Senator Cantwell counters Senator Hatch on a public option

[ProSense]

“Is there any chance – despite the passing of your friend – is there any chance that a bill with a public option is going to pass the United States Senate?,” CNN Chief National Correspondent John King asked Hatch Sunday on State of the Union.

“I really don’t think so,” Hatch bluntly replied.

The Utah Republican noted that health care accounts for one-sixth of the U.S. economy and that the country faces projections of mounting budget deficits in the next decade.

“Our senior citizens are scared to death,” Hatch said.

One of Kennedy's Democratic colleagues, Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington state, suggested on the same program that a public health insurance option was one way to introduce competition into the insurance market.

A public option “is a very key component” to controlling costs, said Cantwell.

Cantwell also said the status quo was unsustainable because of the rate at which health care costs have been increasing.

“Doing nothing and thinking that we’re going to get out of this expense is not really an option,” the Democrat said.

link

Hatch is going to do absolutely nothing to honor Kennedy's legacy. He's busy pushing the RW meme about seniors.

[bertman]

1. Hatch is a right-wing TOOL. Always has been and always will be. What ever made you

think something like Senator Kennedy's death would change him??

[pinto]

2. "Doing nothing and thinking that we’re going to get out of this expense is not really an option"

Precisely. Obama's saying the same.

While details of a final bill are aways away, The Republican option of "No" will bankrupt Medicare as we know it, put employers up against providing increasingly expensive employment based health insurance or dropping it altogether, and pushing the middle class further in hock to private insurers. The under-insured and the uninsured will find their options narrowed to expensive cash up front health care services, emergency room care or no care at all.

I think Dem's are starting to frame health insurance reform more in pocket book / economic terms - since Republicans have largely ignored or slammed the ethical / moral weight in favor of universal access to health care for all Americans.

If they (Repubs) want to play a divisive fiscal scare game, I think Dem's should hit back hard with the basic economic facts of the situation. And that situation applies to Medicare beneficiaries, employers, employees, the middle class, the working poor, the under-insured and the uninsured alike.

They are *all* a piece of the whole and what effects one effects the other and the other and the other.

:kick:

[GivePeaceAchance]

7. GDP is a lot of what they care about and the numbers game is where we can win.

[Joanne98]

3. I knew hatch would screw his friend.

[Cha]

4. hatch is a member of the prig party so

of course he's going to lie his hack head off.

[DJ13]

5. Cantwell should have asked Hatch how he liked dealing with State Farm

after his insurance claim after Katrina destroyed his home was denied because State Farm claimed it was destroyed by flood damage instead of 125 mph winds.

[Sebastian Doyle]

6. Wait.... when did Cantwell change her corporatist loving mind about the public option?

On the surface that would seem to be good news. But given how many DLC'ers have done so lately, why am I afraid they're going to pull some bullshit bait and switch that enables the insurance whores.