Director of the White House Office on Health Reform Nancy-Ann DeParle and National Economic Council Director Larry Summers host a discussion with small business owners about the growing costs of health care for small businesses, and how health reform will affect them. April 24, 2009 (Public Domain)
Duration : 1:35:5
New School President and former U.S. Senator Bob Kerrey hosts a webcast from the recording studio in the U.S. Senate to discuss the health-care reform debate raging on Capitol Hill this summer. He is joined by three top advisors to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senators Edward Kennedy and Max Baucus, the Democratic leaders shaping reform legislation. Panelists will provide an inside look at the latest proposed legislative approaches to health-care reform, including a public health-care plan, reducing reforms price tag, taxing employer-provided health-care benefits, points of agreement—and tension—between the White House and Congress, and lessons learned from the Massachusetts model of universal coverage.
Kate Leone, Senior Health Counsel, Office of Senator Harry Reid (D-NV).
Kate Leone is senior health counsel to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. She works on Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, health coverage, and prescription drug and medical device issues. Ms. Leone joined Senator Reids staff in January 2005 after serving as counsel to the previous Senate Democratic Leader, Tom Daschle, and working as a senior policy advisor with the Senate Democratic Policy Committee. Her previous experience includes working on health-care matters as an attorney for the United States Department of Justices Antitrust Division. She received a J.D. from Columbia University and a B.A. from Cornell University.
Dr. John E. McDonough, Senior Health Policy Advisor, Office of Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA).
Dr. McDonough advises Senator Kennedy on national health reform. He is the former executive director of Health Care For All, Massachusetts leading consumer health advocacy organization. From 1998 through 2003, he was an associate professor at the Heller School at Brandeis University. Prior to that, he served as a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, where he cochaired the Joint Committee on Health Care. Dr. McDonough is an adjunct lecturer at the Harvard School of Public Health. His articles have appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine, Health Affairs, and other journals. He has written two books, Experiencing Politics: A Legislators Stories of Government and Health Care (2000) and Interests, Ideas, and Deregulation: The Fate of Hospital Rate Setting (1998).
Russ Sullivan, Democratic Staff Director, Senate Committee on Finance.
Russ Sullivan plays a leading role in helping the Senate Finance Committee (led by Senator Max Baucus (D-MT)) to shape the nations tax system. His many accomplishments with the committee include boosting minimum wages and crafting tax credits related to renewable energy and education. Mr. Sullivan served as the committees chief tax counsel under former Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY) and as tax counsel and legislative director for then-Senator Bob Graham (D-FL). He began his career as an accountant and then worked as an attorney in private practice.
Duration : 0:45:15
Robert Kocher of the National Economic Council debunks the myth that Health Insurance Reform would be financed by cutting Medicare benefits. To the contrary, reform would simply eliminate waste and unnecessary subsidies to insurance companies. August 10, 2009. (Public Domain)
Duration : 0:2:25
Linda Douglass of the White House Office of Health Reform answers a question from outside the recent town hall in New Hampshire on why reform will empower a panel to decide end-of-life care for Americans. This is a myth that has unfortunately been spread far and wide by defenders of the status quo. There is no such panel in any of the bills being considered in Congress, period. To the contrary, the House bill gives Americans and their families more choice and access to counseling and information on these most difficult decisions if, and only if, they choose to pursue it. August 19, 2009. (Public Domain)
Duration : 0:2:27
“The American people have told us they don’t want to be forced to buy health insurance that they don’t want and they can’t afford.”
Duration : 0:7:20
Linda Douglass of the White House Office of Health Reform answers a question from outside the recent town hall in New Hampshire on whether any government involvement in health care will end up limiting choices for consumers. This is a myth: even the addition of a public option will be just that another option and will not eliminate any choices to the consumer. To the contrary, this would bring down costs and expand choice. August 19, 2009. (Public Domain)
Duration : 0:2:32
Linda Douglass of the White House Office of Health Reform answers a question from outside the recent town hall in New Hampshire on why a specific section of the House legislation (section 1177) puts off care for the disable pending further study. This is a myth: for the disabled or their families, they can keep whatever care and coverage they currently have, but they will have additional options through Medicare for other voluntary programs. To the contrary, reform will make insurance more affordable, provide more options, and eliminate discrimination in purchasing health insurance so families won’t be turned down if a parent or child has a pre-existing disability or other health condition. August 19, 2009. (Public Domain)
Duration : 0:2:19
This Tuesday, Washington State Senator Karen Keiser (D, Des Moines), won endorsement of the hotly contested public health insurance option from the body representing every state legislature in the country. Citing the need for bold and immediate action to stem the rising costs of health care, over three quarters of the states represented on the the National Conference of State Legislatures’ Standing Committee on Health voted to include an amendment co-authored by Keiser calling for a public health insurance option in the committee’s official policy recommendations for federal health care reform. On Thursday, the recommendation will come up for a vote before the full body of NCSL, which represents over 7,500 state legislators across the country.
According to Keiser, who authored the amendment along with peers from Iowa, Maine, and New Hampshire, We are coming together this week to send a very clear message: the time to act on health reform is now, and states are not going to sit on the sidelines and watch. We won’t settle for halfway measures and we won’t stand for delay. We need a public health insurance option to keep the insurance industry honest and make sure working families and small businesses in Washington are free to choose the best health care available at a price they can afford.
The endorsement of the public option signals a growing consensus from state legislators in support of one of President Obama’s key reform priorities at a time of escalating debate on Capitol Hill. Last month, a bipartisan group of over 700 state legislators from 48 states, including 42 from Washington, delivered a letter to President Obama and Congress throwing their weight behind the public option. In the month since, over 100 legislators have added their signatures to the letter.
According to Keiser, who helped circulate the letter, the growing consensus behind the public option has arisen out of acute economic necessity. Washington is facing one of the biggest budget shortfalls in its history, and spiraling health care costs are one of the the main culprits. Health care expenditures are rising at twice the rate of inflation, and employer-provided premiums are growing four times faster than wages. Lobbyists in Washington D.C. may think we need to wait, but for the average working family or small business owner in Washington, it’s pretty clear that we need to act and we need to act now.
According to Nathan Newman, Executive Director of Progressive States Network, a national organization that supports the public option and drafted and circulated the letter signed by 800 legislators in support of it, Keiser has been instrumental in building an unprecedented national coalition. For too long states have gone it alone on health care reform while Washington failed to act. Senator Keiser and her colleagues across the country have made it clear that they’re ready to stand up together and demand more.
In addition to the public option, the amendment also recommended a series of policy proposals from the PSN letter Keiser helped circulate, including robust cost containment programs, assistance in expanding Medicaid programs, and freedom for states to set benefit requirements and other regulatory standards that exceed federal minimums.
To see a full draft of the Standing committee on Health’s Policy recommendations see: http://progressivestates.org/ncsl09/healthpolicyrecommendations.pdf. To see the letter from Progressive States Network, see http://progressivestates.org/statefedhealth.
Duration : 0:1:46
In an effort to push back against criticism of its health care reform plans, the Obama administration is sending one of the many former journalists in its employ onto the digital airwaves of Youtube to attack Matt Drudge and other critics for spreading “disinformation” and “lies.” Since “we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House,” health reform Communications Director Linda Douglass says, “we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.”
Reason.tv’s Dan Hayes is nothing if not patriotic, and with a good nose for fish, so he took his camera in the dead of night and went hunting for perpetrators. The results, as shown in this two-and-a-half-minute video, should scare every American who cares about truth and health care.
Duration : 0:2:33
Director of the White House Office on Health Reform Nancy-Ann DeParle holds a stakeholder discussion with over 30 medical leaders from across the country to get their ideas on health care reform. May 27, 2009. (Public Domain)
Duration : 1:56:33