Public Health Insurance Option Has Public Support, Congressional Opposition

Reid needs to lay down the law (0.00 / 0)

Any Democrats joining in with a Republican filibuster should be dealt with severely. As in not allowing any of their agendas to advance. I know this doesn't really concern using reconciliation, but Reid should lay down the law, nevertheless. The Ben Nelsons of the world will find a way to stifle reform, one way or the other. Don't like Obama's Supreme Court Justice nominee? Filibuster it unless the public plan gets ditched.

I can't imagine a Democrat not allowing an up and down vote on a Democrat priority. That should be grounds for getting thrown out of the caucus.

Of course, my real concerns lie with the fact that I don't know that Baucus has any beliefs that differ much from Specter, Nelson or Grassley, when it comes to health care reform. If he does, he certainly hasn't made them clear.

To paraphrase Baucus: "Public plan? We'll leave that 'on the side of the table'." Right next to the edge where a little nudge knocks it into the round file, alongside single payer.

Of course, what the public plan naysayers are going to say, is lets just work on cost containment and delivery, and see how much money we can save, then down the road we can think about how to bring more people into the system. But on the other hand, if cost containment means limiting insurance industry profits, then even Nelson will wimp out, unless the government starts subsidizing the private insurers. And if delivery involves paying for outcomes instead of procedures, then we lose the practitioners.

The mantra needs to be: universal = lower direct cost per consumer--all consumers. Of course, the bottom line issue is how are we going to pay for reform and bringing more people into the system. If there's no money, then all we get is a slightly cheaper system for those who have access. And that is no true reform. And all of this is nothing more than a repeat of the Clinton Care disaster. There's more than one way to derail a train...

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by: JC @ Mon May 04, 2009 at 21:14:22 PM UTC

that wishy washy statement at the end tells it all.... (0.00 / 0)

"This isn't the bottom-line issue in healthcare reform. We need to figure out a bunch of other stuff. But long-term cost containment and rethinking of our healthcare delivery gets MUCH easier with a public health insurance option."

universal single payer (without insurance parasites) should be the only goal if you want true health care reform.anything else is just a seriously bad case of the wimps by the entire democratic party.

a retired lineman from the packers once told me that nothing much gets done from a half-hearted effort except how much you lose by....

the republican party is practically dead and those wimpy democrats are still scared . unbelievable.

United we stand, divided we fall.

power to the polite people!

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by: wolverine6 @ Mon May 04, 2009 at 23:00:38 PM UTC

Be wary of Max?? (0.00 / 0)

Max Baucus??? The same Max Baucus that supported Bush's huge tax cut for the very wealthy? The same Max Baucus that supported bailing out the banks and Wall Street, but does nothing to change the fact that they "are too big to fail"?  You mean the same Max Baucus that voted against "cram down" thus giving the middle finger to millions of homeowners?  You mean the same Max Baucus that supported rewriting the bankruptcy laws for the benefit of credit card companies and banks? The same Max Baucus that called for "further studies" on cracking down on off shore tax havens???

Yeah...he's a real prize.  I can't wait to see the Max Baucus Health Care Plan....

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by: big sage @ Tue May 05, 2009 at 21:33:02 PM UTC