Obama's health care bill: nothing new in my opinion

[bigdarryl]

Same bullshit Senate Bill with no public option a waste of time

[polichick]

1. Just heard this on NPR - same ol' same ol' - once again, screw the voters. nt

[BrklynLiberal]

30. My exact thought when I heard it on the same show. brian L:ehrer..

What a disappointment....

[FreakinDJ]

2. Was waiting for some one to come out and condemn Obama for this

[polichick]

4. Hardly a condemnation - just the facts jack. nt

[TheWraith]

18. Except your condemnation is 100% fact free. Spin fail. nt

[polichick]

25. The facts are same ol' same ol' - as I said. No spin involved...

Though we were referring to the op.

[BrklynLiberal]

31. Agree 100%

[zipplewrath]

3. I didn't really expect much

It's mostly an attempt to squash any "legitimate" criticism from the GOP, so he removed the Nebraska exemption. He monkeyed a bit with the tax provisions, but mostly in a way to for the GOP to either call for more/earlier taxes, or to call for higher deficits. In the end it is still health insurance reform, not health care reform.

[polichick]

7. Yep - that's pretty much it. nt

[bigdarryl]

5. intersesting that when the Senate starts taking head counts on support of public option

Obama comes out with his supposed health care bill. Sounds to me he doesn't want the public option.Can't wait to hear Big Ed today on this

[polichick]

9. Yeah - wonder if Ed will be on fire today or waiting to see what happens this week. nt

[Jennicut]

11. He started to craft this before some in the Senate came out in support of this.

I think he was working on the bill when the health care summit was announced or even before that.

Some in the Senate want it and some don't.
I wonder what a real count would be...45? 48? Could we get to 50 on the public option? I wish we could.

[ProSense]

6. Bullshit

It's even better than the|House bill.

[bigdarryl]

14. LINK PLEASE!!!!

[ProSense]

15. It's in the comment.

How long have you been here?

Click on the word better.

[freddie mertz]

19. That link does not show that it is "Better."

That is a matter of opinion.

They just lay out the differences for us to consider.

[ProSense]

22. "That is a matter of opinion."

Yeah, and I didn't expect you to agree.

[freddie mertz]

26. Well that's fine. My point was that the link did NOT provide an argument as to "best."

You may THINK it is better, but your link did not show that.

This happens too often in these sorts of exchanges.

[zipplewrath]

21. Mixed bag at best

A few things are better, mostly it's a wash. Ultimately there's nothing in any of these to ensure that people will actually be able to afford their healthcare. Worse, it ensures that in order to get it they have to pay the profits of insurance companies.

[ProSense]

24. "A few things are better, mostly it's a wash."

Right, the rate regulation, that didn't exist in either bill, makes it a wash:

The president’s bill would grant the federal health and human services secretary new authority to review, and to block, premium increases by private insurers, potentially superseding state insurance regulators. The bill would create a new Health Insurance Rate Authority, comprised of health industry experts that would issue an annual report setting the parameters for reasonable rate increases based on conditions in the market.

link

As do increasing subsidies, eliminating Stupak, and closing the donut hole completely.

[zipplewrath]

29. Authority, but no mandate

Look, I've got a Public Service Commmission in my own state that is suppose to regulate utility costs. It doesn't hardly do anything. I've got an insurance commissioner that's suppose to do the same thing for insurance costs. Our insurance situation down here is a complete mess. Promises to regulate our way out of high priced medical care don't impress me. I like the donut hole fix. I don't like the complete and utter lack of a public option.

[nightrain]

27. yep. More transfer of wealth to the disease management corporations. Nothing new

here. A few tweaks at the edges, nothing closely resembling health CARE!

[phleshdef]

8. Rate regulation is stronger than a public option. There I fucking said it.

[DrToast]

10. Why pretend we can only have one or the other?

[phleshdef]

13. No one is pretending that. I'm just responding to the BS in the OP.

I'd still love to have a government offered insurance plan I could buy as opposed to a privately owned plan. But if the end result is that people can actually get covered and stay covered and the prices are confined to reasonable amounts, then I could really care less how thats achieved.

[Robb]

12. +1. nt

[zipplewrath]

16. Regulation, a lobbiest dream

This whole health insurance reform effort has been a conflict between government run vs regulation model. Regulation is the preferred solution for politicians because it creates a huge avenue for lobbying, and the money that comes with it. Rahm has always been interested in the campaign cash and has preferred the regulation model. This HCR bill should do everything for health care that regulation of the banking industry did for us there.

[phleshdef]

23. Perhaps you should first learn how to spell lobbyist, THEN make up some BS.

Wow, I can't believe someone is actually trying to formulate an argument against regulating.

[zipplewrath]

28. As compared to what?

There are times to regulate, and times to control. Regulation brings with it the troubles of lobbying. And really, there are innumerable current examples of how, in the long term, the very governmental organizations can morph into advocates for the very industries they are suppose to regulate. It isn't clear how we'll ever clean up the finacial services industry. I can't see setting up the same system for health care as a good thing.

[kestrel91316]

17. Please provide a link to the contents.

[freddie mertz]

20. Agreed. They put a few shiny sprinkes on the rotten Senate Bill.

It's still a big concession to the Insurance Industry, who apparently own our entire government.

[leftygolfer]

32. I'm just not smart enough

Someone tell me straight up. Will this make it easier for me to get healthcare? Honestly, that's my concern.