The Democratic Party has definately found a voice in Alan Grayson. While there are some Democrats in the House that have found their spines, it sure would be nice if they would lend some of that spine to their colleagues in the Senate. One thing about Grayson he seems to have enough backbone to go around.
In America the one option that would have solved the Healthcare crisis was taken off the table almost immediately, single-payer. Now, to add to that failure a new policy paper has emerged that shows that the weaknesses of the public option both in the House and Senate were a huge mistake, and calls for the dreaded "trigger" for a public option.
(I think we all agree these bills are far from perfect. - promoted by RDemocrat)
Robert Reich gave a stunningly accurate assessment of the massive giveaway to Big Insurance and Big Pharma that is the Democrats' health insurance bill, which you can read by joining me below the fold.
According to a post on Pennsylvania blog, House speaker Nancy Pelosi will allow a mere twenty minutes of debate on single-payer, albeit indirectly.
The debate will actually be on an amendment put forth by Anthony Weiner, Democrat of New York's 9th District, which would effectively transform the corporate giveaway that is HR 3200 into something very close to the single-payer form offered by Dennis Kucinich and John Conyers's HR 676. According to David Swanson, the debate on the Weiner amendment is being used as cover for dropping Kucinich's amendment, which would allow states to create their own single-payer health insurance systems.
This is probably our last, best chance to improve what is shaping up to be a disastrously bad bill that will force Americans into buying unaffordable insurance. Click on the House Telephone Directory link, call as many representatives as you can, and demand that they pass the Weiner amendment. This may be our only shot at getting something that will work for all Americans, instead of simply further enriching Big Insurance.
With all the disappointment I feel at the Democratic proposals likely to be written into law in both chambers of Congress in regards to healthcare reform I can at least be glad of one thing. I am not a Republican. That is because while Democrats seem to be offering junk reforms, the Republican plan would resemble the yard of Fred and LaMont Sanford.
Today I saw a video that sums up what the pretend reform bills now being floated by right-wing Democrats really do and why we must see that they do not pass (hats off to FreeSociety for posting it at Docudharma.
Ohio Representative Dennis Kucinich weighed in on the gutted legislation now being considered. Here's a video clip from The Ed Show that's worth watching (courtesy of tahoebasha3, obtained it from the RAW Story link).
It's imperative that we on the left kill this shoddy pretense at reform. If we don't, genuine reform will be sent to the bench for another generation. You can look up contact information for your representatives in the House at this location. To find contact information for your senator, go here. (Of course, senators don't often respond to letters and e-mails, so here's the Senate phone list.)
One of the burning questions in the debate on Universal Healthcare is whether the Congress has the right to impose a mandate on the American public to buy health insurance. The argument is that without a mandate to grow the risk pool as large as possible, costs cannot come down. The White House today weighed in and said that Congress indeed could force mandates on the American people to buy insurance.
Posted on the KOS It is said one should not ask how sausage or laws are made. Are you concerned about a public option? Let me share with you some insight about health care legislation which may not be good for your health. A lesson in politics. The Kucinich Prediction: Here's what's going to happen ... 1. House will make a big deal about keeping/putting a public option in HR3200 because it competes with insurance companies and will keep insurance rates low. 2. The White House will refer to the President's speech last week where he spoke favorably of the public option. 3. The Senate will kill the competitive public option in favor of non-competitive "co-ops". Senate leaders like Kent Conrad have said the votes to pass a public option were never there in the Senate. 4. The bill will come to a House-Senate Conference Committee without the public option. 5. House Democrats will be told to support the conference report on the legislation to support the President. 6. The bill will pass, not with a "public option" but with a private mandate requiring 30 million uninsured to buy private health insurance (if one doesn't already have it). If you are broke, you may get a subsidy. If you are not broke, you will get a fine if you do not purchase insurance. This legislative sausage will be celebrated as a new breakthrough and will be packaged as health insurance reform. However, the bill may require a Surgeon General's warning label: Your Money or Your Life! The bill that Congress passes may pale in comparison to the bill that millions of Americans will get every month/year for having or not having private health insurance. It will take four years for the new legislation to go into effect. During that time, we are going to build a constituency of millions in support of real health care, a constituency which will be recognized and a cause which is right and just: Health Care as a Civil Right. Join our efforts. Sign the petition. Contribute. Insure a democratic future. Thank you. Dennis Dennis J. Kucinich (OH-10) U.S. House of Representatives
With all the crazed lunatic "tea-baggers" storming townhall meetings to protest "government-run healthcare", one must wonder about their intelligence level as well as their eternal souls, if one believes in such things. The truth is that what is being proposed by Democrats in Congress and President Obama is far from "government-run". A true government-run system is called single-payer and if Democrats had any guts and Republicans weren't so beholden to Big Insurance it would be the system being debated now, and eventually enacted.
In addition to securing a historic victory for states’ single-payer health care, Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today won adoption of four other amendments in HR 3200, America’s Affordable Health Choices Act. The Kucinich amendments: • drive down the cost and increase the access of prescription drugs by ending the pharmaceutical industry’s practice of manipulating physician prescribing habits to pharmaceutical representatives; • ending the insurance industry practice of raising costs or decreasing coverage for Americans during the time Americans are not allowed to switch plans; • require the disclosure of insurance company costs like advertising and marketing costs, as well as executive compensation, that use consumer’s money to increase profits instead of covering care; • improve access to integrative medicine by requiring its consideration for standard coverage and by requiring the identification of integrative medicine providers .
“With the addition of this language, this is a stronger bill that will protect Americans and hold health insurance companies accountable to their customers,” said Kucinich.
I tuned into CSPAN 3 to watch the Live Stream video of the House single payer hearing. When the hearing had to temporarily adjourn for members to cast 3 votes on the House floor CSPAN 3 inserted a video of Betsy McCaughey, PhD. of the conservative Manhattan Institute speaking about the evils of single payer. When CSPAN 3 retuned to the single payer hearing, the hearing was already in progress. What kind of coverage is this? Of course the video of the hearing is up now without Betsy McCaughey, PhD. of the conservative Manhattan Institute. Kind of like it never happened, but it did and I have the video to prove it. It appears to me CSPAN 3 has taken sides on this issue and what they did is very questionable. Dennis Kucinich kind of evened things out when set Dr. David Gratzer, Manhattan Institute Senior Fellow, straight during the hearing and that video is below, if CSPAN 3 doesn't make me take it down. The video of Dennis Kucinich is after the hump.
Some say the Health Care fix is in and from what I can see it is. When Single payer advocates are snubbed and left out of the debate and the greedy insurance companies are allowed to participate, that tells me the fix is in.
Politico President Barack Obama and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) rarely pass up a chance to snub single-payer health care — a term that means a government-run system.
Politico The best way to get half the pie is ask for the whole pie,” said Katie Robbins, assistant national coordinator of Healthcare-Now, which will not endorse the public plan but acknowledges the strategy. “It is like horse trading.” Healthcare-Now doesn’t have a seat at the White House negotiating table with other interest groups, including its chief nemesis, the insurance industry. So single-payer advocates have resolved to make their cause hard to ignore. Advocates say that by making the government the sole administrator of health care, the U.S. could save billions of dollars annually on reduced administrative costs.
