Ed Show: Howard Dean - 'Dems Will Lose Majority If Don't Pass Health Reform That Works'

[Hissyspit]

Run time: 04:41 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5valbNrapc   Posted on YouTube: December 01, 2009 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: December 02, 2009 By DU Member: Hissyspit Views on DU: 525

 
MSNBC The Ed Show w/ ED SCHULTZ - 1 Dec. 2009: Howard Dean Says Dems. Will Lose Majority if They Don't Pass Health Care Reform That Works.

SCHULTZ: "I've had a lot of media poeple tell me that the battle's over. I don't believe that. But I'm cheering the fact that you're coming out saying, and you said this to Yale, the students over there, that if we don't have a public option, this isn't reform. Thank you, Dr. Dean."

DEAN: "It's true. There's not much health insurance reform in this bill; maybe at one time there was. When we did this 15 years ago in Vermont, we told the insurance companies not only did they have to take everybody, but they couldn't charge the most expensive patients more than 20 percent above what they charged the cheapest patients. So, that really makes the insurance affordable. They're requiring insurance companies to take everybody in the House and the Senate bill, but they're charging them a minimum of twice as much, and sometimes three or four times as much based on age. That's not really insurance reform.

And so people keep saying, well, if we have the public option, there's still insurance reform. You can still insure a whole lot more people.

Not so. If the system is out of control, and there's no cost controls, the system isn't going to work, and the Republicans are partly right. It will bankrupt the systems. So we don't want that. We want a public option. Give us the choice. We'll reform the health care system, just give consumers real choice."

[madfloridian]

1. Thanks for getting that video up. Missed the show.

Recommended.

:hi:

[jtrockville]

2. I guess I'm somewhat conservative on this issue.

I think the government should stay out of the insurance industry's business. The insurance industry should be allowed deny care all they want, and exclude people based on whatever criteria they choose (pre-existing conditions, age, weight, gender, etc.) The insurance industry should be free to do whatever it takes to make a profit off our illness.

But we should have a choice. We should be able to choose whether we want to feed the profits of this industry, or get health care from a government agency whose purpose is to provide care instead of maximizing profit.