Obama’s slippery transition to a single-payer health care system

Six years ago, on June 30, 2003, State Senator Obama spoke to the Illinois AFL-CIO saying: “I happen to be a proponent of a single payer universal health care program. …. A single payer health care plan, a universal health care plan. And that’s what I’d like to see. But as all of you know, we may not get there immediately. Because first we have to take back the White House, we have to take back the Senate, and we have to take back the House.” 1

On March 24, 2007, U.S. Senator Obama told the Service Employees International Union: “[A]s I indicated before, my commitment is to make sure that we’ve got universal health care for all Americans by the end of my first term as president. …I don’t think we’re going to be able to eliminate employer coverage immediately. There’s going to be potentially some transition process.” 2

Chicago health-care activist Dr. Quentin Young says he heard Obama frequently advocate a single-payer system, “As I recall, this was his categorical response, that he thinks single-payer is the way to go.” 3

But then President Obama appeared to deny those prior statements at a “health care town hall” on August 11, 2009, when he claimed: “I have not said that I was a single-payer supporter, because, frankly, we historically have had a employer-based system in this country, with private insurers, and for us to transition to a system like that, I believe would be too disruptive. …So, I’m not promoting a single-payer plan.” 4

That surprised even his Democratic friends. “I can remember when Obama agreed with me,” said Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, on August 4, 2009, about Obama’s apparent support for a multi-tiered system.

“I’m just guessing now, because we haven’t talked about it, but he wants it because of the Rahm Emanuel factor. Okay. I’m glad you asked me. The Rahm Emanuel factor, to quote him, is that, look, we want success, and we’re willing to make a deal about anything. Does that make you feel pretty comfortable about health care? And that’s the whole idea, is that he wants a bill,” said Conyers. “He wants to win in the off-year elections. He [Emanuel] wants our president reelected the next time he comes up, and so do I. But I don’t want anything that’s stamped ‘reform’ and let it go at that.” 5

But the bill will, in fact, accomplish Obama’s longstanding goal of a single payer system. At Section 102(A) “Limitation on New Enrollment”, it prohibits any health insurer, other than the “public option” insurer, from adding any new people after the bill’s effective date. 6 Obviously, that is a transitional elimination of private insurers.

Rep. Conyers didn’t know the health care bill is a planned transition to a single-payer system because he hasn’t read it: “I love these members, they get up and say, ‘Read the bill.’ What good is reading the bill if it’s a thousand pages and you don’t have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means after you read the bill?” 7

Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) thinks that’s the very reason why it should be thoroughly read and studied. “It’s 1,017 pages,” he said. “It includes 33 entitlement programs, creates or expands or extends, 53 additional offices, bureaus, commissions, programs, bureaucracies the bill creates.”  8

Ninety-three Republican members of Congress have signed a pledge to actually read the bill before voting on it. No Democrats have signed the pledge. 9

Maybe if each member of Congress does read the bill, we will not remain on such a rapid path to Mr. Obama’s planned transition to a single payer health care system.

1 “Barack Obama on single payer in 2003”, Video and text, posted June 4, 2008, Physicians for a National Health Program, http://www.pnhp.org/news/2008/june/barack_obama_on_sing.php
2 “NEW LEADERSHIP ON HEALTH CARE: A PRESIDENTIAL FORUM” March 24, 2007, Service Employees International Union, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada, http://www.americanprogressaction.org/events/healthforum/obama_transcript.html http://www.americanprogressaction.org/events/healthforum/fulltranscript.pdf
3 http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2009/jul/16/barack-obama/obama-statements-single-payer-have-changed-bit/
4 CNN Transcripts, “Town-Hall Protests Unprecedented, Lawmakers Say; Obama Speaks to Town Hall about Health Care” August 11, 2009 http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0908/11/cnr.05.html
5 Ballasy, Nicholas “Conyers Says Obama Flip-Flopped on Single-Payer Plan”
August 04, 2009, http://www.cnsnews.com/Public/Content/Article.aspx?rsrcid=52019 ; see also, “Conyers: Obama suffers from the ‘Emanuel Factor’” http://www.examiner.com/x-2304-DC-Republican-Examiner~y2009m7d28-Conyers-Obama-suffers-from-the-Emanuel-Factor ;
6 H.R.3200 “America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 (Introduced in House)” http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.3200  SEC. 102. (1) “LIMITATION ON NEW ENROLLMENT- (A) IN GENERAL- Except as provided in this paragraph, the individual health insurance issuer offering such coverage does not enroll any individual in such coverage if the first effective date of coverage is on or after the first day of Y1.”
7 “Why Read the Health Care Bill?”, July 29, 2009,  http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,535244,00.html ; “Conyers Sees No Point in Members Reading 1,000-Page Health Care Bill—Unless They Have 2 Lawyers to Interpret It for Them”, July 27, 2009, http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/51610 See also, http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/2009/07/27/rep-conyers-dont-read-the-bill/
8 “Why Read the Health Care Bill?”, July 29, 2009,  http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,535244,00.html
9 “Why Read the Health Care Bill?”, July 29, 2009,  http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,535244,00.html