So far it looks like the bill that will emerge from conference committee will mandate that everyone buy health insurance, will tax employer paid plans to subsidize private plans. It will have the effect of destroying the employer based system with no adequate replacement. This is the McCain plan and it was turned down by a landslide vote.
A public option is supported by the vast majority of Americans, a solid majority support a single payer system. We need to start asking question why a plan that was resoundingly defeated in the November 2008 election is somehow more pragmatic than a single payer plan that is supported by the majority.
We need to start bombarding the Senate with emails saying NO to taxing employer health benefits and NO to mandates. This is a bail out of the failing business model of health insurance parasites and it has NO popular support.
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can we call it the Obama/Baucus bailout...
...because Obama was the guy who decided to empower baucus in this debacle.
_
Obama chose Baucus -- the Senate Finance isn't exactly the committee that a progressive health care reform advocate would defer to, given the number of far better alternatives. Moveover, while Finance does have some say over health care (through its oversight of Medicare & Medicaid), Baucus isn't even a member of the Health Subcommittee of Finance -- and really shouldn't be involved personally in the "negotiations. Indeed, of the three Democratic members of the "gang of six", only one is a member of the Health subcommittee -- the membership of that subcommittee is far to the left of the "Baucus/Conrad/Bingamen" triumvirate who are "negotiating" on behalf of "democrats".
So while its true that Baucus is a scumbag, the only reason he has any say over this is because Obama empowered that scumbag.
It *should* be called the Obama/Baucus bill
But it still seems that even many Obama skeptics have a hard time attributing anything bad to Obama. Its always somebody else being a bad seed.
Obama hired Baucus's staffer (chief of staff?) Messina to work
health care in the WH....Obama's been working extremely closely with Baucus since the start of his administration and probably before.
Can we say epic FAIL? Clusterfuck
?
Yup, it's his bill. It's his responsibility. It's his mess.
But it's going to mess over regular Dem pols.
Medicare for All...we can't afford to NOT have single payer.
why
will tax employer paid plans to subsidize private plans.
is this a certainty? I know that this is a Baucus priority and Obama continues to "resist" much like he "supported" the private option, but is it in stone yet? A leak?
Can't know--Finance bill is not finalized, but Obama is working
it with Baucus, so...who knows?
Senate HELP bill is not available as amended (been quite a while).
HR3200, as amended to meet Blue Dog demands--I'm not if it's available yet.
Lots of behinds the scenes negotiating by the WH...
Really, it's like reading tea leaves...or between the lines in Pravda
in the Soviet Union.
Oh, see Kip's tale in link below
about having trouble even finding the HELP bill markup. You were typing when I was typing!
Analysis of HELP PO- Kip Sullivan
Given the latest, this now stands as a bit of an aside OT, but posted Friday- it was in response to those that kept pitching there was a PO in the markup.
http://pnhp.org/blog/2009/08/14/the-sena...
The Senate HELP Committee “public option” will be multiple “options,” and these will be run by insurance companies
what I read
sounded like the co-ops.
I'm really looking forward to the Big Pharma ads accompanied by progressive baton twirling. This is a nightmare.
It's an Obama bailout...
IMO. Baucus is the front man.
Medicare for All is Civil Rights
We did it
In a conference overseas, a Canadian colleague complained to me: why is it that Americans select two presidents in a row that had absolutely no record? We did it! The only advantage this time is that this president is not a moron (he isn't a genius either).
It's simply no good tearing your hair out. Obama was brought to health care reform kicking and screaming. Initially he had a very limited plan and he bad mouthed Hillary for her plan.
Talk to you in 2012 until than assume that Bush still president. Is he?
KoshemBos
No, Reagan is still President
I like to remind people that this is Reagan's eighth term. Just as FDR dominated the political discourse long after his death, the specter of Reagan continues to hang over our body politic long after he left office, and until it is evicted, no serious progressive movement can take place.
There are polls that show that a majority of Americans favor single-payer, but I'd wager many of those people also think that government is the problem, not the solution, just as Grandpa Reagan taught. Too many contradictions need to be resolved before we can move forward again.
...for the rest of us
Yup, and that's why you'll see me use the words
"repudiate" and "Reagan" again and again, as that's the proper role of a progressive.
Of course, Obama was hampered by the Republicans' groundswell of popularity in 2008 and his legendarily limited abilities as a public speaker. Otherwise, he'd have been right on it, no doubt.
We call it the Baucus bail out
because Baucus auditioned for the part of health care bad guy and because he is highly qualified.
Obama is still very popular. The only person who can take down Obama is Obama. And he may very well do that, but we can't and shouldn't.
Baucus is promoting a solution that bails out AHIP's failing business model. The public are already aware that Baucus has taken millions in AHIP and PhRMA money. It is just too easy.
And instead of shouting "no health reform without a public option" (waaaaaaaaaaayyyyyy too wonky) we should simply shout No Taxes on Employer Paid Health Benefit. If you take away taxing employer paid health plans the only thing you are left with is HR 676. Works for me.