Citing
work done by longtime Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg, Washington
Post columnist
Helaine Olen reports what Greenberg has found:
“Last
month, longtime pollster Stan Greenberg listened to a number of focus
groups conducted in working-class and rural areas of Wisconsin,
Michigan, Maine and Ohio. They were heavy on people who supported
President Trump in 2016, and many were now leaning toward voting for
Joe Biden in 2020. But if Democrats want to gain these voters,
they’ll need to do better on one key issue.\
'In
today’s working class and rural communities, health care is
everything,” Greenberg wrote, in recent piece in the
American Prospect.
“The health care system is failing them, and they want someone to
fix it.'
And
they will vote for whomever promises to do just that — and abandon
those leaders when they don’t deliver, Greenberg warns. It’s why
they voted for Trump in 2016, and why they turned on the Republican
Party in 2018. (It’s also, I should add, one reason people voted
for Barack Obama in 2008 but turned on the Democratic Party in 2010.
As I’ve long observed, people seem to conflate the phrase
“Affordable Care Act” with their own situation.)
As
for now, it’s the covid-19 pandemic, but it’s more than that.
It’s the epidemic of opioid deaths — which appear to be rising
significantly this
year — and the increasing costs of coverage, both of insurance,
co-pays and other out-of-pocket expenses. It’s the impossibility of
navigating our health-care system and managing to emerge financially
intact.
These
long-running crises are more pressing than ever. More than 4 in 10
working-age Americans experienced inadequate
health-care coverage at some point in the past year — either
because they lacked health insurance or were forced to pay such a
high percentage of their income in the form of deductibles and
co-pays that they might as well have been. The percentage of people
with a deductible of $1,000 or more has doubled since 2010 and now
stands at 46 percent, according to a recent Commonwealth Fund survey.
In particular, 40 percent of Latinos reported lacking insurance
either at the time of the survey, or at some point within the past
year, something to keep in mind when wondering why, as a group, they
are much
more likely to die from
covid-19 than White Americans.
Over
and over again, people sitting in the focus groups Greenberg listened
in on talked about medical bills in the tens of thousands of dollars,
and how the high deductibles made health insurance plans all but
unusable — one person had a $16,000 deductible — and arbitrary
denials that made their often hard lives even more precarious. One
women discussed not being able to afford an EpiPen for a grandchild
suffering from allergies after her insurance company refused to
authorize it.
Biden
says he plans to improve on the Affordable Care Act, increasing
subsidies as well as demanding that Medicare negotiate with
pharmaceutical companies over the price of drugs, something currently
banned by law. He also says he will offer up a “public option” —
a Medicare-like government offering that competes with private
insurers — and expand Medicare to cover people 60 and up.
But
how serious Biden, who has been a faithful
servant of
corporate interests for the entirety of his legislative career, is
about fixing the monster that is our health-care system is entirely
unclear. The medical industrial complex is adamantly against
the public option, for starters. Biden says he’s committed, but
when the
Hill recently
asked the Biden campaign whether officials would immediately present
legislation on a public option, or start with smaller health-care
fixes, the newspaper received no response. And as Libby Watson noted
at the
New Republic,
at the Democratic convention, even Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) didn’t
mention the public option during his appearance.\
One
of the conundrums of the Democratic primaries — when
Medicare-for-all loomed large — was that a large number of people
supported substantive health-care reform but often didn’t vote
their preference. They’re supporting Biden over Trump, in many
cases, because they want to see Trump gone, not because they support
his position on health-care reform.
Moreover,
Biden’s health-care pitch, much of which rested on the shaky
premise that Americans loved their workplace health insurance,
increasingly feels like something out of a time warp. Tens of
millions of Americans have lost their jobs since mid-March, and the
pace of weekly layoffs is picking up.
Republicans
certainly have no answer. When a constituent with cancer recently
called Sen. Thom Tillis’s (R-N.C.) office asking about the high
cost of health insurance and her fears she would lose hers, the
response was heartless. “Sounds like something you’re going to
have to figure it out,” the
staffer told her,
while comparing the need for health insurance to a “new dress
shirt” she shouldn’t buy if she couldn’t afford.
But
if the Democrats don’t come up with a solution that actually helps
people — if they don’t put a stop to surging premiums and
deductibles, not to mention arbitrary denials and surprise medical
bills and the entire cornucopia of financial horrors that comes with
accessing the most necessary and needed health care in the United
States, it seems likely voters will, once again, move on. If Biden is
elected president but fails to deliver, don’t be surprised to
discover that 2022 turns out to be a repeat of 2010.” (1)
The
medical/insurance cartels are holding the country hostage. The awful
truth is that not only are these cabals sucking nearly twenty five
percent out of the national economy, but will will, when the time
comes, hijack a huge percentage of the generational wealth when it
changes hands.
Greenberg
is right. As pointed out in these columns in 2017, Donald tRUMP ran
to the 'left' of virtually the entire Republican field in 2016,
promising affordable health care that would cover all, saying that
“it isn't popular among Republicans”, and adding that the
government would pay for it, because there would be great savings on
the other side. A point reaffirmed by a study funded by the Koch
Brothers, much to their chagrin.
Disgustus,
of course, had already signed on to Paul Ryan's agenda meaning that
his assurances were complete bullshit, but he knew they would
resonate among the masses struggling under the weight of the burden
and fearing for their well-being.
The
question lingers? What if the Democrats had nominated Bernie?
Sanders, famously, went on Fox News and held a town hall meeting.
After presenting his argument in favor of government-run single-payer
health care, the moderator asked the audience—a hand-picked FOX
audience—how many supported the idea. Both the audience and the
moderator were shocked when about 80 percent raised their hands.
These were, by and large, tRUMP supporters responding to a populist
appeal for an end to the exploitation of the sick and aged.
Biden,
riding high in the polls, is an illusion. He is not building a
coalition. Most of his support, as stated in the article, comes from
an overweening desire by the American public to rid itself of the
pestilence of tRUMP. The great 'coalition' of former Republicans,
conservatives, Democrats and progressives will fracture on election
night and Biden, should he be elected, will find himself with little
genuine support backed by even less enthusiasm. Those on the 'right'
will return to their errant ways, those on the 'left' will
impatiently await the blows of cruel fate.
Biden's
only saving grace is that at least he isn't promising much.
An
Br'er Putin he jus' laugh and laugh
Flush
this turd, November 3rd
___________
