We need to push for a REAL Medicare Part E (E is for Everyone)

[debbierlus]

I don't think 77% of the US population wants a public option that they can't participate in...

The public option is a very narrow program.

It will only be available to those who can't get health insurance through their employer and the unemployed. This means that even if the insurance offered through an employer is unaffordable, a very poor plan, or not comprehensive, that is their ONLY choice.

The public option does not include the most fundamental mandate necessary for its effectivenss. And, that would be the freedom for any American to participate in it (the other two being rates tied to Medicare and the implementation of the program within a short time period after the legislation is signed).

We need to push for a public option that everyone can participate in. Anything else is NOT a public option.

The only thing I can think of is pushing for Medicare Part E - for everyone (the renamed public option) and starting a campaign to force the democrats to make the legislation true to its new brand. Otherwise, I think the rebranding of the public option as Medicare Part E is a complete Orwellian fraud.

People want the public option because they want to be able to participate in an alternative to the private insurance nightmare.

Time is running out. How do we accomplish this goal?

Discuss.

(On edit) I have been in contact with Mad As Hell Doctors, the physicians group for Single Payer (aligned with Physicians for National Health Care) about making this the next phase of their campaign. I have talked with a representative and we have been e-mailing. It would be very helpful if I could update them with on-line volunteers who would help the campaign go viral. I have volunteered to help with video and blogging. This campaign literally needs to get off the groud this week. Volunteers needed. If I can't get them to work with me, I will just do it by myself and I will still need volunteers although they seem very open to creative means to push for more progressive legislation.

[Cleita]

1. I'm doing what I can on the email, snail mail and telephone end of it but

I'm only one voice out there. Everybody has to do it and regularly until they get it.

[debbierlus]

6. Our side (that would be the majority) has been hopelessly disorganized

around advocating for real health care reform. I think the majority of people believed that since they gave the dems the majority and the White House, they would work to produce real health care reform instead of drafting legislation to the benefit of the insurance corporations and big pharm.

People seem to be JUST waking up to what is going on, and we don't have the mechanisms in place for advocacy.

I am not giving up, but we need to do this NOW.

[Cleita]

9. Yeah, we gave the Dems the majority and in theory they are supposed to

work for what changes we want in the country, however, we seem to be waking up to the fact that they are working for the money thrown their way by corporate lobbyists instead. I think all we can do right now is keep impressing them with the fact that what they are doing is not what we want and there will be future consequences on account of it. Sometimes you just have to scare the ruling class with the sheer numbers of angry peasants.

[Gently Used Deal]

10. Stop accepting responsibility

The problem with the poll numbers that these guys use to make decisions is that they are fundamentally flawed. I am a believer in public action - but the problem is not that people don't want good, universal healthcare - they just think the Dems can't deliver it. It's the fault of every elected Dem out there who can't see that. The ones that quietly say "if people don't want it, why are we fighting so hard to provide it?" It's weakness at the highest level - the inability to see a reflection on themselves in the data.

I wouldn't trust healthcare to the mealy mouthed, undecided, language parsing crew that holds up this debate. Why should we expect other Americans to?

[Desertrose]

2. If we could clearly get the truth (facts) out in an unbiased manner...

I think that would help..maybe...then the public could (in my wildest dreams & hopes) DEMAND Medicare for ALL!!


:shrug:

[Divine Discontent]

4. sadly, I think when this passes as it is written, people are going to THROW A FIT who didn't pay

attention to what this plan really is, and demand (hopefully) that the govt make it that anyone can join the Public Option, although - single payer is needed, because, you still have to buy an insurance premium under the Public Option, but hopefully, they give cost breaks to the working poor, which according to the LA Times article I read, around 40,000 or less (single person) will get some kind of credit to pay for the public option if they qualify for it and nowhere else offers them insurance.


again, what a mess...

[Divine Discontent]

3. as I wrote yesterday, just vote on the damn bill.. cuz it's already 'in the bank' so to speak

and what a fitting phrase. I am nauseated about the whole slope the once idealistic robust Public Option has slid down.

I read in the LA Times that, "The bills appear to explicitly prohibit an insurer in the individual marketplace from denying you coverage because of your health status, regardless of whether you have been denied coverage in the past. Of course, the bills do not guarantee you will be able to find an affordable policy. And under the bills as they stand now, insurers will still be able to price policies based on your age or past tobacco use."

That's the exact reason we need single payer Universal care where we're all grouped together so we make sure everyone is covered. Also, the article doesn't seem to discuss what I've read from many other media outlets, which is if you are offered insurance at your employer, you are barred from the Public Option. Then what's the point of this? If you don't have insurance because you're being denied (not myself, but giving an example) for a pre-existing condition, and then they mandate that everyone has to be offered a plan, it may not be cost affordable for you. SIGH! WTF! lol... sheesh.


What a waste of all this energy and focus by millions of people trying to push for a robust option or, preferably, single payer, when they're making deals just to make sure we get this Rule-ridden Public Option.

Okay, I'm mr negative about it as it stands. But, I'm holding out hope, although it's by a string.

[ipaint]

5. We need to push for no mandates.

They are not going to pass a public option strong enough to justify them. That so called robust public option doesn't exist in any of the bills.

[Lifelong Protester]

7. I like the opening slogan

"E for Everyone" I have been in weekly contact with my two senators and congressman. I am not a dedicated blogger, but I think getting the listed folks here who do blog, as well as Huff Post, etc. would be a good start for publicizing this effort.

[Gently Used Deal]

8. Totally

Of course, you're right.

I believe we're really close, actually - we're perhaps one more giant GOP landslide away from the Democrats adopting the bold, big plans that gave us our majorities, our great Presidents, the big thinking that made the party relevant and dominant. That's probly what it will take to ditch the mantle of "backstop to crazy republicans" that we adopted in the Reagan era. A mantle that results in half ass signature programs, thin margins, teeny majorities, and a very upset base.

Maybe we hold onto the House and Senate with a public option. But if we actually had the stones to go for the whole kit and kaboodle, like FDR and LBJ, abandon the backstop to GOP craziness platform, and actually touch a wide swath of America with a plan that saved them money, and covered everybody, we could be looking at majorities as far as the eye can see.

Why do you think the lobby and the GOP fight so hard?

Masters of the art of capitulation, and pre-compromise. No better prescription for GOP victory.

Imagine if FDR highlighted his "Sort of New Deal" with a "Social Security Option"?
We'd live in a different world.

The GOP won in 1994 because the Clintons couldn't pass major healthcare reform - not because they tried to.

It's not that Americans don't want universal healthcare, it's that it's been forty years since they've delivered anything half as big. Forty years of erosion in public option of a government that can't come close to achieving the successes of it's past. Why should people trust us?

[debbierlus]

11. The dems are going to pay for passing ineffective, expensive, and corrupt corporate reform

We must try to influence them now.