Why I Love Dan Froomkin and the Washington Post Was An Idiot for Firing Him

Let's be blunt. The public option -- emphasis on the word "option" -- is a way to hold the insurance companies accountable should they (entirely unexpectedly, of course) fail to live up to their promises, ignore the rules, and keep doing things the way they have for the past several decades....

The public option is a grave threat to the regime of obscene profit-making that has left the health care industry with plenty of cash to now throw in reform's way. The growing "opposition" to the public plan is a direct result of that money. This is -- remember -- exactly how money works in Washington. It buys congressmen. It buys message. It generates publicity. It even makes presidents flinch....

Are you really confident, for instance, that the insurance industry will work hard to control health care costs? Our health insurance chieftains have been talking about that for decades. But rather than do it, they seem perfectly happy taking a big cut of an ever-bigger pie -- and focusing their cost-cutting energies on denying coverage to people when they need it. This seems to work for them. Changing the rules under which they operate may have some modest impact on their behavior, but not nearly as much as will looking over their shoulders and seeing a government-run program bending the cost curve, lowering rates, and improving service.

The presence of an alternative -- a choice -- is critical. It's also about as American as apple pie. The insurance companies themselves understand this very well. The industry-backed PR firms that are bankrolling and inciting ostensibly "grassroots" protests understand this. That's why they encourage talking points about a "government takeover" of health care, rather than anything based in reality.

Dan Froomkin

Amen.

Interestingly, I have not met one actual health care provider who does not believe that single payer, universal health care is the economical, sensible, eventually inevitable, and moral way to go. I could talk about the frustrating hours every month that I spend dealing with insurance companies. I could talk about hidden deductibles in the thousands of dollars, premiums that cost 50% of a family's income, people trapped in jobs solely for the health benefits, treatment decisions made by insurance demands rather than by the needs of my patients. But worst of all are those who get no health care because they have no coverage.

I understand that Medicare recipients are afraid that if others are cared for, they will lose their own fragile health security. I blame the insurance and drug companies for fanning those fears. If we lose this battle, those companies will be able to rake in the profits for another decade or so--exactly analogous to the tobacco companies fighting regulation through years and decades while they sucked up every last possible drop of money.