Get local - show your support in the O.C.
Got plans this Saturday? You do now. Do this, please, if you care about health care. From an email from Jonathan Veit, chair of the Oconee County Democrats:
For those who have not heard, area Republicans, using the title "Citizens For Ethical Government," have organized what they are calling "Oconee Healthcare Reform Protest." The organization has invited all area Republicans. The event is scheduled to take place at Oconee Veterans Park (OVP) [Here's a map. -ed.] on Saturday, August 29th at 10:30 am. Invited speakers include Paul Broun, Bill Cowsert, Bob Smith, and Rob Peecher (publisher of The Oconee Leader).
The Oconee County Democratic Committee is organizing a "counter presence" or "counter protest" to the upcoming health insurance reform protest that is being organized by area Republicans. Our goal is to peacefully promote the idea of health insurance reform and dispel the many myths that are being spread. Therefore, we plan to be at the entrance of the OVP at 10:00 AM on 8/29 and will hold up signs that state our support for health insurance reform. The Oconee County Democratic Committee invites all area Democrats to join us. Please bring a sign!
If you are worried that the debate over health insurance reform is being controlled by the other side, then please join us in this peaceful protest. "Citizens For Ethical Government" chose Oconee County for this event because they think it will be comfortable for them to protest in this overwhelmingly Republican County. It has been reported that they had 400 people at their most recent "Tea Party" rally at OVP. Let's show up in big numbers and show them that we are not afraid to stand up for what is right.
This is important. The folks who are pushing the loud and sometimes threatening protests against health insurance reform (who are, conveniently enough, the ones who stand to gain the most from defeating any effort to reform America's health insurance system) have been successful in recent weeks in framing the debate along their terms. If you believe that we need real reform now, please take an hour or so of your Saturday and go show Oconee County that there's a real movement for health insurance reform.
Can a public option work in America?
Well, in certain parts of America, it seems as though the answer is "yes." Consider the case of San Francisco's "Healthy San Francisco" program, which I found out about recently. Here's a really nice write-up about it by Art Levine over at In These Times. An excerpt:
While not technically insurance, the program provides subsidized care to San Francisco residents at approved clinics and hospitals--and pays for it with a small, graduated tax on employers.
And guess what? Businesses haven't lost jobs as a result, and private insurance companies are still flourishing.
What's interesting about this program is that it's being promoted not just by the usual progressive subjects (labor unions, prog-bloggers, Gavin Newsom, etc) but by a fellow named William Dow, who in addition to being a professor of health care economics at Berkeley, was also a member of the Council of Economic Advisors under of all people, George W. Bush. (I can only imagine that he wasn't the most popular CEA member with the administration that hired him.) Dow, along with an economist with the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment and a doctoral student in health economics, wrote all about it in a New York Times op-ed this weekend. And I quote:
[R]oughly 20 percent [of businesses in San Francisco] have chosen to use the city’s public option for at least some of their employees. But interestingly, in a recent survey of the city’s businesses, very few (less than 5 percent) of the employers who chose the public option are thinking about dropping existing (private market) insurance coverage. The public option has been used largely to cover previously uninsured workers and to supplement private-coverage options. (Emphasis added. - ed.)Well, I'd call that one "myth busted." In SF at least, business owners are not taking advantage of the public option by dropping coverage for already-covered employees.
So, is San Francisco a microcosm of America? Will the public option work in the nation at large as well as it appears to be working in San Francisco? Truth be told, I couldn't tell you, and neither could William Dow, I imagine. But it's certainly food for thought.
