Ok, that went well. Now let the Reconciliation begin.

[grassfed]

The Top Five Health Care Reform Lies—and How to Fight Back.

The First Lie: President Obama wants to euthanize your grandmother.

The truth: These accusations—of "death panels" and forced euthanasia—are, of course, flatly untrue. As an article from the Associated Press puts it: "No 'death panel' in health care bill."

What's the real deal? Reform legislation includes a provision, supported by the AARP, to offer senior citizens access to a professional medical counselor who will provide them with information on preparing a living will and other issues facing older
Americans.

The Second Lie: Democrats are going to outlaw private insurance and force you into a government plan.

The truth: Withreform, choices will increase, not decrease. Obama's reform plans will create a health insurance exchange, a one-stop shopping marketplace for affordable, high-quality insurance options. Included in the exchange is the public health insurance option—a nationwide plan with a broad network of providers—that will operate alongside private insurance
companies, injecting competition into the market to drive quality up and costs down.

If you're happy with your coverage and doctors, you can keep them. But the new public plan will expand choices to millions of businesses or individuals who choose to opt into it, including many who simply can't afford health care now.

The Third Lie: President Obama wants to implement Soviet-style rationing. The truth: Health care reform will expand access to high-quality health insurance, and give individuals, families, and businesses more choices for coverage. Right now, big corporations decide whether to give you coverage, what doctors you get to see, and whether a particular procedure or medicine
is covered—that is rationed care. And a big part of reform is to stop that.

Health care reform will do away with some of the most nefarious aspects of this rationing: discrimination for pre-existing conditions, insurers that cancel coverage when you get sick, gender discrimination, and lifetime and yearly limits on coverage. And outside of that, as noted above, reform will increase insurance options, not force anyone into a rationed situation.

The Fourth Lie: Obama is secretly plotting to cut senior citizens' Medicare benefits.

The truth: Health care reform plans will not reduce Medicare benefits. Reform includes savings from Medicare that are unrelated to patient care—in fact, the savings comes from cutting billions of dollars in overpayments to insurance companies and eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse.

The Fifth Lie: Obama's health care plan will bankrupt America.
The truth: We need health care reform now in order to prevent bankruptcy—to control spiraling costs that affect individuals, families, small businesses, and the American economy.

Right now, we spend more than $2 trillion dollars a year on health care. The average family premium is projected to rise to over $22,000 in the next decade—and each year, nearly a million people face bankruptcy because of medical expenses.

Reform, with an affordable, high-quality public option that can spur competition, is necessary to bring down skyrocketing costs. Also, President Obama's reform plans would be fully paid for over 10 years and not add a penny to the deficit.

We're closer to real health care reform than we've ever been—and the next few weeks will decide whether it happens. We need to make sure the truth about health care reform is spread far and wide to combat right wing lies.

[still_one]

1. Agreed, but I doubt that will happen either /nt

[AndyA]

2. Death panels already exist. The health care insurance providers are the death panels.

They decide who lives and who dies.

They decide what is and what is not covered.

They decide when it's time to raise premiums so much that the insured can't afford to continue coverage.

They decide who to grant insurance coverage to.

They decide how much they will spend to keep you healthy.

They decide how much they will spend to keep you alive.

That sounds like a death panel to me. I hope someone points that out to the Republicans. American health care is ultimately determined by the bottom line of the major health insurance providers. Period. And that's a crappy way to take care of people.

[Faryn Balyncd]

3. the sixth: "The Bill I Sign MUST Include the Public Option"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7789622


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=7790696&mesg_id=7790696


(I'm with you on reconciliation, IF it is used to pass real reform.

For any other use, I think it will damage both future reform and our majority)





:hi:


:kick:





"If Barack Obama’s bill gets changed to exclude the public entities, it is not health insurance reform…it rises and falls on whether the public is allowed to choose Medicare if they’re under 65 or not. If they are allowed to choose Medicare as an option, this bill will be real health care reform...."

- Howard Dean