Howard Dean, Now Employed by Health-Care LOBBY FIRM, Opposes Bernie Sanders on Single-Payer

[Segami]

vimeo.com/151748674

Howard Dean is the latest in a string of Hillary Clinton supporters to charge that Bernie Sanders is wrong to support a single payer health care plan. The former chairman of the Democratic National Committee claimed on MSNBC last night that Sanders’s reforms might result in “chaos” because “trying to implement it would in fact undo people’s health care.” Dean added: “That is something people should be concerned about.” Dean, a longtime supporter of single-payer, seemed to be changing his tune, a point made by host Chris Hayes during the segment. This evolution of Dean, known within many circles for his spirited critique of the Iraq War during the 2004 Democratic primary, comes as he has settled into a corporate lobbying career.


Dean, though he rarely discloses the title during his media appearances, now serves as Senior Advisor to the law firm Dentons, where he works with the firm’s Public Policy and Regulation practice, a euphemism for Dentons’ lobbying team. Dean is not a lawyer, but neither is Newt Gingrich, who is among the growing list of former government officials and politicians that work in the Public Policy and Regulation practice of Dentons. The Dentons Public Policy and Regulation practice lobbies on behalf of a variety of corporate health care interests, including the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, a powerful trade group for drugmakers like Pfizer and Merck.


In 2009, Dean praised single-payer while speaking on Democracy Now, calling the idea “by far the most economically efficient system.” That’s because, as Dean noted at the time, a Medicare-for-all style single-payer system would cut down on bureaucratic overhead and do a better job at controlling prices. An analysis by University of Massachusetts at Amherst professor Gerald Friedman found that the single-payer plan introduced into the last Congress, for instance, would have save $592 billion, while expanding coverage to all uninsured American, regardless of ability to pay. Over 95 percent of households would see higher after-tax income because of the cost controls and elimination of insurance premiums.


Incumbent healthcare interests, particularly drug companies and insurers, have long viewed single-payer as a threat to their business model. Health insurance lobbyist strategy memos that were leaked from a source to veteran journalist Bill Moyers reveal a sophisticated effort to undermine public support for single-payer policies and to discredit Michael Moore’s Sicko, a movie that sharply criticizes the inequities and price-gouging of the American healthcare system. One slide discusses the need to use town halls and special forums to shape the Democratic primary debates in 2008 and peel away support for the reforms proposed in Sicko, while another calls for pundits to appear on television and denounce Moore as harmful to the Democratic Party.


cont'

https://theintercept.com/2016/01/14/howard-dean-lobbyist/

[SamKnause]

1. Lower than pond scum.

[NorthCarolina]

19. I'm sure he receives a pretty decent stipend for his advocacy though.

That's pretty much the way DC operates. Hopefully Bernie will be able to change that.

[lewebley3]

34. Dean a great progressive like Hillary that wants thing done: reject Sanders

[Autumn]

2. Along with Hillary Clinton and republicans

[Segami]

3. Yaaaaah,...I'm a lobbyist.....Yaaaah!

[democrank]

4. I`m deeply disappointed in Howard Dean on this issue.

Perhaps he`s looking for a job in the Clinton administration should she win.


GO BERNIE!

[Segami]

6. Isn't it obvious by now?

The only thing thats missing is Dean wearing a t-shirt on air saying 'Appoint Me Hillary'....


........oh,...too much floor giggling, I coughed up a little bit of my breakfast..

[Jefferson23]

5. Say what?? He anticipates most Democrats will accept that?

Majority still support single-payer option, poll finds

By Sarah Ferris
The Hill, January 19, 2015

More than five years after the single-payer system was scrapped from ObamaCare policy debates, just over 50 percent of people say they still support the idea, including one-quarter of Republicans, according to a new poll.

The single-payer option – also known as Medicare for all – would create a new, government-run insurance program to replace private coverage. The system, once backed by President Obama, became one of the biggest casualties of the divisive healthcare debates of 2009.

The idea remains extremely popular among Democrats, with nearly 80 percent in support, according to the poll, which was shared first with The Hill by the Progressive Change Institute.

“There is a hunger in America for big progressive ideas," spokesperson TJ Helmstetter wrote in a statement. "The state of our union is progressive, and the president would be smart to give America the big, popular, progressive economic ideas that people have been crying out for.”

Another proposed idea under ObamaCare – the public option – also retains wide approval.

Only 13 percent of people said they opposed the public option, which would give individuals the choice of buying healthcare through Medicare or private insurers.

http://www.pnhp.org/news/2015/january/majority-still-support-single-payer-option-poll-finds

[restorefreedom]

7. bitchin grab, segami!

excellent op!

oh, and screw dean. i regret ever supporting him. just another player.

[Betty Karlson]

8. Oh that explains it: he eating from the hand of the worst of 1 %. eom

[EdwardBernays]

9. go look

at who pays for your favourite candidate to be in office, then check their votes...

For instance, Hillary's campaign manager owns one of Washington's largest lobbying firms, and has Saudi Arabia and multiple military weapons contractors as clients... and Bank of America.

[kath]

16. Why not name names - Podesta, HRC's campaign mgr, lobbies for Saudi Arabia, weapons contractors, and

Other very lovely entities.

[EdwardBernays]

17. [Taps nose]

[olddots]

10. they want a split party they got it .

N.T.

[7wo7rees]

11. Really telling and very sad.

Mr. Dean, take your pragmatism and shove it!

[corkhead]

12. He was probably planning to be the next Surgeon General.

I doubt that Bernie will select him now.

[Motown_Johnny]

13. To answer Dr. Dean's question: You phase it in with a public option first.

Medicare overhead is about 6%. The 80/20 rule holds private insurance overhead to 20% (although there are exceptions).

If we assume the same risk analysis for both private companies and Medicare (just for the sake of argument, plus it may average out given that we are talking about millions of people) then there is roughly 14% of the premium difference between the two.


Allow people to buy into Medicare. Cut that 14% in half and give the people buying in a 7% savings when compared to private insurance. Then use that other 7% to help fund the change over to a single payer program.

The amount of time it would take is impossible for me to predict. Maybe people won't want to buy in so there is very little money to use. Maybe there are so many people wanting to buy in (I would be one of those) that you may need to only allow people over 50 to buy in at first, then 40, then 30 then everyone.

I don't care if it takes 20 years to phase it in. I don't care if I don't live to see the day when it finally is implemented. My death would be a little easier if I went knowing that we were on that path.

This can be done. Bernie's plan is viable and Politifact's confirmation of the savings proves that. Getting the bridge money isn't an issue.


Besides, it isn't like we haven't run a deficit before. You don't really need my plan. Just put it on the credit card and use the long term savings to pay it off. I like my plan better, but that is still an option.

[sorechasm]

29. Thanks Motown_Johnny! I don't completely understand it but...

your analysis is a beacon in the fog of distractions by lobbyists like Dr. Dean. (I'm so sorry for having to call him that.) Sounds like his 'need a bridge' argument is just another fog generator.

[kath]

14. Ahhh, it all becomes clear. Sold. Out.

[bigwillq]

15. I love Howard Dean, but I disagree with them.

Our elected officials should find a way to make single-payer work.

[AlbertCat]

25. should find a way to make single-payer work.

We went to the Moon in the '60s.

We just took close up pics of Pluto.

We built Hoover Dam

We can't make a single payer option work???????

[Sunlei]

18. If insurance Corps can afford DC lobbyists and TV ad campaigns-WE PAY TO MUCH FOR INSURANCE

[dorkzilla]

20. As an amateur genealogist, my consolation for finding out I was related to

George Bush was that I was also related to Howard Dean. Sigh...not anymore.

I guess now I have to console myself with Vincent Price and Humphrey Bogart. And Edward III.

[Jackilope]

21. A nod to the Police and song "Roxanne"

Howard
You don't have to turn on the red light...

[Uncle Joe]

22. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Segami.

[roody]

23. Bernie Sanders - not for sale

[hifiguy]

36. Never has been.

Never will be.

[Hiraeth]

24. BOUGHT AND PAID FOR. FUNNY HOW THAT HAPPENS.

[Mnpaul]

26. Blatantly dishonest

This is no better than the so called terrorism experts on TV who are lobbyists for the defense industry. Fess up Howard.

[Duckfan]

27. Never assume

That a candidate/former candidate will stand up for the little guy...consistently. Really sad that a dude I worked my ass off for in 2003 turned to the "Dark Side"

I'm ripping up my pics I took of him from San Francisco rally and sending them to him with my thoughts.

[karynnj]

42. As someone who in 2003, vacillated between Dean and Kerry -- ending strongly for Kerry

I would suggest that you keep any pictures you have of the rally. They are part of YOUR past as well as of Dean. Your work supporting Dean was based on your values (which I would assume are very close to what they are now) and on what he represented at the point.

One problem we all have is that the intensity of a campaign - especially one that captures your heart, as well as your head - is that all candidates are pushed into a rather two dimensional version of the real multidimensional person they are and they they are really the center of a hurricane. They have to depend on their team's advice.

However, after the election is over, they return to real life. They are no longer the cartoon hero they were seen as - they are real people. With Dean, I suspect that more than most, he was captured in a whirlwind and defined by people like Trippi. Some parts of 2004 Dean are real - he is willing to be outspoken and he was against the war from the point it started in 2003 - and did not have a vote that could be twisted against him.

Where he likely was different was he was seen as very progressive, when he had been a very moderate governor of VT who, before he entered politics, was for the Democratic incumbent mayor of Burlington -- not Bernie. I think he was extremely good as a cheerleader and advocate of helping people run stronger than otherwise campaigns. I live in Burlington now - and love the bike path that he and others fought for. He also as governor encouraged a local non profit to get him a proposal for the bike ferry that exists in the summer allowing bikers to take a causeway to the Champlain Islands from Burlington/Colchester. (The ferry transports bikers over a short gap that once was spanned by a rotating bridge on the rail line over the causeway.)

I was unimpressed by the website he created backing the public option -- it misstated too many people in Congress - then horrified when he called on Senators to vote against a plan if it did not have a public option -- which Lieberman already had rejected meaning we had less than 60 Senators for anything he would approve. I was shocked when he was against even negotiating with Iran -- as a lobbyist for the MEK people. In both these instances, had he won - things that I think good for the US or world would not have happened. Yet, he very likely believed in what he was doing in both cases.

It is rare that anyone who has opinions will find many people he always agrees with when viewed over a long period of time.

[Kelvin Mace]

28. Et tu, Howard?

It's not the fact that everyone has a "price" that depresses me. It is the fact that the price is so damned low.



Spock wept.

Roddenberry 3:16

[Skwmom]

30. I'm pragmatic is often used to justify selling out.

When they want you to sell out people will often tell you that you need to be pragmatic. I just had this conversation last night with someone in regards to Dean's comment about being pragmatic. We'll I sure it the nail on the head in this case.

[Lordquinton]

31. Dean and Edwards were two of my top picks over the years

This revelation almost hurts more than what happened to Edwards, at least that wasn't a political betrayal.

[passiveporcupine]

32. I never understood the passion for Dean

I really never liked him. This is no surprise to me.

[Babel_17]

33. Chinatown has nothing on the moral ambiguity of our nation's capitol

[hifiguy]

35. Another sell-out.

Disgusting.

And to think i used to have a ton of respect for him.

[Bradical79]

37. Both parties are not the same!

Aparently that's only true because the Democrats have been holding out for more money. Between this, another long time DU poster calling tax increases on the wealthy "organized pickpocketing of the rich", and unicorn jokes over wanting a type of healthcare system that is proven to have superior results, I'm feeling a little down on the party.

[AzDar]

38. Et Tu, Howard?

[saidsimplesimon]

39. Howard Dean and many other former leaders for change

have joined the more profitable "dark side" in the Democratic Party, quelle surprise! OK, maybe not the dark but definitely the blind side.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

40. After the clip he tries to justify her hypocrisy by saying the poll numbers are close....

If the poll numbers are close than it's okay to lie.

[cherokeeprogressive]

41. Incest. It's what's for Primary Season.

[HenryWallace]

43. Oddly familiar technique!

First you send out your daughter to claim that "he's trying to take away your health insurance!"

Then you send out someone to attack a plan that he previously supported (think Romney and the ACA).

What next, have Tom Harkin hit the Iowa campaign trail accusing Bernie of wanting to setup "death panels?"

Jesus, Mary & Joseph...... This reeks of desperation!