TPM: Medicare Buy-in dead?

[chill_wind]

Medicare Buy-In Dead?
David Kurtz | December 14, 2009, 5:46PM

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) just told reporters as he entered a special meeting of the Senate Democratic caucus that a Medicare buy-in provision is probably out and tellingly praised the merits of the bill even with that provision stripped out, Evan McMorris-Santoro reports.


http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/12/medicare_buy-in_dead.php?ref=fpblg

[Mz Pip]

1. So what's left?

Seriously, what's left in this 2000 page bill? No public option, no medicare buy in, so how do any of these 2000 pages help the folks who can't get insurance?

[walldude]

5. What's left is what we were going to get from the beginning... screwed.

What's going to be left in this bill is mandatory insurance with fines for those who don't carry it and limits on how much insurance companies have to pay out. Also there will be pre-existing coverage but the cap will be so stupidly high that no one will be able to afford it.

The only reform this bill is doing is making sure there is not a person in America that is not getting fucked over by insurance companies.

[chill_wind]

2. Harkin: 'There's Enough Good In This Bill' Without Medicare Buy-In (TPM)

Evan McMorris-Santoro | December 14, 2009, 6:06PM

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) just walked walked into the Democrats all-important caucus meeting tonight sounding defeatest about the chance that a Medicare buy-in or public option trigger will survive Sen. Joe Lieberman's (I-CT) decision to block the compromises this weekend.

Asked by a reporter if the Medicare buy-in will be pulled out, Harkin said "looks that way," before praising a Democratic health care bill without the two public option compromises.

"There's enough good in this bill that even without those two, we gotta move," he said. "All the insurance reforms, all the stuff we wrote so hard for prevention and wellness in there, the workforce development issues that we have in there, the reimbursement based on quality not on quantity -- there's good stuff in this bill. It's a giant step forward, changing the paradigm of health care in America."

With that, Harkin turned and walked into the caucus meeting. Shortly after him came Lieberman, dashing into the room and taking no questions from the reporters swarmed around him.


http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/12/harkin-theres-enough-good-in-this-bill-without-medicare-buy-in-trigger.php

[walldude]

9. Gimme a fucking break.. anyone with the brains to read this bill

can fucking see that it benefits Insurance companies and not people. Sell your loser crap somewhere else Harkin. I'm sick of you people pissing on me and telling me it's raining.

[jsamuel]

3. Looks like the Politico story about the WH telling Reid to drop the Medicare Buy-In was correct

after all.

[jsamuel]

4. why are people unrec'ing this?

[chill_wind]

6. We hate TPM now too. n/t

[jsamuel]

7. Apparently we hate reality.

[kenny blankenship]

8. They hate shit suckers.

[chill_wind]

10. Pardon?

[kenny blankenship]

12. Sorry, not directed toward you.

I think people are perhaps unreccing the news because they are sick of hearing about the latest twists and turns of this degenerate farce going on in Washington.

If all the shit suckers involved -and that's all of them- were to choke on their filth and die we would finally be on our way to a better tomorrow.

[chill_wind]

13. LOL. I'm getting a complex.

Thnx. I think that's possible. I also think some people really dug into the idea that no more wheeling and dealing could be true, because official denials said so.

[chill_wind]

15. That too. ESPECIALLY that. n/t

[chill_wind]

11. It's getting unrecced in LBN. HCR related breaking news.

Apparently it's very unwelcome news there, as well.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4184116

[Mz Pip]

14. It's almost as though the Democrats

have a death wish. If there isn't something in this bill that actually benefits people rather than insurance companies then people will not come out for Democrats in 2010. They just won't.

The Democrats will says that the Republicans won't do anything to benefit middle and low income Americans and these middle and low income Americans can point out that the Democrats won't either.

While it is true that the Democrats have done some good this past year, the big thing, the thing that is on everyone's mind is health care reform. The Republicans were well on their way to becoming irrelevant but that is no longer true. They still have their base and the Democratic base is rapidly deserting them. Sad. They really could have done so much.

I've said that I will wait to pass judgment until there is an actual bill on Obama's desk so I may be a bit premature with my dismay. But the longer this goes on the less optimistic I am that anything meaningful will happen.

Mz Pip