Anyone who has told you Medicare or Medicaid will not be cut by President Obama and the 113th Congress is wrong ... and is quite possibly also a Big Pharma CEO. Medicare and Medicaid are going to be cut, because that is exactly one thing Americans elected their leaders to do.
How can we be certain MC/MA will be cut? 17.6% is why.
The United States spends more on health care, both per capita and as a share of GDP, than any other country in the world. In 2009, spending on health care reached a record high $2.5 trillion, or 17.6 percent of U.S. GDP. Massive reform of the US health care system has been a goal of progressive Americans and the Democratic Party for decades, if not for generations. Almost 20 years ago to the day Bill Clinton ran on it and won. He made it his first priority, and, 19 years ago to the day his reform effort was already dead and buried.Four years ago President Obama and Congressional Democrats wrestled with Republicans over the Affordable Care Act. The ACA was fought for over the course of months. It finally passed by the skin of its teeth. It was immediately unpopular with the right, because it did something. It was unpopular with the left, because it did not do enough.
Now we approach 2013 with a big national Democratic victory in our pocket. Americans voted for Democrats ahead of Republicans despite the worst post-WW2 economy ever, despite ceaseless GOP obstructionism, despite Citizens United. Voters had the direct choice between Paul Ryan's Medicare elimination and Barack Obama's Medicare reform. Americans chose reform.
It's not 2011. It is almost 2013. Both the date and that Overton Window thing have moved. For the first time since LBJ's Great Society the American voter wants and expects major improvements to our nation's safety net. It is myopic to think that after all the years of hard work it took to arrive at this happy situation, that our political leaders will now casually throw it all away.
Myopic seems the apt term since some visions do not see past words such as "cuts", "pill", "bargain", or "compromise". Let us remind ourselves of something. 17.6% is roughly the same thing as one dollar our of every six going to health care. Buy a $5 sandwich from Subway and your next dollar goes towards an $11 aspirin pill down at the ER. We sent our candidates to Washington DC that they would cut down on that overhead.
Now that we have some ducks in a row a vocal minority balks at the chance. It's easy to understand why Big Pharma CEOs recoil in horror from the words cut, bargain, and compromise. Those of us who are not CEOs should look past those words to our goals. If ever there is a time to keep our eyes on the prize, certainly it's when our fingers begin to curl around the brass ring.