Submitted by dblhelix on Thu, 08/19/2010 - 8:48pm
Low info or no info? What's a Dem pol to do?
The Herndon Alliance and allies (the usual suspects) huddle around PowerPoints for answers.
The presentation concedes that groups typically supportive of Democratic causes — people under 40, non-college educated women, and Hispanic voters — have not been won over by the plan. Indeed, it stresses repeatedly, many are unaware that the legislation has passed, an astonishing shortcoming in the White House's all-out communications effort.
Read below the fold...
Submitted by dblhelix on Thu, 03/04/2010 - 8:52pm
Obama tells "liberals" public option doesn't have the votes.
In a private meeting at the White House this afternoon, Obama told a roomful of House Dems he doesn’t think the votes are there to pass the public option, and urged them to take the long view and to support the Senate bill as merely the beginning of reform, Dem Rep Lynn Woolsey tells me.
Also: Obama thanked the assembled, mostly liberals, for their ongoing insistence from the left over the months that the bill be improved, Woolsey says. “He thanked us,” she recalled.
Read below the fold...
Submitted by dblhelix on Wed, 09/23/2009 - 12:34pm
Praise for the senator from Maine, Olympia Snowe. She's not playing the injecting competition on the backs of 5% game -- she calls it what it is: a safety net.
This amendment establishes a non-profit government corporation through which a "safety net" plan would be provided in any state in which affordable coverage was not available in the Exchange to at least 95% of state residents.
Said 5% would undoubtedly draw from one or more of: older; low-income; chronic care recipients, also known as a high-risk pool.
Yes, I give Senator Snowe credit for not trying to buff a turd, the hobby horse of progressives. Read below the fold...
Submitted by dblhelix on Sun, 09/13/2009 - 12:40pm
Susan Collins wants you to know that she does NOT support a public option trigger:
A key swing vote on healthcare reform said Sunday she would not support a public option "trigger" -- a series of benchmarks that, if not met by a certain time, would authorize the creation of a government insurance program.
"No -- the problem with triggers is that is just delays the public option," Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) told CNN's "State of the Union," adding that her major qualm with the public option was its scope and cost.
Read below the fold...
Submitted by dblhelix on Sun, 09/13/2009 - 11:02am
From the Baucus health insurance reform framework document: (p. 2)
Interstate Sale of Insurance. Starting in 2015, states may form “health care choice compacts” to allow for the purchase of non-group health insurance across state lines. Such compacts may exist between two or more states. Once compacts have been formed, insurers would be allowed to sell policies in any state participating in the compact. Insurers selling policies through a compact would only be subject to the laws and regulations of the state where the policy is written or issued.
Read below the fold...
Submitted by dblhelix on Fri, 09/11/2009 - 11:55pm
To appear in this Sunday's Washington Post Outlook section:
George McGovern:
But what seems missing in the current battle is a single proposal that everyone can understand and that does not lend itself to demagoguery. If we want comprehensive health care for all our citizens, we can achieve it with a single sentence: Congress hereby extends Medicare to all Americans.
...
We recently bailed out the finance houses and banks to the tune of $700 billion. A country that can afford such an outlay while paying for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan can afford to do what every other advanced democracy has done: underwrite quality health care for all its citizens.
Read below the fold...
Submitted by dblhelix on Thu, 09/10/2009 - 9:13pm
The CBO confirms today my long-held suspicion that the vaunted "public option" is not much more than a high-risk pool and forecasts that premiums will actually be slightly higher than private offerings.
Currently, private health insurance is available via the following mechanisms:
1. Large employer group coverage
2. Small group market (small business)
3. Individual market (self-employed, unattached)
Read below the fold...
Submitted by dblhelix on Tue, 08/18/2009 - 9:15am
When he's not on MTP to save us from those dastardly insurance companies or to fiercely advocate for a public government insurance option, what does Tom Daschle do with his free time? Golfing? A beach getaway? Or perhaps, Read below the fold...
Submitted by dblhelix on Mon, 08/17/2009 - 9:40pm
The Death Panel issued its verdict on the fate of the public option: too expensive to keep on life support. "We've sent out as many emails with big DONATE buttons as possible, but this public option is no longer paying its way, and so it must go," stated a key member of the Death Panel, a representative from Wall Street. "Our politicians will carry out the directive," he added.
Primary physician Conrad, Nurse Sebelius and Second Opinion Barack "there's always hope, that's very important" Obama will assist progressives with end-of-life counseling for the public option.
They advise five stages:
Denial: Barack Obama strongly supports a robust public option! He said so! Read below the fold...
Submitted by dblhelix on Thu, 05/28/2009 - 4:16pm
