion in planned Medicare savings and costly Medicare Advantage plans that receive unwarranted government subsidies. The Bush-enacted prescription drug benefit prohibits the government from negotiating for lower drug prices. Republicans are fine with government spending when it enriches pharmaceutical companies, but against it when it helps working Americans.

Republicans conveniently ignore the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office analysis that projects that the Democratic Senate plan would reduce the deficit by $132 billion over the next decade, and $1 trillion over the decade following. By contrast, the latest Republican measure, according to CBO estimates, will lower the deficit in the first decade by just $68 billion, while covering only one-tenth as many uninsured.

Republicans are scaring Americans into believing that health care reform will raise their premiums. In fact, the CBO concluded that the legislation won’t have much of an impact on premiums up or down.

If Republicans continue to stand in the way of health care reform, Democrats need to take matters into their own hands and use parliamentary maneuvers to let the majority will be expressed.

Is This the Democratic Party I Belong To?

I was shocked to read about the last minute cave-in to the anti-choice lobby to secure passage in the House of health-care reform. Putting Stupack-Pitts together with the word "reform" has ushered in a new level of spinelessness for the Democratic leadership.

My quick note to Speaker Pelosi:

Dear Speaker Pelosi,

I am greatly disappointed with the health care reform bill you brought to the floor for passage, because of the complete sell-out of the abortion rights of lower income women. It is truly a sad day for the Democratic party—particularly when it enjoys a historically overwhelming legislative majority—that it to so cravenly gave in to the anti-choice lobby and tossed away years of hard-won victories to protect the health and privacy rights of American women.

I truly cannot understand why you allowed this last minute amendment to be offered without raising huge red flags. The efforts to play down the significance of the Stupak-Pitts amendment are disingenuous at best, offensive at worst. To suggest that women, especially those who can least afford it, should have to buy a rider to obtain medical insurance to cover their constitutionally protected right to reproductive freedom is nothing short of obscene.

I urge you to do everything in your power, and what you should have already done, to reverse this dangerous and ill-conceived precedent.

Sincerely,

JP