Public option health care is hanging by a thread

[pscot]

Big pharma and the insurance companies are making an all-out push to kill it. Josh Marshall provides some of the gorry details:

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/robert_reich/2009/06/the-public-option-smokescreens.php?ref=fpblg

"This is it, folks. The concrete is being mixed and about to be poured. And after it's poured
and hardens, universal health care will be with us for years to come in whatever form it now takes. Let your representative and senators know you want a public option without conditions or triggers -- one that gives the public insurer bargaining leverage over drug companies, and pushes insurers to do what they've promised to do. Don't wait until the concrete hardens and we've lost this battle"

Read the full article at the link, then contact your senator and representative. Cajole, beg, threaten; whatever you think will work. But let them know you want a full public option, and you want it now.

[Faryn Balyncd]

1. K& R ..... "The concrete is being mixed and about to be poured. ..."

[John Q. Citizen]

2. This was so predictable. Our liberal leaders failed us by taking single payer off the table.

The White House shut us out (oh, when we complained loud and long they gave us a late token seat, as an after thought)The Senate wouldn't let us testify.

So what do we have? We have people who want a single payer system and people who want a single payer system but are too timid to just demand it so they are begging for a public option and hoping it might lead to a single payer system.

And we have our liberal leaders who froze out the single payer folks but brought in the insurance industry lobbyists and the Pharma lobbyists, and who told us that asking for single payer was selfish, unwise, and unrealistic. This would be Obama, Baucus, some of the Union big wigs, and the usual "follow the leader" Democrats; You know who you are.

Folks, how many more times do you have to get scammed before you figure this shit out?

If the health care industrial complex is going to fight single payer, then they are going to fight something they think might lead to single payer, like a public option. These people are our enemies, not our negotiating partners.

So there is zero downside to pushing single payer, together, as a whole block, instead of splitting people up into those who can be suckered with the siren song of a public option and those who are straight forward enough to just ask for what we want.

Now, we will watch the public option be bargained away, because we started our bargaining position far to the right of where we want to be. If we started with single payer, demanded single payer, then it's possible we would be in a position to bargain away single payer in return for a strong public option. And we would be united instead of split up.

[slipslidingaway]

3. My thought as well, when you start from a position of compromise

the final product will not be as strong as it could have been.

[slipslidingaway]

4. Howard Dean speaking at the AHIP Convention...

I hope Dr. Dean is wrong in this instance and that it harder on the insurance companies than they imagine.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5792680&mesg_id=5792680

"...But Dean considers public health insurance a necessity. "I think it is absolutely essential. And I don't think health reform is worth doing without a public option."

"What the president is proposing to do is say, if you like what you have, you can keep it. If you're comfortable with the private insurance market, you can keep it. Not only that, but we'll help you buy it. There will be a government subsidy based on your income, particularly helpful to small businesses, that you will receive to buy healthcare in the private market," Dean said. "But you will also have a choice of buying into a public plans such as Medicare or some other public plan. And I'm one of the few defenders of that in this room."

"Now I know people in this room, in this industry, are very, very fearful," he said. "This is the center of opposition."

He looked at the rows of representatives of Aetna, Blue Cross, and dozens of other companies assembled and said, "Your living is at stake here. But I don't think it's going to be as tough as you think it is."

The reason, he said, is that most of the nation's CEOs, despite "incredible inflation," prefer to have employer based health insurance. He emphasized that there is still a role for private health insurance, but one that would be shared by public plans..."

[John Q. Citizen]

5. I want private government. I think my barber makes better decisions than Max Baucus,

so from now on i'm not going to follow any laws passed by that public government and I'm just going to follow the laws passed by my preferred private law passers. /sarcasm

I think we are going to have to occupy the head quarters of various insurance companies and do a hostage switch; Our health care system in return for their building.

[slipslidingaway]

6. It will be interesting to see what is finally proposed...

and just as important to see how it will be financed.

[Faryn Balyncd]

7. ..even as Sen. Grassly (R-IA) says 119 Million Americans would like to DUMP their insurance for publ

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5794907&mesg_id=5794907