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California Republican Legislators Just Don't Care About the Poor and the Rest of Us in Health Care

By Randy Bayne
The Bayne of Blog's California Notes

In a town hall meeting to discuss health care, Assemblymember Alan Nakanishi accused labor of killing health savings account legislation because "they care about the poor who can't afford it." By "it" he means health savings accounts, his pet solution to the health care crisis.

That was about the most substantive thing in an hour long town hall meeting attended by about 40 people in Jackson. Managing to avoid spending too much time on the advertised subject of the town hall, Nakanishi started with a lesson on how a bill becomes a law. As far as I can gather, he was trying to explain how hard it is to get legislation through the system. Granted, it isn't an easy process, but neither should it be.

Copies of four bills on health care that Nakanishi is carrying in the special session were available, but only passing reference was made to them. These four are tailored to express the Republican opinion that health savings accounts are the solution to the health care crisis. This is when he blamed unions, working Californians, for the failure to pass health savings account legislation by saying, "they care about the poor who can't afford it."

That's right, we do care, and proudly so, about the poor. How does a savings plan work for people who can't afford to put food on the table or keep a roof over their head? Where do they find money to save for anything, much less for something as specific and horrendously expensive as health care? The problem with Republican lawmakers is that they don't care about the poor.

Nakanishi's summation on health care is, "Health care is a mess."

In response to a question about the budget, "Why is the legislature spending more than it takes in?" Nakanishi launched into an explanation on how the budget is passed. It was a nice lesson, but didn't answer the question.

That was chiefly how this town hall went. The hour flew by as Nakanishi, unable to answer the questions gave lessons on how bills become laws and how the state passes a budget. Nice lessons, little help.

I wish I had more to tell you, but there really was so little substance to this town hall that I'm left wondering why he even bothered.

There are two things I did learn. Actually, I already knew them, this just solidified that knowledge. 1) Republicans don't really care about health care, and 2) Republicans don't care about the poor. Put these together and it leads to a third observation; Republicans particularly don't care about health care for the poor.

If they did care, they would work with, not against, Democrats to find a way to provide affordable and comprehensive health care for everyone instead of insisting on continued trust in what hasn't worked — reliance on insurers and market forces.

And, thank you Mr. Nakanishi for recognizing that someone "cares about the poor who can't afford" the ridiculous profits of the insurance industry.

Randy Bayne is Chair of the Amador County Democratic Party. This article originally appeared in The Bayne of Blogs and is published with the permission of the author.

Posted on December 04, 2007

Comments

I think this describes accurately how legislators/politicians respond to constituents: avoid the questions, appeal to those who want to hear their (legislators') own message, ignore the rest. I wonder how many people at the Jackson meeting were "poor" or could actually afford "savings plans". Were the various options laid out for everyone there? Probably not.

But you hit the nail on the head about Republicans and health care: they just don't care -- about anyone who can't afford insurance, but they sure care a whole lot about insurance company profits.

Posted by: David Rockwell at December 4, 2007 08:31 PM

Our health care system is a mess for sure but, we don't need politicians using the system for a stepping stone.

Posted by: Shawn at December 5, 2007 07:28 PM

My understanding of health savings accounts is that they do help keep ridiculous profits away from the insurance companies.
HSAs allow the owner of the account to own the money set aside for health-related costs. If less money is spent in a year than is put in, the excess - the profit - is held by the individual. And whereas HSAs often come with higher deductibles than do typical health insurance plans, when costs exceed the amount put in the employer pays the additional amounts. (Catastrophic coverage)
This is not the answer for the poor who cannot put aside thousands per year or who do not work for companies that sponsor HSAs. But for those working in medium to large firms, and who are relatively healthy, the HSA plan enables people to build wealth while being insured for health. That's a win-win and while its not advisable for a government to implement HSAs across the board, for many people they make sense.

Posted by: Peder Hanson at December 11, 2007 09:03 AM

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