NYT: Hillary Now Promises She's in Favor of Public Option

[amborin]

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/11/us/politics/hillary-clinton-health-care-public-option.html?ref=todayspaper

But as she tries to clinch the nomination, Mrs. Clinton is moving to the left on health care and this week took a significant step in her opponent’s direction, suggesting she would like to give people the option to buy into Medicare.

“I’m also in favor of what’s called the public option, so that people can buy into Medicare at a certain age,” Mrs. Clinton said on Monday at a campaign event in Virginia.

Does anyone remember anyone else who campaigned on the promise of a public option?

[Gomez163]

1. Nope. Cant think of anyone

[CorporatistNation]

11. I Watched The Video... The Quote Is ONLY Part of WHAT She Said... She Clearly Had NO IDEA WHAT She

Was talking about... There is "NO CERTAIN AGE" associated with THE PUBLIC OPTION Hillary!

Hillary, THE PUBLIC OPTION which is a well known concept among Democrats especially... is defined as opening up Medicare coverage to Americans of ANY age thereby strengthening the fiscal foundation of Medicare by adding people who are minimal users of health care services but would be paying into the program. The PUBLIC OPTION increases access to quality affordable health care by people of every socio-economic demographic. The PUBLIC OPTION provides a competitive lever from both a cost and quality standpoint thereby lowering health care costs overall as the Corporate Insurance Industry is forced to compete both on cost and quality.

Hillary... There is NO AGE Qualifier for ... THE PUBLIC OPTION!

Hillary now taking MORE Wall Street CA$H!

[Sparkly]

21. There is a CERTAIN AGE for Medicare, which is the only Public Option available.

It's really not difficult.

[amborin]

13. guess you are new?

Obama: "I didn't campaign on the public option"

Edited on Tue Dec-22-09 06:14 PM by amborin


Obama said the public option "has become a source of ideological contention between the left and right." But, he added, "I didn't campaign on the public option"

snip

In the 2008 Obama-Biden health care plan on the campaign’s website, candidate Obama promised that "any American will have the opportunity to enroll in new public plan." <2008>

– During a speech at the American Medical Association, President Obama told thousands of doctors that one of the plans included in the new health insurance exchanges "needs to be a public option that will give people a broader range of choices and inject competition into the health care market." <6/15/09>

– While speaking to the nation during his weekly address, the President said that "any plan" he signs "must include...a public option." <7/17/09>

– During a conference call with progressive bloggers, the President said he continues "to believe that a robust public option would be the best way to go." <7/20/09>

– Obama told NBC’s David Gregory that a public option "should be a part of this ," while rebuking claims that the plan was "dead." <9/20/09>

snip

"My plan builds on and improves our current insurance system, which most Americans continue to rely upon, and creates a new public health plan for those currently without coverage. Under my plan, Americans will be able to choose to maintain their current coverage if they choose to. For those without health insurance I will establish a new public insurance program, and provide subsides to afford care for those who need them. "



http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/12/22/818090/-Presid... .-


video of Sept 29, 2009 speech to Congress here:

http://www.barackobama.com/issues/healthcare/

[CorporatistNation]

15. Point is Hillary As A Self Described Health Policy "Wonk" IS ABSOLUTELY CLUELESS...

IN her response to this woman.

She describes a policy position that would DECREASE RISK AND COST FOR PRIVATE INSURANCE COMPANIES WHILE ALSO INCREASING RISK AND COST FOR MEDICARE!

One more shining example demonstrating why this incompetent candidate should NEVER BE President!

[amborin]

17. yes, excellent points!

please distribute on social media

[Baobab]

24. A scam thought up by the insurance industry that is guaranteed to fail for the same reasons Obamacar

e has been.

Adverse Selection followed by Death Spiral.

Also, its FTA-illegal. Bill Clinton's 1994 FTA bans any new public services (and dismembers by privatization any old ones that are not completely free and have no commercial competitors, for example, if a country has one private college they all must be eventually privatized, if a country has one for profit insurance company it all must be privatized incrementally.) and forces all changes to be progressive liberalisation. Basically, that means one way irreversible privatization.

[Sparkly]

23. No -- she knows what she is talking about.

She's been grappling with ways of creating universal healthcare for decades.

Moving risk/cost from private insurance to a public plan (Medicare) means less cost/risk for one, more for the other.

A balanced equation. Not sure why it's hard to understand.

[Baobab]

25. She's lying. Her 1994 "plan" was part of a cover up of GATS.

And the cover up is still going on.

Sorry to burst your bubble!

[Sparkly]

28. Points for creativity.

[amborin]

40. nope; her plan give corporations more power; and she has broken her promises to voters repeatedly

[Sparkly]

43. Okay sure fine whatever you say.

LOL

[dchill]

54. I believe her plan is, and I quote...

"Not gonna happen."

[djean111]

2. Fool me once......

[tk2kewl]

14. "never ever"

[Sparkly]

30. Reality is hard.

[tk2kewl]

50. the neoliberal reality in particular

[BootinUp]

3. Yeah, She did. In 2008. nt

[Sparkly]

19. Was just about to post the same.

[BootinUp]

20. They thought they set a trap for us or sumthin'

[passiveporcupine]

4. Buy into Medicare? We are already all buying into Medicare

which we get at a "certain age". Buying into it would be pricey, if I get her gist. A lot more expensive than what it would cost if we had Medicare for all.

Sorry Hill...your ideas are too little and too late.

[EndElectoral]

46. My guess is she's looking at Medicare Part C which is an advantage plan and d prescription drugs.

More money for insurance industries.

[senz]

60. She always favors insurance industry profits.

[mooseprime]

5. wait, wasn't that the public option

that was NEVER going to happen?


These 180's are taxing and cause vertigo. Oh plus the half-life of an HRC statement seems to be pretty short. Like a day. After that, there's almost nothing recognizable left.

[MisterP]

7. she was so GLAD, so BOUNCY on saying it

[Sparkly]

36. Are you confused about single-payer vs. public option?

Wow.

[Katashi_itto]

6. Relax, she's got this.

[enid602]

8. czar

If elected, I think she'll need a cabinet level ACA czar to counter the shenanigans of the insurance industry, keep ACA invigorated and move toward SP if the insurance companies don't play ball. Someone doggedly determined, who can focus on a single issue. Someone who has stood up for healthcare. Someone who knows when not to play nice. Someone whose mere nomination would cause the insurance industry to shudder. If only such a person existed.

[thesquanderer]

9. She will continue Obama's legacy... of paying it nothing but lip service. (n/t)

[CorporatistNation]

16. RIGHT ON! HILLARY IS A WELL COMPENSATED "TOOL" OF BIG INSURANCE!

[Ferd Berfel]

10. The key to this tidbit of Bullshit pandering is

"...at a certain age".

That's not a public option, that allowing a few more folks in their what- late 50's or early 60's - in the door. WHO ARE ALREADY PAYING in to Medicare.

Everyone else is screwed. I guess that's pragmatic.

A 'public option' means everyone has access. And it's still not as good as Single Payer for all.

I hope Bernie rakes her over the coals on this peice.

Ok Camp Weathervare - Splain it

[davidlynch]

26. BINGO you're fluently comprehending Clinton-ese n/t

[arcane1]

27. Yep, that's her typical dishonest way of saying nothing and making it sound like something.

[Sparkly]

32. Oh my.

Option. You can buy in if you want to, before you're 65.

No, not as good as single-payer, but it'd be a big victory to get it.

[Ferd Berfel]

57. Crumbs?

great

BTW, there is plenty of time for her to triangulate out of anything she says now. She flips more than a fish on the dock.

Given her RW Neocon leanings - no thanks

[mindwalker_i]

12. Until the wind changed direction again

"I've always been for the public option."

For very specific definitions of "always."

[Sparkly]

33. It's true.

Sorry the fact doesn't fit with your opinion.

[mindwalker_i]

38. It's a wonder you guys don't get whiplash

Believing diametrically opposed things every other microsecond.

[Sparkly]

39. Nope.

It's clear and consistent. Sorry about that.

[mindwalker_i]

63. Arguing with someone who is so deeply dependent

on believing something is stupid. It's been painfully obvious that Hillary supporters here, yourself especially, will make assertions and believe them forever, no matter what other evidence is available. That shows that your support is a belief and that you have a strong emotional attachment to it, very similar to the way many people are attached to believing in an all-just, all-loving deity. As with them, arguing based on data and logic is a fool's errand.

[Sparkly]

64. I feel exactly the same way.

Because I know what she's pushed for since the early 1990s.

[mindwalker_i]

65. Like I said, I won't bother arguing with you

You're dependent on your beliefs and I might as well fart in the wind.

[Ferd Berfel]

61. IT's like the carnival con barkers

remember...?

Round and Round She goes, Where she stops, nobody knows.

[AtomicKitten]

18. Mary Ann, Ginger, and Mrs. Howell weigh in.

[Fawke Em]

44. LOL! Thanks for making me smile.

That was Hillaryous!

[surrealAmerican]

22. That doesn't sound like a promise.

It sounds more like a con job.

The Times should know better. This is crappy reporting.

[davidlynch]

29. Predicton: Hillary Doesn't Believe A Word Of This--No Action Will Be Taken...

That much is certain. This is purely self-serving self-defense, nothing more.

[Thinkingabout]

31. She did a presentation to congress in the 90's, she was for universal health care, what is the

problem.

[Sparkly]

34. Good question.

I think the problem is rightwing permeation of media, for one.

[JoePhilly]

35. Bernie should run against Obama on this, based on this thread.

Why hasn't he?

[Broward]

37. Hillary will do nothing.

[SheenaR]

41. Little known fact she never mentions.

Before it was Obamacare, they called it Hillarycare.

Maybe someday she will bring that up.

[StevieM]

42. If you are referring to President Obama, he tried to get the public option through Congress.

He didn't have the votes. I suppose you could argue he should have fought to have the whole thing be done through budget reconciliation, in order to avoid the need for 60 votes. But that would have been an enormous decision, one that was fraught with complications, and might not have survived a Supreme Court challenge.

As for Hillary, I don't believe it is reasonable to believe that she would have been one of the few Senate Democrats outright balking at a public option, given her eight-year voting record when she was in the Senate. To question her veracity is to put her in the same category of Democrat along with Joe Lieberman, Joe Manchin, Arlen Spector, Mark Pryor, Blanche Lincoln and Mary Landrieu. She wasn't that conservative, even if you don't think she is as liberal as you might like her to be.

[AzDar]

45. Hard to believe a candidate who's held literally ALL sides of the issue...

[vintx]

47. She is so full of it. A public option is available to the public,

not just people of "a certain age".

Why can't she just speak plainly? Why can't she just be honest?

[840high]

49. It's simply not her nature.

[tabasco]

48. She'll use that promise for toilet paper if she is elected. n/t

[B Calm]

51. I remember Obama saying he would look into NAFTA.

[Fast Walker 52]

52. what the hell-- not the Onion?

She doesn't even describe a public option there.

[Thinkingabout]

53. Hillary has advocated for health insurance, taken gains where she could,

And though she does not push Medicare for all which Sanders has offered but she has been and still is for universal healthcare.

Also she would like to reduce prescription cost and health care cost.

This is her position on healthcare:

https://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/health-care/

[NorthCarolina]

55. Obama did too during the primaries

but then he never seemed to be for it so much post election that he would take to the bully pulpit and attempt to raise public awareness and support for it. Just campaign rhetoric...say anything progressive to get elected.

[pdsimdars]

56. But whatever she says, you have to go through the word parcing of every word

to figure out where she left her loophole so she can do the opposite and claim she never said it.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

58. Will she soon declare herself to be a Socialist and progressive radical?

[leeroysphitz]

59. I like the public option now too.

[farleftlib]

62. Awesome!