Congressman Al Green and State Rep. Sylvester Turner talk
shop at an event at the St. Regis Hotel.
                                                           Photo by Collins Metu



In part 2 of Fighting for Change, Congressman Al Green shares how 10 members of the House Committee on Financial Services brought an additional $4 billion to the African-American community and gives insight to healthcare reform.

Understanding the need to ensure that African-Americans get a fair share of federal dollars under President Barack Obama’s stimulus plan, Congressman Al Green and nine of his colleagues on the House Committee on Financial Services engaged in a sit out on an important piece of legislation. The 10 protesters wanted more dollars for businesses in the African-American  community.

As he explains, “Our banks are not in a position to lend as much. Many of our automobile dealerships cannot receive loans and are going out of business; our contractors are having difficulty receiving contracts and our effort was to let it be known, 10 of us on Financial Services were displeased. That’s why we did not vote for the consumer protection law in committee. We didn’t vote for it to send a message that we were very disappointed. As a result, we received $4 billion in additional dollars—put into the consumer protection bill, that’s supposed to help with consumer protection efforts in minority communities, but also help with community development. It’s going to help us to get more funds to communities as it relates to housing, [and] housing rehabilitation, so that we can help keep our people from being evicted. When I say our people, I’m talking about Americans— [keeping them] from being evicted from homes that they were buying.”

Also, the legislation included the creation of an Office of Inclusion. The purpose of the office of inclusion is to insure that every agency, such as the Security Exchange Commission, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and even the federal government includes minorities in various contracts that the agencies let.

“We are trying to remedy what has been there, probably ever since we have had African-Americans in Congress. That’s why we had the boycott of the consumer protection legislation. Our number was such that if we had voted against the legislation, it would not have passed. We are giving small banks more money and we want the auto dealers to have an opportunity to borrow money so that they can stay in business. These are some of the things that our efforts have brought to fruition this last year. But again, this is a process that we are working through to try to help those at a local level to get contracts, not to get anything they don’t deserve but to succeed on their merits or fail on their demerits. We want to just make sure they have positive opportunity, affirmative opportunity as opposed to other terms that are being used. We want capable people who are competent and qualified.”

The fighting between the two major parties and the infighting in each party would leave one to believe that President Obama woke up one day with healthcare reform on his mind. The truth is,  for nearly 100 years, Democratic presidents and Congressmembers have struggled with the idea of a national health insurance program. Obama, however, has made it a priority. Last November, the House narrowly approved an overhaul by 220 to 215  The day before Christmas, the Senate passed an $871 billion bill.

“We are still working on that piece of legislation … the House has passed its version and the Senate has passed its version. Those two versions will have to be reconciled and ... we will have a bill for the president to sign,” said Green, who stated the legislation will pass in  2010 without question. He also offered a synopsis of the two, defining the basic differences between them.

“While there is disagreement among Democrats about how the bill should be shaped, what it should contain, there is pretty much unanimous agreement that the bill should pass. The House version of the bill will cover about 36 million currently uninsured persons and bring them into the ranks of the insured. The Senate bill will cover 31 million. The effective date of the House bill is 2013, the effective date of the Senate bill is 2014. The House bill also closes what is called the ‘donut hole’ for seniors. The donut hole simply put, is for Medicare Part D for prescription drugs. After you have expended a certain amount of money, after the government has expended a certain amount in assisting persons with prescription drugs, you get to a point where you don’t get any assistance. You have to expend your own money until you get to a certain amount and then the government will start helping you again. That’s called a donut hole between you getting help initially and getting help on the other side, finally. The House version will close that donut hole so that seniors will continuously get help with their prescription drugs.”

Green also points out that the House bill is paid for with a surcharge on income above $500,000 for individuals and $1 million for couples.

“We don’t want to see anyone have to pay a surcharge, but we do understand that the need for Americans to be insured is so important that some of us will have to help bear the burden for those who can’t afford to pay.” The Senate bill has what’s called Cadillac health plans. These premiums can be more than $8,500 for an individual and $23,000 for a family. “The typical health plan is probably around $8000 or less. This surtax is on the Senate version of the bill. That’s not something that I favor, by the way. Then it increases the Medicare payroll taxes for individuals with income over $200,000 and couples with income over $250,000. These are the types of things that have to be reconciled, along with how will it be paid for. It may very well be paid for with something that is not in either version, something they will synthesize together, that will be put into the bill to try to get us to reconcile it. The things that are in each bill are not set in concrete.”

Perhaps the loudest argument, especially from tea-party organizers and others who oppose the idea of national insurance coverage, is the pure cost of the undertaking.  While the gross cost appears to be astronomical, most opponents do not talk about the amount of money it will save or the amount of money currently being spent which includes care for people who are not currently covered at all.

Green states that the House bill reduces the deficit by $138 billion between 2010 and 2019 and the Senate bill reduces the deficit by $132 billion between 2010 and 2019. The House bill will increase reimbursement to primary care physicians for Medicare and Medicaid.

“And each bill has something I believe will be beneficial. There is something called a medical loss ratio. This is where you can say to the insurance company, you must spend this amount of money on medical care. The House bill has that at 85 percent. The Senate bill has it at 85 percent for large group policies and 80 percent for small group policies but we are putting those ratios in because some insurance companies will spend as little as 70 percent of their overhead on medical care. We are trying to force them to spend more money on their patients as opposed to profits, putting it into their pockets. Which is a good thing because insurance companies, like many other companies, have enjoyed the opportunity to give large bonuses, without being scrutinized.”

Approximately 45.7 million people nationally are unisured. Texas, the second most populous state (behind California)  has six million uninsured. Of that number, 1.1 million live in Harris County, where Green is based. Twenty percent  of children in Texas are uninsured.

“What we are trying to do is give everybody the opportunity to get healthcare by way of insurance as opposed to emergency rooms. Approximately 62 percent of all persons who file for bankruptcy do so because of some type of health-related issue and 14,000 persons per day lose their healthcare insurance. If you are a person that’s celebrating today saying ‘I’m doing great, that’s not my problem,’ but by the grace of God, tomorrow, you might be one of the persons that lose their healthcare coverage and you might find yourself in need of the same coverage that others need.”

Next week in the final installment of this series, Congressman Al Green concludes his thoughts on the 111th Congress.