Hoarding the Health
Greenblatt, Alan
Hoarding the Health Congress, the White House, and the bureaucracy want to stay out of the plan that will cover 83 percent of the country. You can bet that if they succeed, it'll be hazardous to...
...Paul Wellstone, the progressive senator from Minnesota, proposed an amendment to an unrelated spending bill "to assure that members of Congress participate on an equal basis with their constituents in [any] health care system" put into law in the coming months...
...She admitted that "some plans might be more of a financial stretch than others...
...You can bet that if they succeed, it'll be hazardous to your health BY ALAN GREENBLATT On September 22, President Clinton told a rapt nationwide audience that when it comes to health care, "We're all in this together...
...Congress should be in the same boat as the rest of the American people," Wofford, who supported Wellstone's move, insists, "especially when it comes to health care...
...But even as Boxer denounces special treatment, she's embracing it for herself and her colleagues...
...In other words, the people who are supposed to be watching out for the public welfare are perfectly willing to let the public twist in the waiting room while the insiders are protected...
...During the floor debate on Wellstone's amendment, Murray insisted that senators should not "put ourselves aside from the rest of the country [and] bash ourselves" by not preserving the right to buy up and out of any package they impose on the country...
...But taxpayers underwrite these convenient services to the tune of $1.5 million...
...As Murray herself said, in the now distant 1992 campaign, "If you elect elites...
...In his address, Clinton stressed "choice" as one of his six "basic values and principles" for reform...
...Murray's remarks put her in the same league as the Clintons deciding to send Chelsea to private school, or Dan Quayle saying he'd support his daughter's decision to have an abortion (but no one else's...
...With Congress and the bureaucracy bailing out, the personal contact with the system that will be absolutely necessary to understanding what's wrong and how to fix it will be missing...
...therefore, we want to make sure we are able to opt out of it...
...Nevertheless, in her race for the Senate from California last year, she successfully positioned herself as an "outsider" and pledged to "shake up" an institution she called out of touch...
...When he was appointed to the Senate in 1991 to replace the late John Heinz, Wofford signed up for the congressional health plan...
...But that was then...
...House members write a check for $234 a year to pay for check ups, exams, and medical advice...
...But in September she, like Murray, invoked the need for her family to "decide what is best for us" in dismissing Wellstone's call for Congress to adhere to the standard package...
...Stark is sponsoring legislation which would require every member of Congress to be similarly stuck in his home district's cheapest plan to ensure that it offers high quality care...
...Wofford worried that if he wasn't reelected, his wife wouldn't be able to get any coverage at all due to her condition...
...Don't think personal involvement makes any difference to how Congress thinks...
...One of the capital's best kept secrets is the Federal Employee Health Benefit Program, which lawmakers and the federal bureaucracy want to keep...
...Shortly thereafter, his wife became seriously ill...
...But under managed competition, those 83 percent are bound to lose a certain amount of choice, particularly on doctors they can see...
...Clinton's plan, as it currently stands, would create a "core-benefit package," a benchmark plan that would cover 83 percent of Americans...
...But congressmen have access to a well-staffed clinic on the first floor of the Capitol and an ambulance standing by while they're in session...
...we know it will not be good enough for our families...
...you don't have a group of people who understand...
...On health care, Harris Wofford, one of the Senate's leading advocates of a national health plan, has a good reason to make sure every American will be covered regardless of preexisting conditions...
...Wellstone retorted, "We are going to set an average price plan for middle class people, but...
...We have long been in support of national health care," says Diane Witiak of the American Federation of Government Employees, "but we would not support a program that asked for a diminution of benefits for our members...
...Tom Harkin, whose brother is deaf, wrote the Americans with Disabilities Act (from which Congress promptly exempted itself...
...I think it is a very dangerous precedent, to single out one group of people in society and treat them differently in this health plan," said Boxer...
...Two days later Congress had a chance to prove it...
...The other 17 percent are expected to opt out and Alan Greenblatt is a Washington writer...
...During a Senate hearing the week following the president's address, Wellstone asked Hillary Clinton what recourse people would have if their care proves deficient but they don't have the money to buy their way up...
...Members of Congress, remember, aren't starving: With an annual $133,600 salary, they make more than 94 percent of their constituents and will be able to buy their way up...
...Congressman Pete Stark of California says, "tens of millions of Americans will be stuck in the cheapest health plan in their geographic area...
...And yet that's what they've decided to do...
...There's a loophole for those with a loaded checkbook, though: People who want to choose their own doctor can pay for the privilege—and affluent Washington wants that privilege...
...As a congresswoman, Barbara Boxer bounced 143 checks against the House bank...
...We're not just talking about being covered for luxurious extras like cosmetic surgery and in vitro fertilization...
...senators pay $520...
...Members of Congress, instead of putting themselves in the same plan that covers the little guy or making what they currently get workable for the rest of the country, want to be able to buy a better deal in the new era...
...As Iowa Senator Charles Grassley admitted, "It certainly would be the height of hypocrisy to develop such a system for our fellow citizens, but exempt ourselves from it...
...Though she ran as a "mom in tennis shoes" in 1992, freshman Washington Senator Patty Murray doesn't agree...
...Wouldn't you like a deal like that at the office...
...I happen to be the only mother with two children here to care for," Murray said "I want to be able to make the choice not as a senator of the United States, but as a mother who goes home and talks to my husband and my family and does what is right...
...The president is promising comprehensive coverage to all Americans but his program still allows a wide disparity in coverage and access...
...A recent University of Rochester study found that the uninsured, who have access to one-third less care, suffer serious problems such as more premature births and a 25 percent higher death rate as a result...
...If we say it is good enough for us," Wellstone reasoned, "surely we will be working very hard to make sure it is good for our constituents...
...In defeating Wellstone's amendment, the Senate showed exactly what's wrong with Washington: Those on the inside are more interested in protecting themselves than in helping those on the outside...
...But until [the new system] is really up and going, we are not going to know which plans, whether it is high, medium or low-priced, will be most satisfactory...
...As recently as December 1992, Murray stressed the importance of congressmen understanding the lives and concerns of those they represent: "People who pass policies about our lives need to understand exactly who we are...
...Since most of us will be covered under the lowest priced plan, Wellstone and Stark are right: The surest way to guarantee adequate universal coverage is for the people in charge to participate equally with the bulk of Americans...
...With Wellstone promising to reintroduce his original amendment and Stark's bill working its way through the House, this is a chance to make sure that doesn't happen with health care...
...Well, we can probably guess...
...Congress has a long and ignominious history of exempting itself from the laws it passes to govern the rest of us...
...buy more coverage...
...The result will be a government that won't fix the system's problems because the people running Washington won't be in the same boat as the rest of us...
Vol. 25 • January 1993 • No. 11
