Howard Dean: No Public Option, No Deal

[kpete]

Howard Dean: No Public Option, No Deal
By Big Tent Democrat, Section Other Politics
Posted on Thu Aug 13, 2009 at 04:06:41 PM EST

Via Sam Stein:



Former Democratic National Committee chair Howard Dean fired one of the clearest warning shots at hesitant Democratic lawmakers on Thursday, insisting that if the party was unable to produce a health care bill with a public plan, there would be electoral consequences.

As he has done before, Dean criticized talk of substituting a government run program with co-operative insurance plans, calling the latter a "fig leaf." "This talk about co-ops is a political compromise it is not a policy compromise," (Dean said(. . . .) "And I think most people, on both sides of the aisle know that co-ops won't work."

Asked about a column by long-time Democratic strategist Paul Begala, urging progressives not to shy away from tackling health care in a more incremental approach, Dean shot back: "The public option is incrementalism.... But there is no incrementalism without the public option." He explained: "If you don't have a public option this bill is not even incremental, in terms of adequate health care reform... Paul is not entirely wrong. It is just that the last shred of reform is the public option."


more:
http://www.talkleft.com/story/2009/8/13/17641/9834
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/13/dean-there-will-be-primar_n_258813.html

[SemiCharmedQuark]

1. I'm glad Dean is speaking out.

Rec.

[wtbymark]

2. I agree with the good doctor

no public option = VETO (send the message)

[valerief]

3. On KO now! Says bill will contain end-of-life discussion coverage. nt

[Walk away]

no public option/no 2010 n/t

[Walk away]

4. no public option/no 2010 n/t

[tritsofme]

5. And he wonders why he wasn't invited to join the Obama Administration? nt

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. Having breakfast with Dr Dean in the morning

:woohoo:

[myrna minx]

8. Lucky!

I'm jealous. Will you give him a smooch for me? :D

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. I'm gonna make you even more jealous

Sitting here now waiting for President Clinton.

At Netroots Nation.

[myrna minx]

11. My god,

I *AM* really jealous! OK, please give him a smooch for me as well. :D Lucky!!!!

[HughMoran]

7. Hear! Hear!

[Junkdrawer]

9. Oh, there'll be a "Public Option"...But it will be whittled down to nothing...

http://pnhp.org/blog/2009/07/20/bait-and-switch-how-the-%E2%80%9Cpublic-option%E2%80%9D-was-sold

[imdjh]

12. What the "back in my day folks" are leaving out is what they might not know.

Yes, health insurance was cheaper, and many people probably remember that from the good old days. People bought BCBS at reasonable rates back then. Back then, healthcare was cheaper because there was less they could do for you. Back then, a lot of the custodial care done in hospitals was done at slave wages, even when nurses and some technical staff were unionized.

And back then, an entire class of people had no health insurance. Same as now. And a bunch did without it because they couldn't afford it, same as now.

People died from stupid shit back then, just because people accepted death more readily. The consumer was less educated. Now, we have a pretty good idea of what can and can't be done. If the doctor says, "You're going to die." we pretty much take his word for it, but he says that less often. But you don't expect to die from an infection, or pneumonia, or even a minor heart attack or stroke. Health care costs more because the underlings are being paid more, but it also cost more because pharmaceutical companies charge prices they never would have dreamed of charging in the 1950's. It also costs more because they can do more.

But the bottom line is that back in the GOOD OLD DAYS (which never fucking existed) people died with less health care. People went without. Old people sat on the porch and died there. Babies died. Some people still had six kids in case a couple didn't make it past age 12.

The good old days weren't.

[Kingofalldems]

13. Fake Democrats hate Dean. And why?

Because he is a REAL Democrat.

[loyalkydem]

14. and Obama

will find a way to sneak it into the final bill, if he wants a second term.

[Missy Vixen]

15. To quote the immortal Lola Heatherton of SCTV

I love him, and I want to bear all his children.

:joking:

Seriously, he is the BEST, and we are so lucky to have him. :woohoo:

[applegrove]

16. Yup. That should be the line in the sand. Because without that prices will

not come down. USA pays about $9000 per person for health care. Canada pays about $3000 per person per year for health care.

[eridani]

17. For all practical purposes, a meaningful public option does not now exist

If we have to wait until 2013 to enroll in it, it may as well not exist.