Sam Stein writes that there’s a new public option “compromise” being considered.
Senate Democrats have begun discussions on a compromise approach to health care reform that would establish a robust, national public option for insurance coverage but give individual states the right to opt out of the program.
Given a choice between this and a watered-down public option (or no public option at all), I take this. Yes, a handful of the most regressive red states will opt out. And maybe when the citizens of those states realize what a dumb move that was, they’ll kick the troglodytes out of office. I think all of the states will come in eventually. And until “eventually” happens the rest of us won’t be held back by the stubborn ignorance of a minority.
I like this idea much better than another idea being floated, which is to allow each state to create its own public option. Please. This would just kick the “government run health care death panels they want to kill your Grandma” debate to the state legislatures, which tend to be even dumber and more right-wing than the U.S. Congress. We’d spend years fighting this same fight state by state. Bad, bad idea.
Meanwhile, you might have heard Rachel Maddow make this announcement last night —
Rachel says,
Two major powerbrokers on the left…are encouraging a Senate strategy in which the leadership would revoke chairmanships and other leadership positions from any Democrat who sides with a Republican filibuster to block a vote on health reform.
I really, really like that idea, too.
The most encouraging thing I’ve heard today is from Karl Rove, who has declared the GOP is winning the health care debate. If the once-mighty Turd Blossom has taken the trouble to declare the GOP to be “winning,” it’s a good sign they’re losing.
Congressional Budget Office (CBO) score’s the baucus plan at $829 Billion over a 10 year period, that is paid for. The CBO also states that it will lower the deficit by $80 Billion and it would be much lower if there was a public option.Criminally corrupt politicians are the reason the U.S. is ranked near the bottom of every catagory when ranked next to other modern, industrialized nations. Time for publically funded elections. lieberman $12.6M, mcconnell $7.8M, baucus $7.7M, cornyn $6.7M, kyl $5.6M, grassley $5.4M, ensign $5.2M, conrad $5.1M, cantor $4.9M, nelson $4.9M, burr $4.8M, boehner $4.4M, hatch $4.4M, lincoln $4.1M, vitter $3.9M, carper $3.6M were paid by the Medical Industrial Complex to kill Health Care Reform. (Source: OpenSecrets.org, Aug. 09)Follow the Money: LinkCall Congress and demand, Single-Payer Health Care for All!(Toll Free # House and Senate)1-866-338-1015 _____ 1-866-220-00441-800-473-6711 _____ 1-866-311-3405Sign Single-Payer Petitions: Link LinkDon’t let the Medical Industrial Complex steal your Health Care from you and your family by donating huge sums of money to Crooked Politicians in order to maintain the Status Quo. Keep up the good fight.SEMPER FI!
If you think for one second that any sort of “public option” is going to increase access to health care, you are sadly, profoundly mistaken.
All of you white-bread, middle-class baby boomers all think that the government is going to make it all better. You couldn’t be more wrong. And you are all going to find out the hard way.
Thanks for providing such an original, well-thought out and reasoned argument, Eric. I especially appreciate the links to documentation that support your views.
Yeah, when Karl “Baghdad Bob” Rove says it, you pretty much know the opposite is true.
Right, “Eric”, you maroon. Gubmint never wurks. Duh, Ronald Reagan sed it, you beleeves it, and that’s the end of it.
That must explain why all the seniors hate their government-run Medicare so much, because it’s doing such a lousy job of providing them access to health care.
Eric gets around, always leaving a trail of unsupported and deliberately rancorous comments. Oh, and the lovely ideations of who we all are. I wonder if Wonder bread still exists. I wonder how many of us are lucky enough to feel securely “middle class” these days. In fact, many of us are holding on by our (bitten) fingernails.
The red-state opt-out is a good one, Maha. I’d like to see it implemented, as well as the proposal to take a hard line with Democratic antis. Are we seeing a little uptick in the health care debate? Feels that way.
What Matt H said about Medicare. What PW said about who we all are(n’t).
Turd Boy + “Eric Blair” = even more evidence the Right misunderstands pretty much everything in the universe. Ow, reality is harrrrrd!
(Link to Stein’s article not working, you’ve got extra text in front of the http or something.)
I like the opt-out option as well. Especially since I live in California and not one of the states where people are ready to take up arms to defend their lack of health insurance.
Also, I hope “Eric Blair” is not a handle that was chosen in some kind of misguided tribute to George Orwell. Arguing against the public option in George Orwell’s name would be a very odd thing indeed, considering that Orwell was a socialist.
well with go0vernor like rick perry we down here in texas want get any thing from heath care reform. and if im not mistaken texas has the most uninsured people per population than anybody. plus we have alot immigrants from mexico so if their children dont recieve health they will pass it on to the next child if they have anything contagious.
“new public option “compromise†being considered.”
I’m still not clear, who are we compromising with? The publicants will never vote for any healthcare bill, don’t matter what it is, if it has a chance in hell at working (on some level) they will vote nay. Haven’t they made that painfully obvious? So who are the democrats compromising with, themselves or the insurance lobby? I quess it is a good idea but whose votes will it garner? The finance committee publicants insisted the CBO score the Bauchus bill before a committee vote, the CBO score + 81 billion to the good over 10 years, then Grassley is on the teevee today saying he can’t support it cause it leaves 25 million uninsured. 12 million of which are undocumented workers so now the publicants want to cover the illegal’s? Pass a fucking bill already.
Both ideas sound great, especially given the political landscape. About time the Dems played smart politics. Let’s see how these play out…
Yes, let them opt out. That should be great. Imagine running for reelection on the stance that our state is better than their state because their citizens pay less for health care and live longer, healthier lives.
“Yeah! VOTE FOR ME! I kept you in the health care Dark Ages. We’ll all die as real ‘Murkins, not like those godless, heathen, socialists in the neighboring states who live 10 years longer!” Sounds like a winner to me. 🙂
I think maybe the Obama people SHOULD have let states opt out of the stimulus package. That might also have hastened the demise of the troglodyte right-wingers. “How come the blue states have construction jobs, while we’re still ‘working’ to make a living trying to make meth out of empty beer cans, bathroom soap scum, Mom’s tobacco spittle, and the wrappers off of McDonalds dollar meals?”
Like jughead jack, I would be screwed. I bet the nearest blue state would be a good 1,500 miles away. Ack.
Now that I’m on the computer at home, I can see the YouTube image for this post. Heh… Devo-head Harry! Just when I thought he couldn’t look any dorkier.
joanr16 really dont you think we should all have health care ? jeez ihave a lot of mexican niece and nefews now and i love them very much
well i cant type good dammit
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My apologies to jugheadjack and millions of others in the state that gave us Molly Ivins, but there’s another point — if we really are forced to enact the opt-out — that makes the good part of it more appealing yet.
You can sort of divide the country into the Stupid States and the Less Stupid States. I understand you can even get two-color maps showing which are which. Again, apologies to jhj and MI, but these are the statistical realities.
If you were insuring some big risk pool, which would you rather insure: relatively educated, rational, prosperous and healthy people, or the opposite? Duh.
We — assuming hopefully that my beloved very large blue state will opt in, which is not a safe assumption — will get cheaper public-option rates than if the reds were included. Nice deal.
When they see just how badly they have screwed themselves, some of them will manage to opt in, which will raise our insurance rates. We, being liberals, will be happy to put up with this.
(Since the troll appears to be a drive-by drooler, I suppose there’s no chance that that last bit will be taken as sarcasm.)
Oh, I wish I had today off from work. I’d watch FOX all day just to watch their little heads explode at the news that our Kenyan-born, Muslim, Fascist, Socialist, Communist President won the Nobel Peace Prize ! HA!!!!!
This sounds like it might just work. This way, the Dems in Congress can make it the way they wanted to. No more worries about pushing the right too hard. I don’t think my state would opt out , though I am not sure what it will be doing by 2013. I wish it would be in effect sooner. I will add, it is a lot easier to move to another state than it is to move to another country. I still don’t think the right will vote for it, but it will be harder to complain about it if it is something they have an option on.
..and as for the dems that aren’t working for the people.. that’s right! Take away their leadership roles. They are not leaders.
Hey gulag… hope you’re enjoying the new job!
Yeah… jeez, my head almost exploded this morning. The end-of-days, “Obama = Antichrist” crowd is going to go nuts.
I also like the “opt out” approach, as it puts the verminous conservatives under a spotlight and forces them to vote up or down, on a cheaper, more affordable and accessible health care option for their constituents. Instead of just lobbing rhetorical grenades about “socialism” and “government takeovers”, they have to face their constituents and tell them why they shouldn’t have access to an affordable option to paying for a rich insurance CEO’s mansion in Palm Springs. Between this strategy and opening Medicare to anyone over 50 years of age, the Dems could put the GOP out of business!.
“the leadership would revoke chairmanships and other leadership positions from any Democrat who sides with a Republican filibuster to block a vote on health reform.”
So it’s all party ideaology now. Individual thinking not allowed. Response to wishes in individual districts not allowed. Party leadership decides, hoipolloi follows. What the people want, or want an individual representative believes does not matter. If the representative receives letters from constituents running 100:1 against the party leadership’s dictates, he must go against the expressed wishes of his constituents and follow party leadership.
Whatever form of government that is, it is not democracy.
“So it’s all party ideaology now. Individual thinking not allowed. Response to wishes in individual districts not allowed. Party leadership decides, hoipolloi follows…”
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Oh, stop concern trolling. You know perfectly well that controlling committee memberships and chairmanships is SOP for the Congressional Republicans–it’s just the Dems who made the mistake of abandoning it back in the 1970s. They shouldn’t just return to it for this, but for good. It would give them the voting discipline they need to actually make a mark in government.
Bill, those “leaders” should be out there explaining to their citizens why there is need for a public option, not taking money from the insurance and pharmacies for their next race.
This compromise really is bringing out everyone’s inner Glibertarian – “I live in a blue state, so IGMFU to the red state progressives; we don’t need to subsidize their lifestyle choice of living in states that vote for Republicans.”
I live in Utah, as my family has for over a century, and I’m not thrilled with this line of thinking.
Xecky,
None of us want to leave you or your other people from Utah out. But this will leave it in the hands of those who are most representative of the people of that state. If our best chance as the majority of the nation of getting a public option is is to do the opt-out, I’m very sorry, but why should the majority of states be held back by states with very small percentages of the population, as it’s shaping up? If you don’t like their decision on declining the public option for your state, vote them out. That’s the kind of politics that’s called for here.
Sorry. But call, e-mail, and otherwise harass your representatives to prevent it from happening.
That’s the kind of politics that’s called for here. Sorry.
Still not convinced that maha’s post and your comment are anything other than false dilemma followed by capitulation, rationalized with blame-the-victim.
Still, I understand. Omelette, eggs, collateral damage, etc.
I like the idea of Republican governors taking a public stand against a benefit that most of the rest of the country is getting. Remember what a political winner it was when they tried to turn down the stimulus money.