Howard Dean: Co-ops are not a public option.

[ProSense]

<...>

Dean is optimistic that we're ultimately going to win the fight for healthcare reform, but he thinks that the final bill Democrats run with will not receive a filibuster proof majority in the Senate, and will thus have to be pushed through Senate through reconciliation.

What about co-ops? Dean assailed co-ops as a political compromise, not a policy compromise. They are simply too small to do any good and we've tried them already with Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Dean noted. Co-ops are a political compromise to get this out of committee, but they will not work. Co-ops are not a public option.

Another question concerned framing the debate about reform. Dean said it's all about empowerment: Do we want the American people to have a full range of choices or do we want Congress and the insurance companies to decide or us? And if Congress doesn't want to give us the public option, we need to remind them that the American people voted for change last November and we want choice.

We need a system of care that focuses on providing care, not costs. That's want doctors, want too. They don't like practicing medicine with pay for service and quotas of patients to see. We don't like the quality of primary care now, and they don't want to be part of a complicated, inefficient healthcare system dominated by big corporations.

more

[Laelth]

1. k&r for the Good Doctor Dean! n/t

:patriot:

:dem:

-Laelth

[Sebastian Doyle]

2. What can I say? He's correct, as always.

If we were in the second term of a Dean administration right now, you can bet this health care thing would have been done already.

Co-ops? Not.Fucking.Acceptable.

[slipslidingaway]

3. According to Kip Sullivan the proposed HELP bill public option

is not very robust and more like co-ops, yet Dean says the HELP bill is a great bill.

:shrug:

The Senate HELP Committee “public option” will be multiple “options,” and these will be run by insurance companies
http://pnhp.org/blog/

"...When the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee passed a bill on July 15 creating an anemic “public option” program, Health Care for America Now (HCAN) and other “public option” proponents were ecstatic. They welcomed the “public option” in the HELP committee bill, proclaiming it “strong” or “robust.” But the actual provisions in the HELP Committee bill call for numerous “community health insurance options,” not the single “Medicare-like” plan promised by “public option” advocates. That means the individual “options” will probably be as small and weak as the co-ops now under discussion in the Senate Finance Committee. More importantly, these “community options” will almost certainly be run by insurance companies."


GD threads...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=6302054&mesg_id=6302054

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=6303554&mesg_id=6303554

[Dinger]

4. K & R For Dr. Dean! (nt)

[seabeckind]

5. Go Dr Dean - I want it ALL and I want it NOW! n/t

[ProSense]

6. "They are simply too small to do any good and we've tried them already " n/t

[GarbagemanLB]

7. Good. I hope Dean is right and the Democrats use reconciliation to get a public option.