Obama: AARP-ready, but no socialism

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.

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.

A pay for outcome / value payment system, key to the deficit-neutral, might be capable of bringing all groups together.

Supporters of the agreement say it could save the Medicare System more than $100 billion a year and 'improve' care, that means more than $1trillian over a decade, and virtually needs no other resources including tax on the wealthiest. (Please visit http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=820455&catid=391 for detailed infos).

As much as 30 percent of all health-care spending in the U.S. -some $700 billion a year- may be wasted on tests and treatments that do not improve the health of the recipients,” Thus the remaining $239 billions over a decade do not matter.
Dr. Armadio at Mayo clinic says, "If we got rid of that stuff, we save a third of all that we spend and that is 2.5 trillion dollars on health care. A third of that and that is 700 billion dollars a year. That covers a lot of uninsured people."

1. There is no need for infighting and class conflict.

2. It can satisfy revenue-neutral raised by the Republicans.

3. It is able to resolve the regional disparity.

4. It may bring the private insurers to competition, innovation.

5. The focus on 'outcome' over volume can make the practitioners more accurate and creative based on IT SYSTEM and evidence, while eliminating the additional, unnecessary care that is increasing patients' pains, frustrations, and possible side-effects.

6. It undoubtedly allows for massive medical job creation.

7. The desperate people will get back American dream.

THANK YOU !

Republican Congressman who oppose universal health insurance should immediately relinquish their federal health insurance. After all, these members of Congress have long enjoyed taxpayer-subsidized health insurance, a privilege that they apparently believe tens of millions of working, uninsured Americans and their families don't deserve.

If Republicans don't think being uninsured is a big deal, then they should go right ahead and try it out. And if they really believe a public plan is such a bad option, maybe they can persuade their parents to give up Medicare too.

WaPo/ABC poll:

54% of Americans support a government run option paid for by taxes on the rich (the very same rich people whom the BushCo Republicans gave tax cuts to the last eight years while everyone else was left to drown in debt).
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/polls/postpoll_072009.html

That's a damning statistic and indictment against any claim that the Republican party is a national party. They only act in the narrow interests of their own small, local electorate, never what's in the best interests of the national party.

And the interests of the national party and the interests of those rigid, ideologue, conservative Republicans are opposed to each other.

The only Republicans left are extremists in extremely Republican states (excepting perhaps Maine) and their extremely Republican, conservative electorate doesn't line up with the American electorate.

The delays on reform in the House and Senate are a clear advantage for the president. It allows him to sell his agenda and compromise in a way that hobbles GOP arguments against reform.

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

Study after study and analysis after analysis have shown that no, we will NOT be able to keep the health care we want. The various provisions will force us to move into a plan, or employers will stop offering plans.

I wish someone would call Obama on this lie.

Also -- if all members of Congress were forced to be in the same program we will be -- if they had to abide by the same rules, and not their golden plans -- would they?

I think there'd be a plan in place a lot more quickly if COngress had to be part of it. Or else they'd leave it alone.

101,000 Americans die UNNECESSARILY each year because of lack of access to basic medical care that they would get in most other industrialized nations.
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http://www.commonwealthfund.org/Content/Publications/In-the-Literature/2008/Jan/Measuring-the-Health-of-Nations--Updating-an-Earlier-Analysis.aspx

I keep asking my "Canada bashing" kool-aid drinking Wingnut friends to find me just ONE comprehensive poll in Canada showing that Canadians would swap their health care system, warts and all, for ours...Haven't seen any yet.

And believe me, if there were any polls favorable to the Republican cause of denying healthcare to everyone, the Republican minions would be linking to them all day long. Instead, all they have is a handfull of anecdotes that they got from Druggy Limbaugh and Glenn Beck etc.

Study after study and analysis after analysis have shown that no, we will NOT be able to keep the health care we want. The various provisions will force us to move into a plan, or employers will stop offering plans.

I wish someone would call Obama on this lie.

Posted by: Beth | July 28, 2009 2:35 PM

You mean like the Non Partisan CBO?

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/07/27/new-cbo-study-public-health-care-option-wont-dominate-system/

Oops, wait, I don't think that's the kind of study you meant is it?

Obama wil say anything to try to get his rating up.
Like his campaign CHANGE to SOCIALISM, turning into his folly.

How much money did the government of Canada have to spend to bailout their troubled banks !!? Not one red cent !! Can you believe that !!? On top of that, their healthcare system is much better than ours. Theirs doesn't incorporate greed, the way ours does !!
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE AND WHOLE. NOW.

Democrats such as David Axelrod and his amanuensis, Mark Silva, obviously believe the case for ObamaCare is so weak that they are making sure only Obama voices are heard in this (non)debate.

The above article features Obama and Jennie Chin-Hansen of AARP. The article as usual doesn't mention that Chin-Hansen is a contributor to the Democratic Party, so as you can see the article is Democrat-point-of-view only.

If this was a real blog, seeking to present both sides, it could present the following:

Supreme irony: Obama, in 2004, complaining about the Bush administration rushing thousand-page bills through Congress that nobody read.

Senior Dem Congressman John Conyers at the National Press Club, proclaiming he has no intention of reading the ObamaCare Bill.

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that ObamaCare will add $239 billion to the federal defricit over the coming decade (2009-2019).

The CBO also estimates the costs will skyrocket in the years after 2019.

The CBO says that people will lose jobs because of ObamaCare.

The CBO says Obama's cost estimates are a joke.

Uber-Lib NY Times columnist Paul Krugman asked a group of Canadians if they like Canada's version of ObamaCare. To Krugman's shock, all of them said no! (video online)

(All this found in a 5 minute google search, which Swamp reporters are incapable or unwilling to do)

I'm curious to see what happens when GOP senators and reps go home for August recess. Will they be brave enough to hold town hall meetings when they know there's an army of birthers emboldened by that freakshow on Youtube where Castle was shouted down by his own audience?

Obama wil say anything to try to get his rating up.
Like his campaign CHANGE to SOCIALISM, turning into his folly.

Posted by: Inky | July 28, 2009 3:38 PM
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Republican Corporate-Sponsored "Patients United Now" - A Big Insurance Industry Lobbying Group, Funded With GOP Dollars, Is Trying To Kill The National Healthcare Plan For Poor And Middle-Class Americans:

After orchestrating and funding the so-called "Tea Parties" movement, "Americans for Prosperity" — a nationwide front group founded and funded by the right-wing polluter Koch Industries — is launching an ad campaign characterizing President Obama’s effort to reform the health care system as a government take-over that will ration care and care and deny treatments.

"Americans for Prosperity" is notorious for its fake Republican grassroots efforts, funneling millions of dollars into conservative campaigns designed to undermine public initiatives. As Lee Fang put it, “AFP is a professional Republican AstroTurf machine”:

~ They Hosted ‘Drill Baby, Drill’ rallies around the country.

~ They Financed Joe the Plumber’s tour against the Employees’ Free Choice Act and other anti-EFCA rallies.

~ They Started NoStimulus.com, “a grassroots website that we hope will be a focal point for the widespread frustration ordinary Americans feel at the runaway government growth that we see during good economic times and bad.”

Now, they're operating under the name "Patients United Now, Americans for Prosperity", (which is mostly funded by large multinational corporations) and they're masquerading as an organic grassroots movement pretending to be "outraged" over the Presidents health care proposals.

The effort provides cover or ‘grassroots clout’ for conservative politicians and activists to oppose the President’s health care initiative. But this collection of trumped-up charges, outright lies and complete fabrications makes little headway in critiquing the President’s actual proposal." Just like all other peddlers of the “government take-over” critique — Frank Luntz, Conservatives for Patients Rights, Betsy McCaughey, Rick Scott and Sally Pipes — the goal is to define Obama’s proposal in their terms rather than to engage in a debate about health care or offer real solutions to the crisis..
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http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2009/05/27/pun/

Obama's Health Reform in Jeopardy? Don't You Believe it
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It's a Slam Dunk, and Here's Why
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Although it may appear that corporate medicine's opposition is strong enough to kill health care reform, I would argue that Obama's health reform is now a slam dunk inevitability. Not only that, Obama's public health plan will mean the end of the health insurance industry. And, I say good riddance to this bloated evil empire....
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read more here:
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http://jeffreydach.com/2009/06/30/obamas-health-reform-a-slam-dunk-inevitable-by-jeffrey-dach-md.aspx
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Jeffrey Dach MD

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.

I see there is all sorts of lies, distortions and basic bullfeathers from the Loony Left here.
First of all, Canuck, er John E., please look in today's Tribune for a letter from a true Canuck about the hassles and wait he had to go through for hip replacement surgery.
Second, there is rationing in Canada.
Third, choice will not be the option or remain the option over the long haul.
Fourth, as usual, Obimbo is lying. There will be a commission set up to counsel seniors on their options other than surgery, like how best to die.
Fifth, the CBO and other outfits ALL predict costs will continue to rise and budget deficits will skyrocket even more under ObamaCare.
Sixth, most polls show most Americans against government health care
Seventh, Medicare and Medicaid are not working so well and will be in the red in a few short years.
Eighth, more than 100,000 Ameircans do not die a year because they don't have health care.
Ninth, if the Dems want to run health care, all they have to do is call it for a vote. The Dems don;t need GOP votes with the majorities the Dems have in both houses in Congress. So, it it's not passed this week, that would make it the Dems' fault, no?

"Baucus Bailout Bill" is the Republican "Healthcare" Plan aka A Big Givaway To The Healthcare Industrial Complex and Nothing For Average Americans Who Can't Afford Healthcare Coverage.

We all know the 3 Blue Dog Democrats and 3 Republicans (okay, okay, 6 Republicans) on the Senate Finance Committee have floated key provisions of their so-called bipartisan health care bill. We also know the bill they float is a winner for America's health insurance industries and a loser for poor and middle class Americans.

We have all been waiting with baited breath for the Republicans to put forth their health reform bill. The Republicans respond with "well, we did," or "we don't want to," or "we're still putting the final touches on it."

Well, folks, the final touches have been finished and the bill has been found! The Baucus Bailout bill is the Republican Health Care Plan aka A Big Givaway To The Healthcare Industrial Complex, we've all been waiting for. It is NOT the Democrats' bill. It IS the Republicans' bill. Let's hang it around their necks instead of ours.

America needs to know that Republicans are responsible for this bill, and we need to be sure they know. Here's proof:

The Baucus/Republican Bailout:

(1) says large businesses do not have to offer coverage to their workers;

(2) is a giveaway to the insurance companies (gives them millions of new and unwilling customers at whatever price they want to charge);

(3) says there will be no governmental option to keep prices down or offer a safety net (Public Option);

(4) does nothing to lower health care premium costs;

(5) does everything to increase health care premium costs;

(6) says that all Americans have to buy health insurance policies whether they can afford them or not.

Read the above list again. Does that sound like a Democratic bill to you? Does that look like a Democratic bill to you? Of course not. That duck quacking above doesn't look or sound like a duck because it isn't the Democrats bill. It is a REPUBLICAN BILL.

I notice the knuckle-dragging ObamaNuts are so idea-poor and truth-poor that the first responder, "Kung Fu", repeats word for word an article on the "Change Agent" website of May 12th. "Kung Fu" doesn't even credit the person he's lifting his article from.

If the ObamaNuts lie about this, just imagine how much they'll lie about ObamaCare.

If the ObamaNuts lie about this, just imagine how much they'll lie about ObamaCare.

Posted by: Bruce | July 28, 2009 5:37 PM
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Yeah, sort of like the way RNC Brucie here is lying for the Healthcare Industrial Complex and pretending that the bought and paid for by the Healthcare lobby Republican congressman that he supports have anything to offer Americans that isn't a big giveaway to the Healthcare Industrial Complex and a screw job to poor and middle-class Americans who can't afford healthcare insurance coverage.

Brucie - lying is what your heroes W. and Darth did with Iraq, what you're doing is distorting and promoting murder by Healthcare lobby spreadsheet

Barack Obama will never say to your face what he actually plans to do -or achieve- with these huge new government programs. Everything's rolled-out in a trojan horse, and you're not allowed to look inside or ask any questions. Suffice to say, good-faith disclosure is not how this crew operates.

Rather, you get "soaring rhetoric" with styrofoam props to wow the plebes, like the tacky greek columns in Denver. To him, the revolutionary ends justify the Alinskyite means- so the Dear Leader just tells you whatever he needs to.

And the truth is that Obama is out to nationalize health care.. they'll be no private insurance industry left after five years of Obamacare- but of course he's lying about it. And this bill is a P-I-G pig... small wonder then that anyone with a brain that is facing an election next year is running for the hills on this one.

As for the American public, the reality that Obama is not up to the job seems to finally be setting-in; the poll numbers are now headed steadily south- is he already facing his Waterloo on this legislation?

Looks like it from where I'm standing... and it would do the country a lot of good to have this arrogant montebank knocked-down a peg or two at this point, because Obama/Pelosi/Reid are completely out-of-control.

http://reaganiterepublicanresistance.blogspot.com

John D-

There is rationing in the US.. The insurance companies are the ones making the decisions who gets what procedures. Do you enjoy having a corporate accountant who you have never met, who knows nothing about you, and who's only priority is maximizing profits for their company, deciding that you can't get certain care?

Most american have NO choice now. They get what ever insurance their employer chooses, with whatever benefits their employer chooses, associated with whatever providers their employer chooses. If they don't like that, they can do without, since individual coverage plans are far, far more expensive. Do you like having the HR department at your company choosing what doctors you can see based on what saves the company the most money? Your employer can change your coverage next time that their contract comes up, and suddenly your family doctor isn't part of the plan's provider network. You'll have had no choice at all in that decision.

Isn't telling people what their options are a good thing, including hospice care for those who are beyond the point of revovery? Do you want our seniors denied that information? Do you try to find out what your options are when you have a medical issue, or do you strive to keep yourself as uniformed as possible?

Looks like it from where I'm standing... and it would do the country a lot of good to have this arrogant montebank knocked-down a peg or two at this point, because Obama/Pelosi/Reid are completely out-of-control.http://reaganiterepublicanresistance.blogspot.com

Posted by: Reaganite Republican | July 28, 2009 6:22 PM
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Anybody here ever go to this nutjobs (see above) web site?

Don't bother, unless you want to hear racist anti-Obama rants and birther conspiracies presented as "facts".

And the Wingnuts wonder why they can't win elections anymore?........Sheeeeze!

Ask yourself this:

If your employer announced that you were going to be laid off tomorrow because of the economy, and that if you wanted to continue your insurance coverage by COBRA, it would cost of $915 a month (the average cost), how long would you be able to keep yourself and your family covered? Nationally, COBRA coverage costs around 83% of the average unemployment benefit....and that's just fine with the angry old rich white guys who make up the Republican party, but the rest of us here in the real world can't afford it.
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http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09010/940941-28.stm

The insurance crisis could be your problem, tomorrow, through no fault of your own, as it has for millions of hard working americans in the last few months.

Blue Collar (Comedy?),

If my employer was to pull the plug on my health insurance, I would say give me the cash in return (since he was already paying for it) or seek employment elsewhere. I know MY market value and currently generous health insurance is part of it.

Have marketable skills and provide value to your employer and you will never have to worry about this. Becasue if one employer dumps you, there will be others begginf for your sevices.

We have already seen over 20,000 medical sales jobs lost to the specter of Obamacare. Join our discussion regarding this topic at http://www.gorillamedicalsales.com/blog

Mr. Reality in health care today, I have never had a procedure denied due to the insurance company. Never. Not saying it doesn't happen because it has and it does.

You Lefties think that just because conservatives do not like the Dem version of health care that we are in some way in love with insurance compan ies. Not the case. I do prefer the insurance companies over the government, they do a better job than the government ever could and with less corruption and waste than ther would be under govt. plan. Why do you folks, who most probably live and around Illinois, somehow think the government can do a better job than business? Do you not see the corruption and waste in this state?

I really, really, really hate to tell this to you this, but you lefties just can't figure this out...you have all three branches of government in your (D) pocket. Don't blame this on the (R's) on this one...it's the American people that don't want this socialized b.s. Go figure that one out Don Fitzpatrick.

Paulo

"We have all been waiting with baited breath . . ."

Posted by: bobbyjoe | July 28, 2009 5:09 PM

Spit out those worms and minnows, bobbyjoe!

Is Terry really deluded enough to believe, in this day and age, that he never hyas to worry about unemployment?

Terry, I hate to break i too you biddy, but your corporation will cut you, and anyone else, loose in a heartbeat if it helps there bottom line, or if it helps your supervisor to meet his target numbers so that he gets the big bonus.

I will also tell you that there are millions of americans out there who have worked hard, and have strong marketable skills, who cannot get a job. Especially once you are over 50, getting a similar level management job after being laid off is very difficult in the best of economies.

But smug little Terry thinks he is all that and a bag of chips. He thinks that all those unemployed people just aren't as special and precious as he is. He believes he has no risk. He truly is a fool.

I cannot understand why the gubment can't just reform the system through cost effective regulation rather than going to a socialized plan. Tort reform, increased oversight and sanctions for medicare fraud, salaried doctors, etc., etc.
Also this number that the leftists are using of 45-50 million uninsured is bogus. Subtract those that can afford insurance but choose not to get it and non-,reduce that number by half or more.There are ways we can reduce the cost of care without going to eugenics. From what I read many of the demirats that designed this bill look on us as a "squirming mass of maggots". I don't need anyone to "counsel" me on dying, I have myself, family and friends to talk with about those kind of intimate decisions.
I am happy with my health insurance that I have for life through my retirement plan and will fight to keep it
Right now I don't trust anyone and I will personally read anything that is proposed. Lets just hope our elected officials do the same.
Stop obamacare Please.

What's funny is that probably 99.99 percent of the people who post comments in favor of ObamaCare have never even read the 1,000-page health care bill.

You have no real idea what's in it. You're simply regurgitating whatever Obama and Pelosi tells you to think. Or maybe you think every political issue is like a football game between the blue team and the red team, as opposed to something that, if not handled properly, could adversely affect this nation for generations to come.

Of course, it's not as if the media are shedding any light on the issue. For instance, they're still repeating the "47 million uninsured" figure, which is bogus because about 10 million of those people are illegal immigrants. I hardly think the average American taxpayer feels a responsibility to pay for the health care of foreign nationals.

But don't get me wrong -- I'm all for having a calm, rational and (gasp!) bipartisan discussion about improving the health care system. However, that's not what Obama really wants.

Like a sleazy used car salesman, he wants America to sign on the dotted line before we get a chance to look under the hood.

Meanwhile, the poll numbers for both Obama and the health care plan are plummeting faster than the space shuttle after re-entry. I hope Congressional Democrats realize that if they vote for this trillion-dollar boondoggle, the same political anchor will be tied to their legs in 2010 ... and a great many of them will be cleaning out their desks afterward.

Upon Further Review, have you personally read alll 1000 page of the bill, or are you just regurgitating what Rush Limbaugh tells you is in it? (you know, that the government is going to kill your grandmother)

"Upon Further Review", you are every bit the moron, that your moronic post indicates. Your lies and distortions got you the White House, didn't they? So, keep up, with your goofy comments and let America decide on just how goofy, you and your sleazy Republican losers are !! You better get over to Wall Street, or K Street for some more of your goofy posts !! Keep us amused !! You Republicans are a laugh a minute !!
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE AND WHOLE. NOW.

Folks, hate to burst Obama's and Bloomberg's bubbles, but the REAL problem is that we have trial lawyers suing every doctor and pharmaceutical company in sight. Don't blame the insurance companies who, just to make a respectable profit, must then pass the obscene cash awards on to the premium-payers - US! Did you know that there are SIX times as many law schools in this country as medical schools? If this doesn't wake you all up to the problem, nothing will! You ca NOT have health care reform without first having TORT reform. But since the President and Congress are over 80% lawyers, good luck with that!!