After a long fight we got a healthcare bill that passed and became law. While this infuriated those on the right, it also disappointed many of us here on the left who wanted single-payer, or at least something close. What all of us got was something that was very complicated, with some of it taking effect soon and other changes to come in following years. With that in mind no matter how we feel about it we will need to know what happens when and how we will be effected.
After calling in to Diane G's Blog Talk Radio program last Friday evening, which dealt with 9/11 conspiracy hypotheses, I decided to revive my own show for a special continuing discussion on the subject since I wasn't able to fully discuss my own interpretation of that day's events. The show will last two hours and will air at eight o'clock Eastern Daylight Time this coming Friday.
I'll be debunking some of the wilder beliefs about what actually happened on September 11, 2001 and offering my own hypothesis about the government's refusal to take action in the months leading up to the attacks. (I want the truth to come out too, but I think the search for it has veered way off course and taken us places that can only lead to continued frustration.) I'll also be taking calls so people can discuss the Democrats' Republican health insurance bill and what the consequences are both for Americans and for the Democrats in November. And if time allows, the final portion of the show will deal with this week's latest mining disaster, how deregulation helped it happen, and what must be done to ensure that something like this doesn't happen again.
You know, every now and then the time comes around that you see things the way they are. We thought we had fought for and won a great victory in the last two elections. We thought we had given an inspiring Progressive new President a huge mandate and the Congress he needed to bring about real change in this country. Now, we realize we are being stabbed in the back and that many of the Democrats in office are no better than the Republican crooks that preceded them. It is time that these folks are exposed for what they are and we realize who really controls our government.
(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.
As if the ideas being floated in the Senate were not bad enough, it appears as if even the "exchange" that they have adopted as one of their main components of healthcare reform will have an "escape clause" for Insurance companies. That is because Senators have let it be known that they would allow Insurance companies to operate outside of the "exchanges". This threatens to leave us right back where we started if the legislation that the Senate is considering right now is passed and signed.
You know how we hear from Republicans and some Democrats how we cannot have real healthcare refomr because of the devestating effect on small business?? How small businesses all over the country will just wither and die?? As usual these folks do not know what their talking about. What really is crushing small business is completely different than they try to convince their minions.
Although the Public Option has been written off time and time again for the sake of "bi-partisanship" and to give comfort to Corporate Democrats, Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa is still confident that a Healthcare bill will pass by Christmas and that indeed, it will have a public option that will compete with private insurance and drive down costs.
Despite the consensus in the media that the junk reforms of Max Baucus' Senate Finance Committee are written in stone to become law, many believe they do not go far enough. In the House, there is still plenty of support for a robust public option. They seem to realize mandating coverage without a vehicle to drive down costs is political suicide for our party. For her part, Speaker Pelosi is still pitching the public option.
Man, leave it to the health insurance companies. They are getting a sweet deal in the Senate Finance Committee. The legislation there amounts to nothing more than corporate welfare on the backs of working Americans for the health insurance companies. This should please them right?? I mean, when someone mandates millions of new costumers for you without making you compete honestly with a public option for their business that is a good thing right??
The legislation the Senate Finance Committee will vote on next week relies heavily on Co-ops to help cover the uninsured. It discards a robust public option, or any public option completely. It also mandates that uninsured Americans must buy insurance with subsidies to help them do it. Senators Baucus and Conrad are intent on including this model into law and voting against any more Progressives ideas such as a Public Option and single-payer.
One of the main reasons we need healthcare reform is a lack of competition among insurance providers right now. Conservatives would have you to believe that a public option would raise costs and squash competition but actually just the opposite is true. Right now, in the health insurance industry costs are already sky-high and through lack of competition likely will remain that way without a public option.
The fight for healthcare has been predictably difficult. Unfortunately the cold feet of some Corporate Democrats has also been predictable. What this country really needs is single-payer but Corporate control of Washington has all but killed that. Now, the Washington Post is reporting that a deal on the Healthcare Bill may be imminent.
As one of the almost 50 million Americans that does not have health insurance I have been following the fight for healthcare very closely. Lately, with even a Democratic President and a Democratic Congress seeming to take single-payer off the table, I have watched with much more disgust than hope. Now, it seems as if even a public option is at risk.
One of the quotes I remember most from the Presidential primary last year was this, "We simply cannot replace Corporate Republicans with Corporate Democrats and expect any kind of real change". John Edwards told us that at a rally in Columbus, Kentucky. Now, no matter your view of him, and no matter how unwise his personal decisions have been this particular gem of wisdom continues to ring true. Nowhere is that better demonstrated than the "centrist" New Democrat and Blue Dog coalitions corporate reactions to the healthcare debate.
