Obama Flip Flops on Health Care

[Joanne98]

Run time: 01:59 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQoCf3_xsSo   Posted on YouTube: June 06, 2009 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: June 06, 2009 By DU Member: Joanne98 Views on DU: 1630

 

Before he was even the Democratic nominee for President, Barack Obama was an advocate for single payer health care. Now that he has been elected President, Obama has switched his position on single payer health care, most likely because the corporations have finally caught with him. The fight for single payer universal health care is not dead.

Democratic Senator Max Baucus Baucus received $183,750 from health insurance companies and $229,020 from drug companies in the last two election cycles. Source: http://www.singlepayeraction.org/blog...

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/arti...

This article tells about how Senator Baucus said "no" to Single Payer advocates recently
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Bauc...

A Majority of Americans want Single Payer Health Care
http://www.healthcare-now.org/2009/02...

http://www.healthcare-now.org/

http://www.hr676.org/

It turns out that you get the best of both worlds with H.R. 676: Liberal benefits and Conservative spending:
http://www.pnhp.org/publications/unit...

[Kahuna]

1. Obama was never for single payer and said so during his campaign.

:eyes:

[Coyote_Bandit]

2. You'd be wrong

He was for it before he was against it.

Watch this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpAyan1fXCE

[Political Tiger]

8. What's the date when this video was taken????

Since he says "first we must take back the White House, the Senate and the House" it's clearly obvious it was taken BEFORE Obama ever announced any intentions of running for president!

Obama did NOT run for president as a single payer advocate, so you are WRONG!

[Coyote_Bandit]

18. Simple fact is

that Obama was for single payer before it was in his interest not to be against single payer.

He sold out that support for single payer to secure his position. He is a corporatist and he needed those corporate campaign dollars and the support of those corporations to advance his candidacy and secure his election.

Dates are irrelvant.

I don't give a fuck what his formal campaign platform was. He supported single payer before it was in his personal interest not to do so. That tells me he is just another bought and paid for spineless manipulaive creep who would say and do whatever was necessary to advance himself. And that is what his flip flop on single payer was all about - advancing his own interest and desire for position and personal power and prosperity it brings. I've got no respect for such shennanigans.

[omega minimo]

4. So you watched the video and just ignore the fact he SAID he was for it?

[Dragonfli]

10. I imagine he sees it as a "valid" flip-flop because he was only for it until

he started getting insurance money for his campaigns.

They don't want to hear anything that will get in the way of the rationalizations required to make a hero out of a man.

I don't believe in heroes because even good men change their mind and follow the green, they tell themselves it is so they can get elected and help with other causes, very human, just not very heroic.

This country has a real problem with the need to worship men as heroes rather than admit they are men.

[omega minimo]

12. THAT's not democratic!!

:wow:


This country has a real problem with the need to worship men as heroes rather than admit they are men.

[Hulk]

3. Am confused......I don't see the "flip flop" from this video...

Maybe I'm missing the big picture, but I don't hear President Obama backing away from single payer. I see senator baucus making an ass out of himself and not allowing them at the table. Yes. But I am still hopeful that single payer will be the outcome.

Yes, the insurance companies were all included. I think the repukes were all included in the stimulus bill formation...or at least were invited to help. They didn't do shit, and they were pretty much given a voice but played little if any part in what the outcome was.

I see the same future for the insurance company ANY baucus. They can be part of the process, but f*ck them if they can't work for the American people.

We'll have to wait and see. We have a way to go, and making our voice heard through protests, contacting our representatives, etc. is ESSENTIAL.

I'm not ready to insult or write off the president just yet. So far he's delivered from my point of view.

[omega minimo]

5. The Vid shows Obama saying Single Payer isn't possible b/c we're "not starting from scratch"

What is this, the Orwell Team? :rofl:

[DaLittle Kitty]

7. Which Means That Because We ARE NOT Starting from Scratch, We'll Have To Do Something Else! GREAT

POST KICK AND REC!!! Tough to do any better than THIS! It is up to US to PUSH AND ACCEPT NUTH'N LESS THAN A SINGLE PAYER PLAN!!!!

[omega minimo]

6. Great post. Just for the fact of watching people still deny the switch! Blatantly ignore what the

record shows!! :wow:

[Enrique]

9. health care was debated at length during the primaries

especially between him and Hillary. It was clear that Obama was NOT in favor of single-payer, regardless of this or any video you can find.

[DaLittle Kitty]

11. Edwards Was DaMAN In The Primaries On Health Care! The PTB Forced Him Out

Because He Was the ONLY one to say you must DEFEAT THE INSURANCE COMPANIES/HMO's! You cannot negotiate with them... It's all 'bout da money! Campaign checks that is!

[rpannier]

14. The point the OP is making is that

until he was running for President he was for single payer health care.

That position changed when the primaries started in '08.

[Amonester]

13. "the only problem is that we're not starting from scratch"

Why not? Because the insurance industry will stop giving money to candidates of both parties (or the Money Party) otherwise.

Not starting from scratch means starting from a broken system, and that parts of that broken system will remain in the new system.

Good luck with that...

And then, why not change the way candidates finance their campaigns too? Things like ALL media outlets having to provide "mandatory" (and equally FAIR) air-time for FREE. Don't they have to have LICENSES from the FCC anyway?

Use your imagination, Mr.President. Congress (as a whole) doesn't "seem" to have any...

[avaistheone1]

17. We don't have to start from scratch. We can use the current Medicare system as a model

for own single payer system.
:kick:

[quidam56]

15. How many more have to die

so the politicians and profit machines can rake it in at our expense. http://www.wisecountyissues.com/?p=62 The thing is, our expense is our lives.

[JPK]

16. Re: The "Private Option" is a sham

It's looking to me more like the private option, if it comes to pass, will more than likely be administered by the private health insurance industry much the same as medicare is now, indeed it will become just an extention of it. Talk about corporate welfare. They may not be able to legally discriminate because of age and they may have to drop pre-existing conditions but the cost will not be any different to us....or possibly be more because of their having to change those restrictions. If health insurance becomes mandatory, I can see the industry behind the scenes, will still dictate to Dr's and hospitals the costs or how much the insurance company is willing to pay for procedures. Much the same as medicare, while paid for by the government, it is administered state by state through a private health insurance carrier and that carrier in turn charges the government for that service. And, if they can force Dr's and hospitals to work for less money, the carrier pockets the difference. In Florida it is Blue Cross and Blue Shield. They charge the government to administer and manage the service. If they can beat the Dr's and hospitals down in price the balance is put in their pockets because they charge the government certain established rates for certain procedures. They also pocket a ton of money discovering fraud.....not that that's a bad thing but it comes back out of our pockets and into theirs as profit. Instead of private HMO's it becomes a government subsidized HMO. BCBSFL makes tons of money off the government just shuffling papers for the feds. I'm sure it is the same in other states. Either way it goes it is a no lose situation for them. Whatever "fight' they appear to be putting up now is smoke and mirrors, they will still have their hand in the till in a major way.

I have a friend that works in said company and you would not believe the amount of political buddy, buddy cronyism, the endless meetings where nothing gets done, the lack of leadership and wanting to protect one's turf that goes on. I know of one instance where a VP wasted 4 million on an internal project that failed because of the lack of oversight by that person and nothing was done. The individual still kept their position. If that happened to you or me on the job we'd probably be fired. She had too many high connections.

America needs to wake up....single payer is the only path to having affordable and reliable healthcare.

[valerief]

19. I guess any politicians who scratch insurance companies will get scratched out. nt