Senior citizens have a special stake in health care reform. More prone to disease and disability, we absolutely need the following: universal coverage; coverage for all needed care and services, including prescription medicine; cost containment by workable negotiating mechanisms; preventive care; and freedom to choose one’s own physician.
While the Clinton plan is weak in all the above principles, a right-wing Democratic proposal, the Cooper bill, is an outright scam. It is not a compromise but rather a restatement of our present disastrous system. It strengthens the hold that private insurance companies have to dictate prices and benefits.
It backs away from universal coverage. Even worse, it eliminates all federal spending for long-term care, fails to guarantee coverage for prescriptions and would result in cuts in Medicare benefits.
The Cooper bill is supported by the health insurance industry. It, like the Clinton plan, proposes constructing alliances large enough to command low prices. Since our largest corporations, like GM and Chrysler, have been unable to keep from being gored by health insurance prices, claims that the new alliances will do the job are specious.
The hard truth is that the McDermott-Wellstone single-payer bill is the only legislative proposal that would guarantee the kind of health care system senior citizens, and indeed all Americans, need. As noted in the Congressional Budget Office report, only single payer would offer universal and comprehensive coverage at a low and affordable cost.
