A jury-rigged quickie healthcare solution crafted by industry insiders in secret. Swell!

I am so sick of this sort of thing epitomizing the way our government performs on the part of the people. We'll get another quickie piece of crap legislation like the Medicare Drug bill with its "doughnuts" and BAN ON COMPETITIVE BIDDING. They were really looking out for us that time too.

And the oil industry.

Oh...wait...:eyes:

Hand the little people anything insignificant and they'll be happy, right?

more like this please. I snorted my coffee all over my screen.

People think the president should leave the industry out of negotiations, work with unions and doctors and citizens only, then dictate to the industry what they (we) want.

That probably wouldn't work out very well.

Obama's approach is to let the bastards know that he's coming for them, but then say, "OK, what have you got, what can you do?"

It's a way to negotiate, a first step, they have to be at the table.

Of course they'll fight but there is no point in dictating what you can't get.

AND, we don't really have the congressional makeup we need-- still too many DINOs.

We should be at least as critical of congress as we are of the executive branch and administration.

:patriot:

be behind closed doors - shades of '93/'94 - and single payer should not be taken off the table, this starts the debate too far to the right. It's like negotiating tax policy and starting with income tax when over 80% of people pay more in payroll taxes. It starts the debate in the wrong place. The onus is on the president to frame where this debate should start and go.

There's no sense in not having single payer on the table, even if that is not the ultimate solution.

This is THE most liberal congress we've had since 1936, and it's MORE liberal than 1936. The US people are more liberal right now than the president or Congress.

The president was elected to drive this issue and to persuade Congress on it.

The country, on economic issues is not as liberal - overall - as it was then. Many younger people, who came to age post Reagan are more likely to be libertarian on economic issues compared to those of us who came of age in the 1960s and 1970s.

The President did NOT run on single payer - nor did Edwards or Clinton.

The President is trying to work WITH Congress in creating a plan. You can bet his people are involved with all committees that are working on it. This is more likely to end up with passed legislation that the approach the Clintons took of designing themselves and then giving it to Congress.

No one said President Obama ran supporting single payer. He did not.

But it is foolish to take the most liberal option off the table while permitting conservative options to be on the table.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/11/health/policy/11drug.html

...................

Administration officials said private insurers and government programs could also save money by paying for entire episodes of care, rather than for each service separately.

An administration official, speaking in a conference call on Sunday, said, “The savings are crucially dependent on getting health care reform done this year.” The administration insisted that the official not be identified.

Some of the savings could be achieved by voluntary action in the private sector. But most of the savings in Medicare and Medicaid could not be achieved without changes in federal law and regulations.

In the abstract, slowing the growth of health spending is a goal on which consumers and health care providers agree. But experience shows that specific proposals touch off fierce battles among interest groups fighting to expand their share of health care money.

In a relatively rosy forecast, the White House said Sunday that the savings from a more efficient health care system would far exceed the costs of achieving universal health coverage, with federal subsidies for people who could not afford insurance on their own.................

Bankrupted our nation with more CORPORATE WELFARE to insurance companies will leave us without the resources needed for real reform.

We will never be able to achieve affordable comprehensive healthcare until we get rid of the domination of meicine by the insurance companies. We need to apply their 31% "administrative" cut to real care.

http://www.1payer.net /

March in DC May 13

Join the California Nurses and single payer activists from around the country in Washington on May 13. In the morning, Mike Farrell will introduce our TV ads to the press.

At noon, we will march from the Washington Court Hotel a few blocks to the Upper Senate Park,

jury rigging only had to do with fixing the vote of a jury and the term should be jerry rigging. Turns out, I "mis-thought."

(Hey! Why should I take responsiblity for making an out and out mistake if no one else has in the past 40 years?)

Might be jury rigged, might be jerry rigged, depending on the nuance you want.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jury_rig

In other words, the health care, insurance, pharmco and related industries have just conceded that it's not a question as to whether health care reform will happen, but HOW it will happen. They're bleeding politically, and if we want to be good political sharks that get what we want - real reform, now's the time to chew the fuckers to pieces!

If we keep pushing hard, we will get health care reform. The public option is within reach, but only if we keep bugging our Congresscritters and demanding reform.

On the other hand, if we fall for the insurance company's line, health care reform will be stopped at being "voluntary cost-cutting measures."

Gee - the insurance industry all of the sudden offers up two trillion dollars in cost-cutting measures to try to fend us off? I'd interpret that as meaning that the insurance companies were going to fleece us of two trillion dollars in pure profits if we just let them continue with murder by spreadsheet.

Do NOT let them off the hook.

White House comments line: 202-456-1111
Capitol Switchboard for contacting your Congresscritters: 202-224-3121

Alternatively, finding your Congresscritter's phone numbers is pretty easy to do with Google.

I keep losing that important number.

Why not start a separate thread for this please.

http://www.newsday.com/news/printedition/nation/ny-usschu1012748442may09,0,5696009.story


......

"Plan USA" must play by the same rules as private insurers, be run separately from the federal entity overseeing the insurance market, and pay health care providers more than Medicare.- - compromise could cost more and save less, said Karen Davis of The Commonwealth Fund, but would still work.- - The final health-care bill might drop the public plan. Baucus has said he might use the public plan as a bargaining chip for concessions by insurers. Indeed, the prospect of government competition led Ignagni to offer to end higher premiums for women, older people and the ill.............