Obama let insurance lobbyists write health care reform in IL senate

[OzarkDem]

For those who still don't think Obama's health care reform plan is a boon for private insurance companies at the expense of the uninsured, he has a history of letting private insurance companies have their way in health care reform.

When he was in the IL senate in 2003, he let the private health insurance industry and its lobbyists re-write major health care legislation that was trying to expand coverage to the uninsured.

His uber close ties to businesses and their lobbyists are a troubling part of Obama's past and present. But unlike past efforts to provide universal health coverage, we've reached a tipping point. How can anyone belive that Obama will suddenly shift gears and start working for real reform?

In Illinois, Obama dealt with lobbyists

When Barack Obama and fellow state lawmakers in Illinois tried to expand healthcare coverage in 2003 with the "Health Care Justice Act," they drew fierce opposition from the insurance industry, which saw it as a back-handed attempt to impose a government-run system.

Over the next 15 months, insurers and their lobbyists found a sympathetic ear in Obama, who amended the bill more to their liking partly because of concerns they raised with him and his aides, according to lobbyists, Senate staff, and Obama's remarks on the Senate floor.

...

(under the revised version of the health care bill), universal healthcare became merely a policy goal instead of state policy - the proposed commission, renamed the Adequate Health Care Task Force, was charged only with studying how to expand healthcare access. In the same amendment, Obama also sought to give insurers a voice in how the task force developed its plan.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/09/23/in_illinois_obama_dealt_with_lobbyists/?page=2

Adequate Health Care Task Force? (WTF? That sounds like one of Bush's ridiculous empty shell programs.) Why would anyone trust a candidate with such compromised values to lead the effort for real health care reform?

[anonymous171]

1. Healthcare reform will solve everyone's problems!

[cbayer]

28. Actually, IMO, it's one of the most important issues on the table.

It is a brazillion times more important than most of the garbage that gets discussed here.

[JoFerret]

30. It will be a huge step

What is your problem with universal coverage?

[yourguide]

2. Oh so we should trust the one that promised it 16 years ago

and couldnt close the deal with her husband as president and a dem congress?

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

[OzarkDem]

4. Yes we should

Because she didn't compromise and end up letting the insurance industry write a bill that would have left us in worse shape than before.

And because she came back with an even better plan that they don't like any more than the last one, but she's willing to fight for it and stands a better chance of passing it in a Dem WH with the medical community supporting her.

[yourguide]

10. Are you joking...

Life is about compromise my friend, you cant get your way ALL of the time.

She promised it: massive FAIL

She also promised 300,000 jobs to Buffalo as Senator - they ended up LOSING 49,000

another massive FAIL

she cant do it.

CLINTON FAIL

[OzarkDem]

14. I like John Edwards view of "compromise"

with the insurance and pharma industries.

"I think if you give them a seat at the table, they’ll eat all the food."

[yourguide]

17. It's not about giving THEM a seat at the table...

it's about giving senators and reps a seat at the table. Even HRC admitted she made mistakes and it's why her plan FAILED, however you can't admit it.

[Straight Shooter]

20. Don't confuse giving them a seat at the table with letting the camel get its foot in the tent. n/t

[OzarkDem]

23. Or letting the camel eat all the food

and crap on the table.

[yourguide]

25. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

again, HRC admitted she made mistakes that didnt allow it to get through, why cant you?

[OzarkDem]

22. Health insurance and pharma industries are the only ones

who are opposing it this time around.

And they are the ones Obama let design the health care reform bill in IL. BTW, the public had no say at all. I guess we can expect a repeat if he's elected unless he's had a "come to Jesus" moment on the road to the WH.

[yourguide]

27. Oh stop...why cant you admit she made mistakes

which caused it not to get passed, she admitted it.

[OzarkDem]

33. Here's the difference

Clinton admitted she made a mistake the first time around and corrected it, coming up with a much better plan and means to enact it.

Obama thinks what he did was ok. It wasn't.

[yourguide]

35. She hasnt corrected it, it's 16 years later...

how long has she been in the senate? Nothing has changed.

[OzarkDem]

40. Try reading her health care reform plan

http://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/healthcare/

[yourguide]

41. PLAN...

she's HAD the opportunity to change it, she hasnt - I dont trust her to change it now.

sorry.

[rodeodance]

51. Obama made a specific issue saying they would have a seat at the table.

[PoliticalAmazon]

5. ...and who hasn't brought it up again in 16 years? Doesn't appear to be a priority to her. n/t

[OzarkDem]

7. Your ignorance is showing

Clinton has a very long record of improving access to health care. Do some research.

[PoliticalAmazon]

56. I know Hillary Clinton's history very well. Difference between window-dressing...

...bullshit to fool the more gullible voters and working for REAL change and REAL progress.

[JoFerret]

31. That is ONE issue on which I COMPLETELY trust Clinton

And stop posting pictures designed to ridicule.
It makes you into a total ass.

[yourguide]

34. I dont hear the HRC supporters

crying foul about the crappy and hateful obama sigs out there.

and you shouldnt completely trust clinton on anything...does Bosnia ring a bell?

[msongs]

3. congress (both dems & repubs) is owned by the health/insurance lobby no change coming nt

[OzarkDem]

6. So you don't believe Obama?

When he says he'll get affordable health care for everyone?

[aasleka]

8. Yeah sounds like a perfectly reasonable

way to get more people on board to begin with. Not like how Hillary couldn't pass health care reform with a Democratic Congress because she alienated people from the process.

Look no matter how much we NEED national healthcare or at least a baseline to put us back into competition with other countries, we will NEVER get national healthcare by scaring half the country by trying to force a big government change asap. We need to evolve a plan that works for us, for our system, for our companies, Obama has a better chance of ACTUALLY getting progress achieved than really believing we are going to pass national healthcare in the first year of a Democratic Presidency.

[OzarkDem]

11. Obama's plan would make it worse

By letting the health insurance industry bleed taxpayers dry, thereby killing any support for future reform efforts.
That's the way the health insurance industry wants it.

Clinton has the backing of the medical community that was reluctant to get on board 16 years ago. They had to see the system fail before they were motivated to action.

This time around, there will be far fewer opponents to real health care reform, mostly just the health insurance and pharma industries.

[mcctatas]

9. So is Hillary's foreign policy going to be written by the defense

industry? :shrug:

Clinton's major industry benefactors - donors who gave the $4,600 maximum allowed by law -- include Roger A. Crone, Boeing's president of Network and Space Systems; Stanley Roth, Boeing's Vice President for Asia, International Relations, $4,600; Anne Sullivan, a Raytheon attorney; William Lynn, Raytheon's Senior Vice President for Government Relations; and Michele Kang, Northrop Grumman Vice President for health science solutions.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/10/17/defense-industry-embraces_n_68927.html

[OzarkDem]

12. We're talking about health care reform

stick to the topic

[bluetrain]

13. Obama's "plan" is a disaster.

[Tellurian]

19. But the "believers" believe...

and they believe what they write...well, because they BELIEVE Mr. Obama!

[bluetrain]

26. I don't understand why his supporters refuse to look at the facts. Supposedly, they

support him. So, why do they refuse to have a discussion about his actual plans?

[Tellurian]

39. They won't post any research here because it will get debunked in a hearbeat..

they prefer living in a dream bubble and tearing down the only Dem Candidate we have that can WIN the White House!

http://www.taylormarsh.com/images2/hillaryclinton_wideweb__470x308,02.jpg

[Solon]

15. Neither candidate advocates for a single payer health care plan, and until they do, they are...

blowing smoke up our asses. Both plans suck, for different reasons, Obama's for not being truly universal, and both for allowing private insurance into the process.

[OzarkDem]

18. We're talking about who writes the plan

Clinton's is not written by the insurance industry, it doesn't treat them well.

Obama's was written by them and he has a history of letting them make the calls when he's been in office.

Legislators aren't elected to represent the interests of industries over the interests of the public. We've already had 7+ years of that. If he says he's going to bring "change" this is a poor example.

[Solon]

24. Still doesn't change the fact that neither of them are serious about this issue...

they talk about it as if they care, but in reality, they got excellent insurance for themselves and their families, the rest of us can go to hell. Besides that, neither one of them are going to be able to pass their plans unmolested by Congress. If we were truly serious about practical health care reform in this country, we should stop touting either candidate's plans and try to elect more people into Congress who would vote yes on H.R. 676.

[UALRBSofL]

16. OzarkDem thanks for posting

This is the meat of issues we need to know about Obama. All the other stuff is silly season issues. Again, thanks for posting. :)

[yourguide]

21. I thought you had run off to report that nasty HRC push poll...

to the push poll police, why are you still here?

[JoFerret]

29. Does not surprise me

(if true)

[kevsand]

32. You don't live here.

Thus, you can be forgiven for completely misrepresenting what actually happened here. (Although I'm less forgiving of the way you distorted the article you quoted.)

The choice in Illinois was between something that a majority of the legislature would support, or nothing. Obama took the lead in talking to every legislator and lobbyist, in order to find the common ground. It was because of this, and only because of this, that we got anything at all passed.

He didn't let the insurance companies "write health care reform." He took their concerns and inevitable opposition into account, and moved the legislature further than it had ever gone before, and much further than anyone actually believed to be possible when we started. I find that infinitely preferable to getting absolutely nothing, which is what we got here for decades. Without Obama, we'd still have absolutely nothing in Illinois, not even the possibility of reform.

[OzarkDem]

38. I stand behind my post and the linked article

Read it for yourself.

One doesn't have to live in IL to know that Obama has a bad habit of selling out to health insurance companies.

The changes he made were at their request and in some cases benefited them at the expense of the public.

There's no need to prop up the private health insurance industry at the expense of the public and nor is there a desire to have the habits of bad government exported from IL to DC.

[kevsand]

55. I did read it.

I also was here when it happened. You left out all of the parts of the article that made clear that what Obama did was build consensus and rescue the bill from certain oblivion.

You're right, one doesn't have to live here to know the truth, but you do have to know the facts no matter where you live, and you obviously don't. You have cherry picked bits and pieces of the article to support your bias, and left out everything that shows what really happened.

Your assertion that the insurance lobby wrote the bill is simply flat out wrong, and is not even supported by the article you quote.

If what you want is to wait for perfection in legislative action, then you are doomed to wait forever. Successful grassroots activists and organizers for social change know that you set attainable goals and build on them, take even little victories everywhere you can get them, and keep moving forward. Dilettantes and perfectionists have only their principles to show for it at the end of the day. I'll take real progress, no matter how small, thank you very much.

[OzarkDem]

59. I've lobbied at the state level for health care reform

and I know those attempts to "compromise" do more harm than good. They end up as weak, unenforceable and often unfunded plans with snazzy titles that are often the opposite of what they say. Or as in the case of the IL effort, the substantive parts of universal coverage effort ended up as a "policy goal" allowing them to do lots of "studies".

Once the photo ops are over and reality sets in, people find they got little or nothing and the system continues to fail. When you go back to the statehouse a year or so later, the lawmakers say "we already took care of that".

Passing bad legislation is sometimes worse than doing nothing at all. It gives them an excuse to do nothing more.

[kevsand]

64. You have completely misjudged this one.

This wasn't "bad legislation." It was incredibly good legislation, and better than anything we could have realistically hoped for, given the history of the previous decade. The fact that it wasn't everything we wanted only meant that we had to keep working, not that it was evil or harmful.

Politicians only get away with using partial reform as an excuse to do nothing if you let them. If we allow that, then it is our fault as well as theirs. The job is never really over, and never will be. The only real mistake is to insist on all or nothing solutions, because I can guarantee you from my own personal experience in health care advocacy that you will end up with the nothing part every single time.

The struggle is far from over, especially here in Illinois. But as a direct result of this legislation, the discussion and debate has continued at the highest levels of public discourse, and this has helped to create the environment that encouraged our governor to enact a series of health care proposals that may yet put Illinois at the very forefront of health care reform nationally.

[Vattel]

44. wow

thank you for acually responding in a meaningful way to the post. Maybe there can still be meaningful discourse on DU.

[Condem]

36. Damn, Ozark

I haven't seen your hillbilly shit for a week. Where ya been?

[OzarkDem]

42. Spring plantin' time

[Condem]

46. Ozark

Great photo. Story, please.

[OzarkDem]

48. Ok

I'm on the far right. Ma always said to dress up for plowin'.

[Condem]

49. Fuck, Ozark

I never thought you had a sense of humor. My bad.

[OzarkDem]

60. You're right

I don't kid around as much as I should.

[Condem]

62. Ozark

Keep that shit up. Humor conquers all.

[jackson_dem]

37. Change we can believe in--Obama has never done anything for corporations!

Great post, Ozark. :thumbsup:

[1776Forever]

43. Excuse me if you knew anything you would know that is how it is done in the State Legislatures!

I have followed this extensively in Florida and this is the way it is done in all the States I have seen. Check out the Kasier Healthcare website.

Also Obama says he will have the Federal Healthcare Plan on CSPAN! Do you think Hillary would do that! Did she keep that last one so private that the Dem's who wanted to have a say in it were kept out! YES!!!!!!!! That is a fact!!!!!!

Get it straight!:argh:

[OzarkDem]

57. You'll see Hillary's plan on C-Span

When they hold committee hearings, debate and get it passed.

For now, you can see it in all its minute detail at her web site.

http://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/healthcare/

[rodeodance]

45. Reminds me of how he allowed industry to water down the nuke leaks bill, then ran with the $$

[NJSecularist]

47. Good stuff, Ozark.

Obama's image of a "new kind of politics" is peeling day by day.

[Windy]

53. there are two posts in this theard that tell the truth about Obamas hard fought fight for Illinois

you HRC supporters fail to acknowledge the facts.

And how is Mrs. Clinton going to force everyone to buy healthcare? I believe she stated that she would garnish wages if necessary.....


Gee, that makes sense in this economy!

[depakid]

50. None of the three major Dem candidates offered a responsible health care plan

Obama's is probably the worst of the three, and only Edwards was willing to give lip service to cutting lobbyists out of the equation.

Indeed, Obama has said the opposite- and Hillary, well, I think we know how that one goes.

[merh]

52. How well did hillary do at Walmart in making sure the employees

had the best health care and that women were afforded equal opportunities under the law?

Come on, Walmart is like a mini nation - she had such power and such possibilities before her, how'd she do?

[rodeodance]

54. she on the board before it became a mimi nation. She also pushed to women

in management while on the board.

you are living in the last century. No one is interested in that story anymore--except people who want to slime her here on DU.
do you see it in the media?

[merh]

61. please provide me links to back that up

From all that can be found, she sat silent as the efforts of labor were fought by management - good ole Sam Walton actually bragged about how they defeated the unions.

Oh and you can mean to tell me that the programs she set up on the board were drastically changed so that the federal courts allowed all women employees aggrieved since 1998 forward to join in the class action that is comprised of 1.6 million female employees.

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0021,harkavy,15052,5.html

Yeah, you go on believing in the myths.

[merh]

65. oh yeah, she was on the board as it grew into the mini-nation

why do you think they moved to the that poor little state of arkansas - read that link.

[OzarkDem]

58. Look at her record

She got health care access expanded for children, low income families, cancer patients, etc.

[merh]

63. Links please

I believe she was taking credit for the health care for children when she wasn't entitled to the credit.

In campaign speeches, Clinton describes the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP, as an initiative "I helped to start." Addressing Iowa voters in November, Clinton said, "in 1997, I joined forces with members of Congress and we passed the State Children's Health Insurance Program." Clinton regularly cites the number of children in each state who are covered by the program, and mothers of sick children have appeared at Clinton campaign rallies to thank her.

But the Clinton White House, while supportive of the idea of expanding children's health, fought the first SCHIP effort, spearheaded by Senators Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, and Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah, because of fears that it would derail a bigger budget bill. And several current and former lawmakers and staff said Hillary Clinton had no role in helping to write the congressional legislation, which grew out of a similar program approved in Massachusetts in 1996.

"The White House wasn't for it. We really roughed them up" in trying to get it approved over the Clinton administration's objections, Hatch said in an interview. "She may have done some advocacy over at the White House, but I'm not aware of it."

"I do like her," Hatch said of Hillary Clinton. "We all care about children. But does she deserve credit for SCHIP? No - Teddy does, but she doesn't."

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/03/14/clinton_role_in_health_program_disputed/

And the way she has behaved in this campaign, I see her fighting against it in closed doors, if she couldn't get her health care program no body else should get one either.

[OzarkDem]

66. Orrin Hatch would say that

He's a Republican who has always tried to undercut Hillary in any health care legislation she worked on. Teddy would also he supports Obama. Health care coverage for children was a priority of the Clinton administration, pardon me also if I don't believe Hatch on that one, either.

I recall how, when the House was on the verge of passing the legislation to allow Medicaid coverage for uninsured breast & cervical cancer patients (which Hillary had worked on when Bill was in the WH), Orrin Hatch and the GOP tried to block it, then when that failed, sent the bill to the House and tried to give credit to Rep. Rick Lazio, Hillary's opponent for the senate race in NY.

She also worked on the Patients Bill of Rights, health and prescription coverage for AIDS patients, protecting Medicare and Medicaid, health care benefits for veterans and many others.

http://www.votesmart.org/voting_category.php?can_id=55463

http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:OWfYQc2sTukJ:www.sourcewatch.org/index.php%3Ftitle%3DHillary_Clinton+hillary+clinton+voting+record+health+care&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=20&gl=us

She serves on the Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee where a large part of health care legislation originates in the Senate.

[merh]

67. She is also chair of the

Superfund and Environmental Health Subcommittee

Do you know the jurisdiction of the subcommittee?

Superfund and Brownfields · Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), including recycling, Federal facilities and interstate waste · Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) · Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act (EPCRA) · Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) · Environmental Justice · Risk Assessment

This subcommittee is responsible for investigating toxins and health concerns, has she had a hearing on the Fema toxic trailers yet? Does she care about the health concerns of the fema survivors that have had to live in those toxic cans?

Hell, that subcommittee hasn't met since Oct 07 - and do you know what? The government knew of the concerns about these trailers since late '05 early '06.

Guess she doesn't really put her power where her mouth is, now does she.