House healthcare deal: September vote

Rock-n-Roll Baby!

Pres Obama's approval numbers are going to shoot back up after this gets done.

Billions of Health Care Dollars Down the Drain

Bloomberg has a story asserting that the "U.S. Pays $2.5 Trillion for Care Costing $912 Billion" that should be the debate changer in the Senate Finance Committee, since they're all about, you know, finance.

"July 28 (Bloomberg) -- The last time a president tried to overhaul U.S. health care, Americans were spending $912 billion on the system and 40 million were uninsured. Today they’re spending $2.5 trillion and almost 50 million lack coverage....
Health-insurance premiums for families have risen 119 percent since 1999, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, a Menlo Park, California-based policy-research firm. Inflation has risen 28.5 percent over that period, according to the Labor Department.
Premium costs are projected to rise another 9 percent next year, an increase that 42 percent of employers plan to pass on to their workers, according to a report last month by PricewaterhouseCoopers. That’s likely to further squeeze millions of Americans who find themselves in high-deductible insurance plans as wages stagnate because of the recession....
Health-care spending will account for 20 percent of U.S. gross domestic product in 2018, or $1 in $5 spent, compared with 16 percent of GDP, $1 of $6 spent, in 2008."
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http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aFRY..TvUM2M

Even Wal-Mart supports a massive overhaul, as the article notes. In fact, Wal-Mart is more progressive than Max Baucus when it comes to reform. His proposed legislation won't even have an employer mandate, a provision Wal-Mart has lobbied for.

The Republican Finance bill, the one that Baucus has apparently been letting Wingnut clown Chuck Grassley write, might score under a trillion with the CBO. In fact, it's likely to, since former Kent Conrad staffer and current CBO chief Doug Elmendorfer has been in on the negotiations (giving Conrad two seats at the table). But the nibbling around the edges of insurance reform and setting up experimental co-ops that can't compete won't do a damned thing to curb the costs of having 50 million uninsured. And without effective competition, it likely won't do anything to curb the obscene rate of growth in premiums and the obscene profits of insurers.

> 44,230 more people are losing health coverage each week.

> 191,670 more people are losing health coverage each month.

> 2.3 million more people are losing health coverage each year

Republicans know that a successful health care reform that achieves universal coverage will bury them electorally for a generation. Health Insurers and their Lobbyists and Big Pharma know that a powerful public option and a Medicare bargaining for prices will kick them off the gravy train permanently. Republicans and Big Insurance Company propagandists know their scare tactics aren't nearly as scary as reality for the large majority of Americans.

You know the opponents of health-care reform for poor and middle-class Americans -- which obviously includes nearly every talking head who appears on Faux News -- are getting desperate when they start trying to scare elderly people by suggesting that President Obama's health-care plans will mean euthanization for old folks when they get hurt.

That's what the lunatic fringe crew at Faux & Friends on Monday morning did, led by "Faux News legal analyst" Peter Johnson Jr., and aided and abetted by Brian Kilmeade and Gretchen Carlson.
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http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/2009/07/fox-friends-crew-frighten-elderly.html

"Blue Dog critics of the original bill drawn up by House Democratic leaders, called the changes to the government insurance plan "a huge win."

A huge win for whom?
Oh yeah, their medical insurance constituents.
Anywho, we need to see the 'changes', I guess.

This is the death knell for Republican opposition. They will not win any support by attacking this bill and then peddling as their own idea a virtual copy that costs the same and has no impetus for expanding coverage; essentially a giant tax cut with no real reason for existence.

http://www.political-buzz.com/

ML
Thanks for that revealing link to the merde heads at FOX.
Only in their fetid little minds does avoiding unnecessary surgery or ineffective drugs = euthanasia.
It's a pox on America and the MSM that the monumental lies being told on FOX outlets, and others, are not being countered. And this is just one example.
It's as if the MSM presents the case for the Earth being round and the Earth being flat as equally valid opinions. You decide.

Listening to NPR today...the Feds have arrested a bunch of people and charged them with Medicare/Medicaid fraud. Hundreds of millions of dollars worth of fraud. If we cleaned that up, we might just have enough to cover the people who really need help...sorry I could not find a link the 'puter is acting up...It was on this afternoon.

Here's the link to the NPR story on Medicare/Medicaid fraud:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111318637

A "deal" between Democrats and....

Democrats.

The only thing Democrats ever agree on is raiding our wallets. Taxpayers, beware.

What the hey!! We have to get these insurance people out of Washington. All they are doing is stuffing money in everyone's back pocket!! WE DON'T NEED A CO-OP THAT THE INSURANCE COMPANY'S RUN, WE NEED A SINGLE PAYER PLAN, PERIOD. YOU DON'T INVITE THE ENEMY IN WHEN YOU ARE DISCUSSING STRATEGY!! GET THE JOB OF HEALTH CARE FOR ALL DONE! WE DON'T NEED THE BLUE DOGS OR THE SOUTHERN REPUBLICANS, BRING IT TO A VOTE AND LET THE VOTERS TAKE THEM OUT NEXT ELECTION! whiteagle38

With the Republican smear-the-public-option campaign---designed by Wingnut mouth-breather Frank Luntz---in full swing, here's a handy, crystal-clear rebuttal you can print out and leave on windshields and utility poles (and even in emergency rooms!) across America:

5 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT PRESIDENT OBAMA'S PUBLIC HEALTH INSURANCE OPTION

1. Choice, choice, choice. If the public health insurance option passes, Americans will be able to choose between their current insurance and a high-quality, government-run plan similar to Medicare. If you like your current care, you can keep it. If you don't—or don't have any—you can get the public insurance plan.

2. It will be high-quality coverage with a choice of doctors. Government-run plans have a track record of innovating to improve quality, because they're not just focused on short-term profits. And if you choose the public plan, you'll still get to choose your doctor and hospital.

3. We'll all save a bunch of money. The public health insurance option won't have to spend money on things like CEO bonuses, shareholder dividends, or excessive advertising, so it'll cost a lot less. Plus, the private plans will have to lower their rates and provide better value to compete, so people who keep their current insurance will save, too.

4. It will always be there for you and your family. A for-profit insurer can close, move out of the area, or just kick you off their insurance rolls. The public health insurance option will always be available to provide you with the health security you need.

5. And it's a key part of universal health care. No longer will sick people or folks in rural communities, or low-income Americans be forced to go without coverage. The public health insurance plan will be available and accessible to everyone. And for those struggling to make ends meet, the premiums will be subsidized by the government.

It might not hurt to give your senators a jingle and ask 'em which they embrace more: campaign contributions from the big insurance lobby and Frank Luntz's Republican propaganda, or historic legislation that will enhance their legacy and make them heroes among their constituents for improving the health and well-being of all Americans. Be patient---sadly, it could take some of 'em a while to decide.

Posted by: Kung Fu Panda | July 28, 2009 2:27 PM

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I'm sick of listening to Republicans lie about our healthcare system in Canada.

Our system is excellent, NO rationing like in USA, no one sells their house if they get cancer, you don't lose your life savings if you get sick, companies don't go broke paying for employees health care. Our country is prosperous, citizens are happy, and we have lots and lots of millionaires and billionaires as well, and they are also quite happy to pay their taxes in exchange for healthcare for everyone.

All Republican elected officials should opt out of their tax payer funded federal health insurance coverage (like Wingnutty Texas Gov Rick Perry who wants to secede from health care reform) if they are so against "socialized medicine". After all, we don't want the government come in between them and their doctors, do we? Let them put their words into action for once and prove just how true to their words they really are.

What's that?

Not one of the Repub blowhards stepped forward to give up their tax payer funded federal health insurance?

Didn't think it would happen. Lily-livered-bigmouth Repulican liars who don't give a damn about poor and middle-class Americans. What's good for them should also be good for the rest of the country, especially since it is taxpayer money that pays for it all. So, all Americans should have the same coverage as their elected officials have seen fit to provide for themselves from the public coffers. What's fair is fair.

PS: Public option, Public option, Public option!!! Now more than ever. And there are no substitutes! No Coops. No triggers. No alternatives. There are no substitutes!

Posted by: not bruce | July 29, 2009 8:35 PM

You are preaching to the choir...you need to send this to our Republican no-pers.

Since the Saint Ronnie Raygun Revolution, the GOP hasn't been about governance, it's been about transferring as much public wealth as possible to a few private hands. They've succeeded beyond their wildest dreams in making a handful of people exceedingly wealthy, but they've also shown the American people that their politcal philosophy is utterly bankrupt. And 2006 and 2008 proved that the American people get that.

On healthcare, Democrats shouldn't enable a Republican party that has been so abjectly repudiated by the American people, a Republican party that has proven time and time again that it is utterly incapable of governing because it has absolutely no interest in governing - screw them.

As our rights are infringed upon by our own government, Americans and those here legally will never benefit from a decent health care plan, owing to the abomination called ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION. By an Act in United States Congress passed in 1986, Hospital and ambulance services must provide care to anyone needing emergency treatment in spite of citizenship, legal status or capacity to pay. The predicament being that 20 million plus illegal immigrant families are using this law, for even minor ailments such as the common cold. Why should foreign nationals sign up for health care or anything, when they can get Taxpayers to pay for it all..?
But this is not just an American dilemma, as it has been forcibly imposed on subjects of the European Union. This is causing a major derailment in the EU, because both legal and illegal entrants are stealing away the single payer medical care providers, to the citizens who have paid into the system from the time they first started work.

A decent controlled governmental health care benefit, can—NEVER--be established, when a startling report disclosed the details of a cloaked meeting between nationwide businesses and open-borders groups working under the radical cover of the IMMIGRATIONWORKSUSA a lobbying group. The secret Capitol Hill National Summit" took place last month and revealed the sinister intention behind the lobbying entities efforts.
Tamar Jacoby, who runs ImmigrationWorksUSA, kicked off the conference by stating the true aspiration of the coalition. The basic target is to promote THE FREE FLOW OF LABOR INTO THE USA, with—AS ALWAYS-- the taxpayer being the beneficiary for corporate welfare. They want expedited cheap labor, where no American worker—NEED APPLY!

WE MUST ACT NOW, OR IT WILL BE TOO LATE! These special interest lobbyists are well furnished with money from corporate America. We must empower mandated E-Verify as part of the Save Act, where everybody is screened in the workplace. Call your lawmaker TODAY! at 202-224-3121 I Want a health care system--even government run. BUT IT"S SURE TO FAIL, IF TAXES ARE BEING EXTORTED TO PAY FOR FREE HEALTH CARE FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS?

Millions of phone calls from angry Americans are jamming the Washington Switchboards. It is making these pandering politicians to corporate welfare, very anxious. Support for the bi-partisan E-VERIFY PART OF THE SAVE Act, which will expand E-Verify and protect American Workers! We must focus on the monolithic problem in terminating illegal immigrants-and the jobs that attract illegal aliens. WE WILL ALWAYS BE PAYING FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS, UNLESS WE DO SOMETHING NOW? Many GOP members are against a Path to citizenship for lawbreakers, so we mostly need the phones ringing in the ears of Democrats, who see the millions of illegal aliens as a positive voting block. WE MUST STOP IT NOW OF SUFFER FROM IRREVERSIBLE POPULATION GROWTH.

DEMAND NO AMNESTY! NO FAMILY UNIFICATION KNOWN AS CHAIN MIGRATION! BUILD THE ORIGINAL FENCE! NO MORE HEALTH CARE OR ANY OTHER KIND OF BENEFITS FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS. CLOSE THE BORDER AND STATION THE NATIONAL GUARD. $2.5 TRILLION DOLLARS, JUST IN RETIREMENT BENEFITS? Learn uncorrupted facts at NUMBERSUSA.

The Obama-nuts want politicians to dictate their health decisions--and bankrupt the country in the process. Unbelievable......

"NO MORE HEALTH CARE OR ANY OTHER KIND OF BENEFITS FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS."

Yes, let them and their children die at the door to rthe emergency room! That's what America is all about!

The Obama-nuts want politicians to dictate their health decisions--and bankrupt the country in the process. Unbelievable......

Posted by: Not Teresa | July 30, 2009 12:11 AM

And the Republicans want the insurance companies dictating their health decisions, bankrupting the country and leaving many people without decent care at the same time. Unfortunately that's all too believable from a party that doesn't care about average americans at all, only about the 1% at the top of the economic ladder.

Mel is right.
The current system will break the US economy sooner than later, plus shovel millions more families into personal bankruptcy.
It's why we need strong reform now. It can certainly be argued, however, that the current proposals are short on cost containment.

If this healthcare plan is so great then how come the people in the White House, Senate, Congress and House of Representatives will be exempt from using it..
They should do a trial run and see if it works for them first before trying to force it on the American people..