If we can't get the single payer option - then I want what Congress has for health insurance..

[Hawkeye-X]

We're paying for it - why not get it for us too?!

And Baucus - you're already on notice. You'll either dump the lobbyists and the for-profit insurance assholes and PAY ATTENTION to your constituents OR risk being thrown out at the next election, replaced with a MORE progressive Senator that GETS it.

[leftstreet]

1. K&R

:thumbsup:

[lbrtbell]

2. That's telling him!

Hey, Baucus: Work for us, or you're fired!!

[obliviously]

3. Good thinking!

I like you!

[sandnsea]

4. Yes, the Public Option

That's what Obama has proposed and what we're going to lose if we don't get focused in a hurry.

[dflprincess]

5. Of late, Obama has not been pushing the public option very vocally

at his town hall in April he strongly implied it would only be available for those who couldn't get insurance elsewhere because of preexisting conditions. If he only opens it up for those who are already running up bills, he's setting the public option up to fail.

And his meeting with the crooks from the insurance industry this last week and his willingness to trust them to fix the problem was not very encouraging.

[sandnsea]

6. He just did at the Townhall in New Mexico

Of course, you'd have actually had to listen to the words come out of his mouth in order to know he said them because nobody on the right or the left has any political interest in putting it out there.

“If you don’t have health care or you’re highly unsatisfied with your health care, then let’s give you choices, let’s give you options, including a public plan that you could enroll in and sign up for.”


http://www.obama-mamas.com/blog/?p=227

[dflprincess]

8. I heard what he said in New Mexico

I also heard the words coming out of his mouth this week as he gushed over how wonderful it was that the insurance companies had agree to raise costs less over the next 10 years. Without telling us how that was going to happen or how that would help anyone without insurance - but you can always trust the people who caused the problem to fix it.

[ThomCat]

9. Right, and instead of Reducing costs, one of the big goals

is to decrease the rate of cost increase. In other words, health care still keeps getting more expensive, but it just gets more expensive a bit more slowly than it is now. That is according to the whitehouse website.

How does that help people who already can't afford health care?

We need health care to be MUCH LESS EXPENSIVE. We need it to become AVAILABLE TO EVERYONE. How hard is that to understand? :(

[sandnsea]

10. A subsidy for low income people

to pay for a public plan or private plan. That's been the plan for several years. He's talked about cost cutting methods, from computerized records to reducing medical errors that kill a lot of people. The insurance companies have said they would consider removing the pre-existing conditions in exchange for everyone being in the system. This information is out there and some of it is the exact same things that would have to be done to save money under a single payer plan, so it isn't like it's useless drivel.

And frankly, I've come up against just as many incompetent people at the DMV as I have at the clinic. There's no guarantee one system will deliver better health care than the other.

[ProgressIn2008]

7. Heh. I like it. nt

[MercutioATC]

11. See? That's what I've been advocating from the beginning. It's called FEHBP.

Federal Employees Health Benefits Program.

I have it.

It works.

It's not top-dollar expensive private insurance, but it's comprehensive and it gives consumers choice.

[Mind_your_head]

12. Citizens! We are "citizens" FIRST, not consumers. n/t

[MercutioATC]

13. People! We are "people" FIRST, not citizens.

Sentient beings! We are "sentient beings" FIRST, not people.

...and on and on and on.


My point WAS that expanding FEHBP to cover everybody would provide comprehensive access to healthcare while also preserving choice.

[eridani]

14. Except that the private insurers providing it won't tolerate everybody getting it

That would include too many sick people for their tastes.