Having excoriated the useless, spineless Democrats who have apparently failed to come up with real health care reform in the face of the spiteful, destructive Republicans, I’m starting to have doubts.
As I patrol the Internet looking for some real explanation of the Senate bill, I’ve started to suspect that maybe, just maybe, the Dems are trying to sneak in some real reform. Note this explanation by the NYT that compares the House and Senate bills on the “public option” aspect. It says this of the Senate bill:
Would not create a public plan. The federal Office of Personnel Management, which provides health benefits to federal employees, would sign contracts with insurers to offer at least two national health plans to individuals, families and small businesses. The new plans would be separate from the program for federal employees, and premiums would be calculated separately. At least one of the plans would have to operate on a nonprofit basis.
To me, that sounds kind of like a public option. If I can go out and buy the same insurance available to federal employees, you’ve accomplished everything I would be looking for when I say public option, whatever other people mean by it.
So am I reading this right? I would love to see a real, complete explanation of this facet.
And if I AM reading it right, well by all means pass the bill, and claim all the victory you want. Because if we can all go out and pay for insurance as good as what federal employees get, no matter where or how we earn our livings (and that’s the key), you’ve gotten the job done…
This bill has been compromised so many ways, it’s almost not worth the passing. But it will at least get rid of the “pre-existing condition” problem, and prevent the insurance company from dropping people who develop illnesses. I don’t know if people will be able to afford it, though.
I am so cynical at this point that I have no trust in any Health Bill that the congress passes. As I approach my 67th birthday, I can only hope that the congress will not initiate mandatory euthanasia.
And by the way, the congress has their own, lucrative health plan. I wonder how supportive they would be if they had to live with what they will vote on for the rest of us?
The federal parallel option doesn’t say you’ll be able to afford to buy it….just that it will be available for purchase….
I want a public option that ensures that everyone will be able afford decent coverage, EVEN IF IT MEANS I PAY MORE TAXES!!!
Thankyou, Kathryn!
It’s a start. As Winnie said, “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”
Health insurance has gone crazy with greed — just the pharma companies spent something like $200 million this year simply on lobbying Congress — and there are no brakes for their excesses. The current bill is a baby step in that direction.
Republican complaints are always about money, not about the quality of life. Thousands of Americans die every year simply because they don’t even have access to basic health care. Republicans believe that if these citizens can’t afford the “best health care in the world,” then it’s only right that they die.
Democrats took this ball and ran with it because the Republicans refused to, and the Republicans responded by doing everything they could to torpedo health care for American citizens. If the bill is compromised, it’s thanks to the intransigent position of the elephants in the room. It seems that middle-of-the-road Republicans simply don’t exist any more. Their goal is destroying the other party, not about actual legislating.
On the other hand, Democrats, because they like to give the appearance of playing fair, turned into the Wussie Party. Should have been tougher!
If you want an explanation, don’t ask a member of Congress.
Congress certainly botched this and the Democrats have to share a tiny portion of the blame. Still if the senate bill passes it will help provide coverage for upwards of 30 million more people. And the pre-existing conditions problem is addressed. On balance this is probably worth passing. I doubt we’ll ever get anything better.
But let’s be crystal clear here about who the true villians are. It’s the GOP along with a handful of blue dogs and most especially Joe Lie(berman). The people of Connecticut had a chance to get rid of this ridiculous media hound, war monger in 2006 and they blew it big time. The liberal democrats just did not have the votes to pass what is needed, so to suggest they are spineless, as Brad does, misses the bigger point.
If the media would focus more on the horrors created by the Tea-bag, Bither right in this country in an honest, forthright manner rather than natering endlessly about “bipartisanship” then maybe, just maybe the people would understand just how obstructionist and dangerous the GOP is. Then maybe we could move our nation forward into the 21st century.
But nooooooo. The impulse to blame everything on partisanship, and many others besides Brad play this game, only re-enforces the false notion that both parties are equally to blame for our problems. Once it is clearly, unambiguously understood that the GOP + Joe Lie should shoulder 90% of the blame for the failure to pass health care, then we may have a chance. Until then we will never get real reform. The other 10% of the blame is 9.9% media and 0.1% non Joe Lie democrat.
One of the points you hear constantly from the Republican leadership — not the fringe, mind you — is that “the majority of Americans oppose health reform.” Say what?
It would be more accurate to say “The majority of Americans have heard so much negative blather about health care from Republicans that they are confused about the bill’s actual content.”
All part of the spin. The RRs have two talking points:
* Nobody knows what the bill contains.
* What is contained in the bill will bankrupt America and kill your grandma.
That these two points don’t really go together doesn’t faze them.
Here’s one thing the bill does contain that I certainly like. Health-care insurance companies are limited to 15 percent profit for overhead expenses. No more monster profits.
Health-care insurers have already earmarked more than a billion dollars for future lobbying purposes. Who pays for that billion? You do.
Burl, now, the Republican Party has principles, and if you don’t like that, well, they have other principles!
Single payer, government-run health care eliminates so many leaks–opportunities for free-riding,places for greedy docs to hide out, administrative costs from running unbelievably confusing systems of coverage and denial (bing bing bing!)….
But then how would the doctors afford to build huge mansions on Kiawah? I mean, really!
Republicans spell principle as “principal”
It’s what happens when your primary allegiance is to corporations rather than communities.
Too bad even leading Democrats think the bill is junk.
“The Senate’s healthcare bill is fatally flawed, a senior Democrat atop a powerful committee said on Wednesday.
Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.), the chairwoman of the House Rules Committee and co-chairwoman of the Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus, said that the Senate’s bill is so flawed that it’s unlikely to be resolved in conference with the bill to have passed the House.
“The Senate health care bill is not worthy of the historic vote that the House took a month ago,” Slaughter wrote in an opinion piece for CNN’s website.
Slaughter argued that while the House bill is far from perfect, the Senate bill’s exclusion of a public option, along with abortion funding restrictions and other measures, make the bill undeserving of a vote.
Specifically, Slaughter said, the Senate bill would charge seniors higher premiums, would fail to nix health insurers’ antitrust exemption and would not go far enough in extending coverage to people in the U.S.
“Supporters of the weak Senate bill say ‘just pass it — any bill is better than no bill,’ ” Slaughter wrote. “I strongly disagree — a conference report is unlikely to sufficiently bridge the gap between these two very different bills.”
The question is whether we let the great be the enemy of the good–or the “what we really want” be the enemy of “what we might actually be able to get and then sneak more in later once everybody figures out this isn’t Armageddon or the Russian Revolution.”
As in “get your government hands off my Medicare.”
Who said “I met the enemy and the enemy is us”?
Walt Kelly’s Pogo said “We have met the enemy and he is us.”
It was a paraphrase on Commodore Perry’s, “We have met the enemy and they are ours,” in 1813.
Thank you Brad. There’s often a lot of truth in the comics – especially with that quote. Thanks again.