It is becoming clear that we are going to get the reform that was pre-ordained from the getgo

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

All bolding in the following articles is mine for emphasis
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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/23/health/policy/23daschle.html?_r=1&hpw
Daschle Has Ear of White House and Industry
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
Published: August 22, 2009

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Mr. Daschle does not shrink from his leading role in the debate. Speaking at a hospital industry conference last week, for example, he accepted billing as “the architect of President Obama’s health care plan.”
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(Regarding coops)
Senator Kent Conrad, Democrat of North Dakota and one of Mr. Daschle’s closest friends, began pitching the idea at about the same time and has become its champion. Mr. Conrad is among six members of the Senate Finance Committee working on their own compromise proposal that aides say looks increasingly like the Daschle-Dole-Baker report.

As a backstop, their plan provided that if state co-ops or other programs failed to meet certain cost and coverage goals in five years, the president could create a public plan on a fast track without threat of a Senate filibuster.

That feature, known as a trigger, was briefly acknowledged as another possible compromise by the White House chief of staff,Rahm Emanuel. Though it was little discussed, Senator Olympia J. Snowe, Republican of Maine and one of the Finance Committee’s group of six, has recently expressed support for the concept, and committee aides say the idea is under consideration.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-healthcare-insurers24-2009aug24,0,2392720.story
Health Insurers get the upper hand
By Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger

August 24, 2009

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It's a bonanza," said Robert Laszewski, a health insurance executive for 20 years who now tracks reform legislation as president of the consulting firm Health Policy and Strategy Associates Inc.

Some insurance company leaders continue to profess concern about the unpredictable course of President Obama's massive healthcare initiative, and they vigorously oppose elements of his agenda. But Laszewski said the industry's reaction to early negotiations boiled down to a single word: "Hallelujah!"

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Meanwhile, companies would probably see a benefit by providing less insurance "per premium dollar," Hunter said.

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UnitedHealth spent the most, $2.5 million in the first half of 2009, and hired some of Washington's most prominent political players, including Tom Daschle, the former Senate majority leader who served as an informal health policy advisor to Obama.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/06/health/policy/06insur...
White House Affirms Deal on Drug Cost
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
Published: August 5, 2009

WASHINGTON —
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Mr. Tauzin said the White House had tracked the negotiations throughout, assenting to decisions to move away from ideas like the government negotiation of prices or the importation of cheaper drugs from Canada. The $80 billion in savings would be over a 10-year period. “80 billion is the max, no more or less,” he said. “Adding other stuff changes the deal.”

After reaching an agreement with Mr. Baucus, Mr. Tauzin said, he met twice at the White House with Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff; Mr. Messina, his deputy; and Nancy-Ann DeParle, the aide overseeing the health care overhaul, to confirm the administration’s support for the terms.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/08/us/08lobby.html
Obama Reverses Stand on Drug Industry Deal
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
Published: August 7, 2009

WASHINGTON — Caught between a pivotal industry ally and the protests of Congressional Democrats, the Obama administration on Friday backed away from what drug industry lobbyists had said this week was a firm White House promise to exclude from a proposed health care overhaul the possibility of allowing the government to negotiate lower drug prices under Medicare.

The reversal underscored the delicate balancing act the White House has pursued in its strategy of negotiating behind-the-scenes deals to win industry support without alienating liberal supporters on Capitol Hill.

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Several people involved in the negotiations of the original drug industry deal with the White House said there had been some ambiguity in the original discussions, conducted primarily through the Senate Finance Committee, over whether the overhaul might include the government negotiations of drug prices.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/13/health/policy/13healt...
Obama Is Taking an Active Role in Talks on Health Care Plan
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
Published: August 12, 2009

WASHINGTON —
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Early last month, for example, hospital officials were poised to appear at the White House to announce a deal limiting their industry’s share of the costs of the overhaul proposal when a wave of jitters swept through the group. Senator Max Baucus, the Finance Committee chairman and a party to the deal , had abruptly pulled out of the event. Was he backing away from his end of the deal?

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Some Democrats and industry lobbyists now argue that, in negotiating deals through Mr. Baucus’s committee with powerful health care interests, the White House was tacitly signaling as early as last spring that it might end up accepting something more modest than the government insurer the president has said he prefers.


Industry lobbyists and moderate Democrats in both chambers, though, argue that the White House’s actions behind the scenes show a recognition that the finance panel’s anticipated compromise is the most likely template for any final legislation.

“The House has largely been a sideshow,” said Representative Jim Cooper of Tennessee, a member of the so-called Blue Dog caucus of conservative Democrats. “The Senate Finance Committee is where it really matters. That’s the bottleneck.”
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I should have known from the moment Daschle was supposed to be HHS Secretary and when Rahm Emmanuel was picked for Chief of Staff.
We are going to get the reform package the White House and Obama have wanted from the beginning. They are working behind the scenes making horrible horrible deals at the expense of the American taxpayer in order to keep, maintain and even increase the gravy train for the insurance and drug industries. Anyone who doesn't believe that has to be in a deep state of denial.

The Republicans and the Blue Dogs are being used as the convenient excuse for "compromise" that was NEVER a compromise in the first place.

To the relief of many of you, I going into self-imposed exile and will refrain from posting much if at all in the future. (This is NOT a GCW post) I am just too angry, frustrated, hurt and disgusted to even offer opinions anymore.

[Cleita]

1. I had that sinking feeling this would flop when the insurance companies were invited to

the hearings but the PNHP doctors were locked out and arrested and only later reluctantly allowed a small hearing months ago. The thing that bothers me more is that Daschle has acknowledged that single payer is the most efficient way to deliver quality health care to everyone but claims that it's not for America. Our centrist Democrats have the mistaken notion that they can make the present system work by legislating away some of the abuses of the present for profit system. That worked so well for Medicare Part D, another failed program when you let the foxes in the henhouse. Obama and company better wake up before he becomes a single term President. To tell the truth during the primaries I was neither for Obama nor Clinton because I knew they were going to triangulate on this issue and fail just like Clinton failed the first time. I believe this will go down in flames anyway and we won't be revisiting the issue until the next Democratic President is in office. Perhaps it's time to turn our efforts to campaign and election reform first.

[endless october]

2. big insurance paid a lot to keep single payer off the table.

i suppose that still gives us the option of a system similar to Japan's, though : a hybrid of public and private health insurance. they have the world's highest life expectancy, spend much less on health care than we do, and they smoke like chimneys. i suppose we could do worse.

[rapturedbyrobots]

5. you forgot to add

they also pay their workers a decent wage. so that they can actually afford health care in their system.

[endless october]

7. yep, that's a critical component.

[Th1onein]

3. Hey, Phoebe, LISTEN:

Don't go anywhere. You have to be here to help educate those of us who need it. Like me. Heh.

It IS a shitty thing to strike such a compromise on, but if we can get a public option, a REAL public option, it's a compromise that we can accept.

I would like a perfect healthcare program, too. But we know we're not going to get that.

Don't leave. If you want something, fight for it. I never thought I would see even a debate on this topic in Congress, during my lifetime. We've got to keep pushing, to get what we want.

Don't go; you're important to that fight.

[galileoreloaded]

4. It is soooo simple.... the insurance companies needed clients, as demographics shift.

If you are on Medicare, you don't need to pay for private. A goodly portion, anyway.

So our "leaders" gave them more customers.

[Jakes Progress]

6. You will be missed during your retreat.

I hope it won't be a long one. I do sympathize. I come to DU to discuss and post but after reading so much shit, it is disheartening. The impetus to contribute is dissipated by the capitulation and the apologists. This is what we will see in the run up to the next election. The drive, the desire, and the passion that drove the last campaign will be stifled by the thought of so much wasted.

Already, we see the posts trying to tell us that the compromise of the compromise of the compromise is what we really want.

Damn. I'm gonna go for a walk.