In terms of health care, how did we get where we are today? What most people call our “health care system” is anything but a system. It’s a mix of health insurers, hospitals, doctors, employers and their army of lobbyists on the front-line in our nation’s capitol protecting their financial interests.

Opponents of the current effort by Congress to reform health care scream that if it passes the government will takeover the entire health care “system.” If that happens, the free market won’t function properly because the government will strong-arm the industry to artificially reduce costs.

Of course, even a cursory examination of our current health care system reveals that it is not a free market.

First of all, health insurance companies are allowed to collude and fix prices because of an anti-trust exemption dating back to the 1940s.

But the biggest anti-free market component of our health care system is the employer-provided shenanigans.

Employers have been setup as the middleman between customers and the health insurance industry. This separation of customer from service provider has been a great way to hide the real cost of health insurance. Most workers have no idea how much their employer pays for their health insurance premiums. It’s kind of like the hidden payroll taxes, but that’s another story.

You see, health insurance is provided by employers as a benefit. And like all benefits, it costs the company money. Now theoretically, if your company wasn’t paying hundreds of dollars a month for your health insurance premium, you’d make more money or the business would be able to hire more people.

The actual health care cost for the average worker is about $500 a month.

If you really believe in the free market, you’d support eliminating employer-provided health insurance. How much your employer currently pays for your premiums could be added to your paycheck. And then you can go purchase your own health insurance, or just buy health care without insurance.

Of course, for this to work, we’d need to do something about that anti-trust exemption, but it would be a start.

A free market can not work if the consumer doesn’t know what they’re purchasing and how much it costs.

Paul Krugman economist

In the past, the insurance industry’s power has been a major barrier to health-care reform. Most notably, the industry paid for the infamous “Harry and Louise” ads that helped kill the Clinton plan. But times have changed.

Read Krugman’s column

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) increased Democratic pressure on the health insurance industry Thursday, telling reporters that there is “tremendous interest” in the House in revoking the industry’s anti-trust exemption.

Pelosi Joins Attack On Insurance Industry’s Anti-Trust Exemption

Wendell Potter

Just as the Senate Finance Committee is getting ready to vote on the Max Baucus health care bill and move it out of committee, MoveOn.Org released a 30-second ad attacking the reform legislation.

The ad is narrated by former insurance executive Wendell Potter.

“The Senate Finance bill is a dream come true of the health insurance industry,” says Potter. “If there is no public option insurance companies aren’t going to change. The choice of a public health insurance option is the only way to keep insurance companies honest.”

President Obama’s Weekly Address was about health care reform. He started off by trying to debunk the myths regarding death panels, illegal immigrants, a government takeover of health care and government funding for abortions. None of this is going to happen, Obama said.

After trying to chop the legs out from under the opposition to health care reform, he proceeded to explain what health care reform actually is going to look like. While Obama’s still a bit sketchy on the details, he’s trying to provide some clarity on this issue. But rather than reiterate what he said here, just read the transcript below or watch the video yourself.

Here’s the complete transcript of President Obama’s remarks. Source: White House

Each and every day in this country, Americans are grappling with health care premiums that are growing three times the rate of wages and insurance company policies that limit coverage and raise out-of-pocket costs. Thousands are losing their insurance coverage each day.

Without real reform, the burdens on America’s families and businesses will continue to multiply. We’ve had a vigorous debate about health insurance reform, and rightly so.  This is an issue of vital concern to every American, and I’m glad that so many are engaged.

But it also should be an honest debate, not one dominated by willful misrepresentations and outright distortions, spread by the very folks who would benefit the most by keeping things exactly as they are.

So today, I want to spend a few minutes debunking some of the more outrageous myths circulating on the internet, on cable TV, and repeated at some town halls across this country.

Let’s start with the false claim that illegal immigrants will get health insurance under reform. That’s not true.  Illegal immigrants would not be covered. That idea has never even been on the table. Some are also saying that coverage for abortions would be mandated under reform. Also false. When it comes to the current ban on using tax dollars for abortions, nothing will change under reform.  And as every credible person who has looked into it has said, there are no so-called “death panels” – an offensive notion to me and to the American people. These are phony claims meant to divide us.

And we’ve all heard the charge that reform will somehow bring about a government takeover of health care. I know that sounds scary to many folks. It sounds scary to me, too. But here’s the thing: it’s not true. I no sooner want government to get between you and your doctor than I want insurance companies to make arbitrary decisions about what medical care is best for you, as they do today. As I’ve said from the beginning, under the reform we seek, if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. If you like your private health insurance plan, you can keep your plan. Period.

Now, the source of a lot of these fears about government-run health care is confusion over what’s called the public option.  This is one idea among many to provide more competition and choice, especially in the many places around the country where just one insurer thoroughly dominates the marketplace.  This alternative would have to operate as any other insurer, on the basis of the premiums it collects. And let me repeat – it would be just an option; those who prefer their private insurer would be under no obligation to shift to a public plan.

The insurance companies and their allies don’t like this idea, or any that would promote greater competition.  I get that.  And I expect there will be a lot of discussion about it when Congress returns.

But this one aspect of the health care debate shouldn’t overshadow the other important steps we can and must take to reduce the increasing burdens families and businesses face.

So let me stress them again: If you don’t have insurance, you will finally have access to quality coverage you can afford. If you do have coverage, you will benefit from more security and more stability when it comes to your insurance. If you move, lose your job, or change jobs, you will not have to worry about losing health coverage. And we will set up tough consumer protections that will hold insurance companies accountable and stop them from exploiting you with unfair practices.

We’ll prohibit insurance companies from denying coverage because of a person’s medical history.  They will not be able to drop your coverage if you get sick.  They will not be able to water down your coverage when you need it most.  They will no longer be able to place some arbitrary cap on the amount of coverage you can receive in a given year or a lifetime.  We’ll place a limit on how much you can be charged for out-of-pocket expenses, because no one in America should go broke because they get sick.


And we will require insurance companies to cover routine checkups and preventive care, like mammograms and colonoscopies.  There’s no reason we shouldn’t be catching diseases like breast cancer and colon cancer on the front end.  That makes sense, it saves lives, and it will also save money over the long-run.  Taken together, the reforms we’re seeking will help bring down skyrocketing costs, which will mean real savings for families, businesses, and government.

We know what a failure to act would bring:  More of the same.  More of the same exploding costs.  More of the same diminished coverage.  If we fail to act, the crisis will grow.  More families will go without coverage.  More businesses will be forced to drop or water down their plans.

So we can push off the day of reckoning and fail to deal with the flaws in the system, just as Washington has done, year after year, decade after decade.  Or we can take steps that will provide every American family and business a measure of security and stability they lack today.

It has never been easy, moving this nation forward. There are always those who oppose it, and those who use fear to block change. But what has always distinguished America is that when all the arguments have been heard, and all the concerns have been voiced, and the time comes to do what must be done, we rise above our differences, grasp each others’ hands, and march forward as one nation and one people, some of us Democrats, some of us Republicans, all of us Americans.

This is our chance to march forward. I cannot promise you that the reforms we seek will be perfect or make a difference overnight. But I can promise you this: if we pass health insurance reform, we will look back many years from now and say, this was the moment we summoned what’s best in each of us to make life better for all of us. This was the moment when we built a health care system worthy of the nation and the people we love. This was the moment we earned our place alongside the greatest generations. And that is what our generation of Americans is called to do right now.

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Books by Barack Obama