Anthony Weiner: We Need the Public Option and the Health Care Industry is Making Our Argument for Us
By Heather Tuesday Oct 13, 2009 10:00am
Rep. Anthony Weiner on MSNBC's Dr. Nancy show explaining how the AHIP memo released yesterday is making the case for the public option.
Weiner: But it’s interesting in their analysis they’re not 100% wrong. It is true that the Baucus plan doesn’t cover enough people. And it is true—the health insurance says it straight out on your show a moment ago—they’re going to raise the rates. The only thing that prevents them from doing that—and you almost got your last guest to stumble into saying it—some form of competition, but in a strange way the health insurance industry, not standing up and saying “No, no” they’re not doing enough in the Baucus bill, what they really mean is we thought we were going to get all these new customers and you’re doing all these other things to try to hold down costs—“They ain’t gonna’ work. We’re not going to let you do it”.
Which is why the argument is more profound than ever and Chuck mentioned it, we have to have the public option. If we don’t have it—if you leave them to their own devices—the health insurance industry right now is putting us on notice, “We’re not going to lower costs at all. We’re going to keep on raising costs.” Because that’s their business model.
[…]
If you have the health care industry complaining that we’re going to raise costs because of these changes, it is them putting us on notice that we haven’t put enough cost containment in the bill. You know, the health care industry themselves is putting out a whole report saying that. That should be a tell to the Baucus team that “You know what?” maybe it’s time for them to go back and revisit the public option.
But the other thing that’s interesting here is the deal was always going to be for the health care guys, look, you’re going to get all these new customers that are going to be coming in and that’s going to be the reason you’re going to take a hair cut here. But make no mistake about it, the health care industry keeps raising costs and I think what’s going to happen with the Baucus bill is put new requirements on them, they raise costs and whatever subsidies we’re giving people to buy their own insurance, they won’t be able to afford it and we’ll keep on losing people.
This is the whole argument for the public option is right here laid out by the health care industry right now.
Dr. Laura: Do you think you’ll get it?
Weiner: I think so. I think in a strange way, and obviously they didn’t mean this, the health insurance lobby today fired the most important salvo in weeks for the public option, because they have said, as clear as day, left to their own devices, according to their own number crunchers, they’re going to raise rates 111%. And that’s why, you know we have a petition at CountdownToHealthCare.com where we’re telling people for the moderates in the Senate, the so-called moderates, and for the White House, we need the public option, and the health care industry is making our argument for us.
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The worst thing that can happen now is that this piece of crap gets enacted and Obama does not veto it.
The insurers have set the table with two options: either a mandate (and subsidies for insurers to take on all those low income people) without a public option or the death of the "reform" (which is vastly more preferable than any bill now being seriously considered).
Health
CareInsurance Reform needs to be derailed and used as impetus to elect some fresh, pro-citizen blood to the senate and house. Then at least we will have a fighting chance at health INSURANCE reform.Olympia Snowe has just approved the Baucus bill and this, IMHO, is the end game.
Other Republicans will now join in.
This legislation is going to pass regardless of how rotten it is for the American People.
If Olympia Snowe approves of it, it has to be pretty GD awful.
http://www.nytimes.com?emc=na
sharing the same handbasket to hell.
A direct link is here
on the floor of the committee now...Grayson started a revolution..tell the truth out loud and on the record!
Call to thank the ones on our side and remind the others of 2010!!! 1877.264.4226 or 1.800.828.0498....
Baucus and Conrad screwed us for their corporate lobbyist dollars. EXCHANGES ARE A SHAM>>>> so are co-ops..never work for anyone but the INSURANCE COMPANIES!
battle...in conference this will play out ..call your congress people 1.800.828.0498 or 1.877.264.4226... They gave a gimme to the Insurance Cos now we must force the Congress to take it back!
I would rther see nothing than this POS they are trying to foist onto the public. I really think that time is favoring the momentum for a comprehensive single payer system. The insurance companies and the news media are losing control of the dialog and debate, thanks mostly to the internet and to the small handful of MSM journalists who actutally do their jobs with integrity. With loss of control over the message, the truth is getting out, like a genie out of a bottle. The longer that process goes on, the worse things get for the insurance companies, big pharma, for-profit hospitals, HMO's and nursing homes, and especially, the worse things get for the dirty politicians who have prostituted themselves and their offices for those interests. I would predict that the dirty politicians are going to get their asses handed to them in the upcoming election cycles.
Time is on our side.
Coincidental with this topic, I read on the Huffington Post yesterday that an anonymous Obama staffer has dismissed the concerns of people like us, posters and commentors on liberal/progressive blogs as being just so many left fringe crybabies who need to get out of their mother's basements and leave the job of complex governance to them (sounds like Trilateralist thinking or the miffed musings of Emanuel)). Collectively, we are dismissed as being an irrelevant 10%, that is only making things difficult for them. They know best, so leave the healthcare issue, and all other issues, to them. Stop whining. Yeah, Right. I think they are going to have a tough time getting re-elected in 2012 without the support of our irrelevant little group, which I suspect is seriously larger than 10%.
I am NOT in my mother's basement.
I am sitting in a freakin' 4000 sq. ft. Victorian that I am paying for every month.
I worked my TAIL off for Obama. I gave him my time, my home (fundraising dinner parties) and my money. LOTS of money!
These "individuals' who are supposedly "Obama staffers" had better STFU, because they are pissing off a whole lot more than just us Progressives...I know a whole lot of Democrats who are very unhappy with the way this health care legislation is going down.
And believe me, I understand the attitude of these "Obama Staffers". I went to one of their little "Organizing for America" soirees in Northampton, Massachusetts and they were total A-holes.
NOBODY was allowed to mention ANY policy issues. "We are here to organize for the re-election of Barack Obama in 2012. There will be NO discussions of ANY policy issues!"
And we on the Left wonder why the "Teabaggers" refer to Obama as "OBEY ME"???
letting their big ace in the hole show, huh?! Brilliant... if there was ever any doubt as to what these ba$tards were up to, they've certainly cleared it up for everyong to see. Crooks, the whole lying bunch of 'em!
But what does Les Weinen think of all this?
Not sexy and exciting?
I would love to play poker with some of these insurance companies. They don't seem to know the art of not showing one's cards until the game is over.
Oh God please
Read some Castaneda or something. Anything!
You don't watch teevee so how do you know what Dr. Nancy is all about?
Dr. Nancy whoopdee dooooooo!
Well, ain't you sumppin'?
so you can see there's more to life then Suits on TeeVee.
Thank you, Dr Evet. I'll get right on that. How about I catch a couple of Dancing with the Stars episodes so I don't get the shakes and all?
What we need is HR 676 single payer at the minimum, and the 'health insurers' are making that abundantly clear.
A valuable series of pieces on health care reform by L Randall Wray probably best read in reverse order.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
mantra?!
I just made a round of calls trying to figure out when the Weiner amendment to H.R. 3200 will be debated/voted on in the full House of Representatives (which Pelosi has promised).
I spoke with the following offices: Weiner, Pelosi and Waxman. I was told that the various House committees are now in the process of combining their bills. Once that happens (they think by Nov. 1st), this is when the amendment process will start.
There IS a Congressional Budget Office Scoring of Single Payer, H.R. 676 being done now that will also be available by around Nov. 1st.
Obama wants this whole enchilada wrapped up by Thanksgiving.
I was told repeatedly that Pelosi "promised" Wiener the "historic debate and vote" for a Medicare for All style bill.
I wonder how much pressure is being put on Weiner to WITHDRAW HIS AMENDMENT???
I hope and pray that he does not. I hope and pray the the CBO score proves that Single Payer would cover the most people and would be the most cost efficient way to do it.
And I hope and pray that Weiner doesn't cave.
People HAVE to understand that a Public Option, at best, would only be available to 17 million Americans!
I believe that IF there is a "Public Option" ALL AMERICANS SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO JOIN.
I believe that IF there is a "Public Option" ALL AMERICANS SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO JOIN.
If there is anything in any bill that in any way creates a public option, i gay-ron-fuuking-TEE you it will not be open enrollment. There will be clauses and conditions and codicils til hell won't have it.
If the industries involved have their way (and they always do), there is actually a greater chance of a fully grown pig flying right out the ass of Dick Cheney than there is that the American people will EVER get universal, single-payer health care...
.. that the dirty politicians of both parties need to be severely punished at the ballot box.
obama's been the same from the beginning, bought and paid for. I don't know why we listen to him. It's all half promises and letting someone else do the work so he can blame them for what he really wanted in the first place. He'a a con man folks. I keep seeing these posts like we think he'll do something about it. He won't, guaranteed.
...to God's eyes.
it's all just talk
The Republicans never have a problem of conscience, their treachery is pure and unalloyed, the Democrats are the other hand are conflicted.
The few in Congress of good conscience are faced with the dilemma of squaring their conscience with the demands of being going foot soldiers in the Democratic Party fiasco.
To even call this entire business 'reform' requires either delusion or deception.
Health care is a fundamental, it should be seen as a fundamental right of citizenship, of humanity.
Whatever they pass, and it looks like a piece of crap so far, they will be found out sooner or later.
Too bad for us, with the tyranny of the two faction, one party corporate state, failure by the Democrats leads to success by the Republicans.
It is lose-lose for we the peasants.
---
NYTimes on the accession of Olympia Snowe to the Democrats rogue gallery, here h/t Abbybwood
"To even call this entire business 'reform' requires either delusion or deception". I take it to qualify at a minimum as an unpardonable, contemptuous insult. It is an insult that I will not forgive.
We NEED and DESERVE a new system that grants healthcare to all, w/o cost or meddling from private insurers, who have proven over and over again they are concerned ONLY about their bottom line
There are people trying to make things happen.
Story Leads to Help for Couple Bankrupted by Group Health Insurance
http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/dailyweekly/20...
is not needed, and somewhat offensive
and I notice you link to the Seattle weekly. how ironic, Evet.
oh and one more thing, I filed bnky due to medical bills. I become more offended by this one moronic comment of yours the more I see it.
I am trying to help. Do you want to sit around listening to Health Insurance Poitical Action Committees saying "patients paying out-of-pocket for primary care could be a dangerous precedent, even if fees are affordable." ???
This is some serious ammo to use against these Big Insurance monsters.
http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/dailyweekly/20...
but really, insisting I need to stop doing something I haven't done in decades, then citing a corporate whore as a source, pretty much points up your shortcomings as my 'advisor'
I haven't touched the Weekly since it was sold by Brewster and Oldham.
set up until hell freezes over, but if the Obama health reform legislation is passed they will go belly up as they will NOT be considered as acceptable coverage under THE MANDATE.
Those who decide to continue with the boutIques and maybe take out an extra "catastrophic" plan STILL won't have "acceptable" coverage under THE MANDATE.
Of course they can always elect to play the boutique/catastrophic game so long as they pay the fine/penalty for not being in COMPLIANCE.
The only "acceptable" coverage will be coverage that is purchased through the "EXCHANGES" (for-profit insurance corporations). PLUS the rotten insurance companies will ALSO receive government "subsidies" (translation: our tax dollars).
Any which way you slice this pie, the American people are going to get REAMED.
privatization scam that requires the People to hand there money over to private entities, getting, in effect, nothing in return. I'm of a mind to punish my representatives at the ballot box if they support it.
When they get "punished" at the ballot box they walk right into a sweet job "working" as a consultant or some other made up job.
on this topic! This is something the American people should have at a minimum... and then make things get even better. Time for those health insurers to realize their gravy train has run its course. I'm appalled they even had a gravy train...
the bacus bill sees the light of day , and the MFG sector is tanked , how will congress find the money for the MIC .
So we're supposed to believe that the insurance industry is warning us and being sincerely concerned about prices going up and insurers making more money, as if they would be against such a thing?
Seriously?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyGSsOfISy8
is single payer that is wholly government administered, with no opt-out. If anybody wants private insurance, let them purchase it with their own money. It's long past time that these parasitical and predatory insurance companies ceased to exist.
I would love a single-payer system administered by the government. But frankly, I believe a public option tied to Medicare reimbursement rates and which allows anyone to register is viable as well. Indeed, I believe it will eventually (within 2-3 years) make private insurance obsolete except in rare instance, as a public program would be flooded with applicants.
I was extremely disappointed in Obama's speech last month when he described the public "option" as an "option" unavailable to all but those who couldn't otherwise secure insurance. I suspect, however, that someone's going to attempt to insert a more robust public option into the bill at the last minute, forcing the hand of those who oppose it. At least I hope so.
...between them, represent states with a combined population that barely touches that of the metro area where I live. Most of their constituency consists of wasteland and sagebrush. The single city of any size (Las Vegas) runs on the most parasitical economy in America, if not the world: It produces nothing, provides no useful services, and basically vacuums the pockets of visitors.
Remind me again how these two got put in charge of my health care?
They could care less about the voters.
Their constituents are the insurance corporations that shower them with million$$$$
THAT'S WHO THEY CARE ABOUT!
And how faithful they are to their trust.
What are her qualifications to talk about healthcare?
At one point she says she's just a consumer and can't figure out all them big numbers!
Isn't that your job to figure out which #s are right and which are wrong if they contradict each other?
Makes me glad I don't pay for cable.
excerpt from above:
Weiner: ...This is the whole argument for the public option is right here laid out by the health care industry right now.
Dr. Laura: Do you think you’ll get it?
Weiner: I think so.
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Heather, I think you need to make a correction in your transcript above!
Obama wants it this way, he and Baucus rigged the finance committee to be 3 from each party doing the negotiations. Obama loves this bill, he'll act like he wants to change it but won't. Mark my words, he's bought and paid for like Baucus, Snowe, etc. etc. It's just like financial reform, DADT, corporate lobbying, etc. No real changes. I told everyone who'd listen during the campaign, he's promising to change anything, just a change of parties. I turn out to be right every day.
BTW, I'm a democrat and voted for the clown.
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