Obama’s Progressive Health Care Pitch Draws Cheers

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The biggest applause that President Barack Obama received on Thursday, while speaking about health care reform at Southwest High School in Green Bay, came when he said that health care coverage should not be denied due to pre-existing conditions, that there ought to be a public health insurance option for all, and that taxes should be raised on the well-to-do to finance changes in the health care system. In other words, some of the most progressive elements of his speech drew the most enthusiastic response from the crowd.

Here are those excerpts:

* So what we’re working on is the creation of something called a Health Insurance Exchange – which would allow you to one-stop shop for a health care plan, compare benefits and prices, and choose the plan that’s best for you. None of these plans would be able to deny coverage on the basis of a pre-existing condition, and all should include an affordable, basic benefit package.

* I also strongly believe that one of the options in the Exchange should be a public insurance option – because if the private insurance companies have to compete with a public option, it will keep them honest and help keep prices down.

* And I’ll be honest – even with these savings, reform will require additional sources of revenue. That’s why I’ve proposed that we scale back how much the highest-income Americans can deduct on their taxes back to the rate from the Reagan years – and use that money to help finance health care.

One question, though, is how hard Obama will press Congress to produce a bill to his liking. His speech today was an indicator that he may well be able to rally public support outside the Beltway for a strong package. How far will he go inside Washington?
 

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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