Democrats Ponder Health-Care Suicide

[SHRED]

If they think we are not noticing their corporate ties...they have another think comin'!!

:think:


Democrats Ponder Health-Care Suicide
By Robert Parry
October 4, 2009

If Democrats enact something like the health-care bill emerging from the Senate Finance Committee, they may call it a legislative victory and it may keep the campaign donations flowing from the insurance industry, but the Democrats would surely infuriate millions of American voters.

Indeed, it seems like some Democrats, such as Sens. Max Baucus and Kent Conrad, have lost themselves so much in the inside-Washington reeds of legislating a convoluted compromise acceptable to the insurers, that they are inviting an angry backlash from average Americans.

The danger for Democrats is that this industry-friendly legislation would impose new burdens on citizens, including government fines for failing to sign up for a health-insurance plan, without guarantees that the coverage won’t be almost as crappy and expensive as it is now. The bill rejects a public option that would put competitive pressure on private insurers.

Plus, key elements of the bill, like the so-called shopping “exchanges,” aren’t to take effect until 2013, meaning that Americans will have watched this messy process unfold for months and then be told that the current system, which has cruelly pushed millions of sick people into bankruptcy, will get four more years to bankrupt more Americans.
By contrast, Medicare, the single-payer health system for senior citizens, was signed into law on July 30, 1965, and took effect on July 1, 1966, less than a year later.

CONTINUED:
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2009/100409.html

[Skittles]

1. they are paid whores

[AllentownJake]

2. Seems like there is an offensive going on TV right now

wait and see

[SHRED]

3. In which direction? I don't watch too much TV

[AllentownJake]

4. Public Option direction

Lots of TV ads bashing insurance companies. Looked like they kept their powder dry till October.

There are also targeted ads in Nebraska and Arkansas targeting the conservadems

[SHRED]

5. good...glad to hear that

[dflprincess]

6. But even the proposals with public options

do way to much to protect the insurance companies. More and more I'm thinking that maybe it would be better to do nothing and let the whole system collapse rather than prop it up with mandates and faux public "options" (that won't be options for most of us).

[AllentownJake]

7. Strategically it might have been smarter to take on Financial Regulations

or the environment (Green Energy) instead of healthcare reform. If unemployment numbers don't go down I can already see the 2010 GOP ads.

[dflprincess]

9. True

especially as it doesn't look like we're going to get real reform, just mandated insurance with a weak public "option".

[AllentownJake]

10. Yeah

That could flip the House, probably not the Senate though.

[Ardent15]

8. We must hold them accountable

nt

[excess_3]

11. simple solution --> re-organize the Senate

don't hold your breath

[PHIMG]

12. Public Option = 9 million enrolled. Pathetic and a distraction.

Medicare for All Now!

[leftstreet]

13. +1