Progress Illinois

Here are today's health care headlines:

Schakowsky: We're Going To Have To Do It Without GOP

Are Democrats really ready to pass health care reform without Republican support? Rep. Jan Schakowsky thinks so. Here's her quote to The Hill this morning:

“I think that at some point everyone’s going to see that the Republicans simply are not going to agree to any kind of healthcare reform that the insurance industry isn’t supporting and that, reluctantly, we’re going to have to do it without them,” said Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.).

“If we have to, we will,” said Schakowsky, a chief deputy whip and the chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus's healthcare task force.

This follows news Sunday that Senate Democratic leaders are drawing up plans and talking to procedural experts about moving legislation with a simple majority. It's tough to blame them. Even supposed moderate Republicans in Congress are consistently pushing explicit lies about the bills being considered, seemingly all for political gain. "I think we have now the makings," Rep. Mark Kirk told WLS' Don Wade and Roma last week, "of huge Republican win in the November 2010 elections." Spoken like a true voice of the people.

Quigely On Cost-Shifting

Rep. Mike Quigley is no "tax-and-spend" liberal. But the 5th District congressman knows a thing or two about economic reform. He also knows that passing comprehensive health care reform is a good deal for most American taxpayers.

House Democrats want to expand Medicaid and pay subsidies to middle and low-income Americans so they can afford private insurance. They hope to pay for it through savings in Medicare and Medicaid and with a small tax hike on the wealthy. The Senate might choose instead to tax insurance companies on their most-expensive policies, but neither option will harm the vast majority of Americans. In exchange, a reform bill would not only expand coverage to millions of Americans, it would save the entire nation money otherwise spent on emergency care. Quigley explains on WLS’ Don Wade and Roma (the entire segment is available here):

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People with insurance are already paying for the uninsured in the form of higher premiums and taxes. I’ve visited most of the hospitals in my district since I got back. They have to provide health care when people come into the emergency room and that’s where a lot of the poor go. So the average American family is already paying a so-called "hidden tax" of about $1,100 a year just because of higher premiums and taxes.

This figure comes from Ben Furnas and Peter Harbage at the Center for American Progress, who found that the cost-shift in Illinois is actually $1,200 per family, a little over 8 percent of the average premium. It's a good reminder of how expensive maintaining the status quo really is.

Coulson, Ray Run On Health Care

State Rep. Elizabeth Coulson officially announced her candidacy for the 10th Congressional District in Glenview yesterday. As a long-time medical professor, health care will likely central a key role in Coulson's campaign. As she told the Grayslake Review, she wants her  "reasonable suggestions" be part of the dialogue:

"We can't break the health system we already have that really serves 84 percent of our population very well. It's the other percent that we need to try to help get access to health care and good health care," she said. "I bring a responsible, common sense approach to health care policy, not just a political approach."

Because the paper's reporter didn't follow-up with Coulson, we don't know what her "common sense approach" is. If it resembles the plans put forth by suburban Reps. Judy Biggert and Mark Kirk, she'll have a lot of explaining to do.

Another Congressional hopeful is also touting health care as a key plank of his campaign, but for entirely different reasons. Carl Ray, the Peoria Democrat looking to take on 18th District Rep. Aaron Schock, says it was his experience dealing with his son's autism that proved to him how important health care reform is. While his son is now in the third grade and well-treated, Ray's family risked financial ruin to care for their son, ultimately filing for bankruptcy to pay medical bills. Schock's vote against an extension of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) in January spurred Ray to run:

“I don’t think he’s some villain who’s voting … out of malice,” Ray said of 28-year-old Schock, the youngest member of Congress. “I just feel that he has proven with this vote and others that he lacks the life experience, the depth of context that a congressman needs to make the right decisions.”