Multimedia

Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich urges Senate Democrats to condemn false “bipartisanship” standing in the way of President Obama’s overhaul to the nation’s health care system in this news conference call. Reich said Democrats must support a public health insurance option because it’s the best way to control costs, citing evidence in a new report released by the Health Care for America Now coalition.

With health care costs skyrocketing, the report shows that the number of Americans in families with problems paying medical bills climbed to 57 million, or one in five, up from one in seven in 2003. Millions of these people have health insurance but are forced to go without essential care. Further, the lack of health insurance coverage causes 22,000 deaths each year in the U.S.

Reich said that many of the objections raised by opponents of the public plan are in fact the reasons why a public plan should be central to reform. Competition from a public plan would compel private insurance companies to change their practices in order to expand care at lower costs, he said.

He called on President Obama to "make it crystal clear" that he would not accept a health care reform bill that does not have a public option, and that he will not compromise on that in order to get Republican votes Noting that President George H. W. Bush famously rammed through a tax cut proposal without bipartisan support, "I hope the president does the same with health care."

Health care expert Jacob Hacker, who joined Reich on the call, defended the inclusion of a public health insurance option, calling it the best way to assure health care affordability, accountability and adequacy.

Hacker also highlighted a series of public opinion polls conducted this month by the Kaiser Foundation, Employee Benefit Research Institute, NBC/Wall Street Journal and CBS/New York Times that shows broad public support for a public health insurance option. About three-quarters of people polled favor creating a public option to compete with private health insurance plans.

Hacker and Reich also explained why state or regional health insurance cooperatives will not control costs, citing past experience of such co-ops mimicking the behavior and costs of larger for-profit companies.

A national coalition of nearly 200 state and local organizations—ranging from financial experts to community advocates—have kicked off a major campaign to reform our financial system and rebuild our economy.

They are operating under the banner of Americans for Financial Reform, and at a news conference Tuesday, heard here, some of the coalition members explained how they intend to change the political dynamic that up to now has allowed Wall Street bankers to write the rules for themselves.The coalition will fight for real changes that get at the root causes of this financial crisis, including lack of protection for consumers and an oversight system that is not up to the job.

Featured in this audio of the news conference is Jim Carr, Chief Operating Officer, National Community Reinvestment Coalition; Rob Johnson, economist with the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute; Ed Mierzwinski, U.S. PIRG’s Consumer Program Director; and George Goehl, Executive Director, National People's Action.

Americans for Financial Reform calls on Congress to put in place a strong watchdog structure with the resources and authority to police Wall Street and protect our financial security. The goal is to obtain reforms that keep people in their homes and prompt smart investment in communities and businesses that create good jobs and strong neighborhoods.

In a conference call with reporters, a team of health care experts discuss two new reports that together explain how an employer health mandate can be shaped so that it does not have the adverse impact on employment predicted by crirics of health care reform.

The report by Philip Cryan published by the Institute for America’s Future and the Economic Policy Institute shows that an employer contribution to health care would most likely lead to job gains. Even under a worst-case scenario, Cryan explains that any negative impact of a requirement that employers either provide health insurance ("play") or pay into a public plan would be minimal, and would be outweighed by the benefits of more broadly available health coverage and lower health care costs.

Health care experts Jacob Hacker and Ken Jacobs discuss their report on how to structure a “play-or-pay” requirement on employers, drawing heavily from what they deem is a successful implementation of a play-or-pay requirement in San Francisco. Their study was done for the U.C. Berkeley School of Law Center on Health, Economic and Family Security and Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education.

Opening the call is economist Jonathan Gruber, who discusses a petition signed by 330 economists and health experts calling on President Obama and Congress to act now and act "boldly" on health care reforms.

Economist Simon Johnson says it will likely be a long struggle to get the financial system functioning as it should so that it no longer can behave in ways that endanger the entire national and global economy. A key event in that struggle takes place in Capitol Hill on June 11, when he and other progressive financial industry experts speak at a forum billed as "community people pushing policy people" on the subject of re-regulating the financial services industry.

The event is part of A New Way Forward, a nationwide mobilization effort that declares that "it is time to break up the banks." More specifically, the series of rallies, forums and town hall meetings that began this week is promoting a three-pronged agenda of nationalizing, reorganizing and decentralizing banks and other financial institutions.

Johnson, a professor at MIT's Sloan School of Management and a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, says in this interview that banks should be treated like nuclear power plants, "tightly regulated" to protect consumers and the economic system as a whole. "You don't want excessive or even a high level of risk in the core of that sector," he says. "It's way too dangerous."

Johnson, one of the contributors to the economics blog Baseline Scenario, also says that he sees troubling signs in news that the Obama administration appears to be backing away from some more audacious proposals for reforming the regulatory structure under which banks operate. Johnson said administration insiders are torn between aggressive reformers such as Sheila Bair, the outspoken director of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and status quo defenders such as Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner. "Part of what we're trying to do in our public discussion is side with the Sheila Bair line of argument, and try to strengthen their position."

The Capitol Hill event begins 9 a.m. June 11 in the Gold Room of the Rayburn House Office Building. The event is scheduled to be webcast. The Campaign for America's Future is a supporter.