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Single Payer

Look McCain, You Lost. So STFU!

Dec 13th, 2009
by Tom.
3 comments

Re: The GOP’s New Health-Care Hoax – Page 1 – The Daily Beast

The Bush twins

It’s no surprise that Republicans want to halt the march to historic health-care reform with any calumny they can muster. But their latest attack on the new Senate deal—the charge that allowing Americans aged 55 to 64 to buy into Medicare would lead the country to a single-payer system—is as laughable as it is misguided. It’s ironic that this shameful stone is being hurled by the nation’s most prominent life-long recipient of government-run health care: John McCain.

McCain’s invocation of the single-payer libel is particularly galling, since he’s been on government-run health care practically his entire adult life.

McCain is saying that the the Senate health compromise would lead to a single-payer system. I ask, what’s the downside to that? The health insurance industry should go away like the way cheap Chinese labor killed millions of American jobs. No one in congress screamed about that, did they? The health care industry has been a ruthless overlord of the people’s health for too long. It is time that we the people took control. We need single-payer now.

…Democrats have struggled to expand coverage, boost quality, and craft reforms that could bend the cost curve over time. In other words, Democrats have been struggling to govern. Republicans, by contrast, sit back and take pot shots at whatever emerges, giddy with the freedom that comes from having no responsibility for anything but their own thirst to return to power. A week ago, Republicans were against cutting Medicare, saying it would endanger senior citizens, and now they’re against expanding it. If you see no way to bridge these two views besides political opportunism, you’re beginning to understand modern GOP political philosophy.

Republicans offer nothing. They have nothing to offer except more of the same failed Bush policies that got us into this economic toilet flush in the first place. Republicans have obstructed, filibustered, more legislation since 2006 than any other time in US history. Theyfilibusters-1101.gif obstruct honest attempts to legislate without any honest debate and without any contribution of their own. They are more interested in spreading hate than doing what’s right.

It is time to change the filibuster rule. We must lower the number of votes for cloture to 55 instead of the 60 votes it takes now. Changing the rules only takes a majority vote.

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A Second Look | From an Angry Father

Oct 6th, 2009
by Tom.
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(NEW! YOU CAN NOW POST COMMENTS WITHOUT REGISTERING AND WITHOUT AWATING MODERATION)

I sent this letter today to the delegation to Congress from my home state – both Senators and my Representative. For what it’s worth, I present it here now. I hope that it can help strengthen the delegation’s resolve to fight for a public health plan.

What is our guarantee that insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, and businesses that self-insure, still won’t raise the premium rates, deductibles, co-pays, and drug costs after all this haggling is over?

Cost control isn’t – controlled, that is. The Baucus bill was probably written by the insurance industry.

Millions of Americans are suffering at the hands of big business, big pharma, and big insurance, when these entities are supposed to be in the business of making people whole.

Our two sons have no health care plan at all. They aged out of my plan years ago. They are part of the 47 million uninsured in America. They cannot afford the premiums and the co-pays. They can barely afford to pay their rent. What do you say to them? Die quickly?

We must have cost control. The public option is the only option available to us since single-payer was off the table from the beginning – a huge mistake by the Democrats.

Since you gave away the choice of single-payer long before this game began, then you must support a strong public option that offers all Americans the choice between expensive private health care that, more often than not, is just a five-percent-off coupon, and real public care that we can afford.

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A Second Look | Unfair to Private Insurance Plans. Huh?

May 2nd, 2009
by Tom.
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via Ben Nelson Plans To Oppose Public Health Plan.

Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) said Friday that he will oppose legislation that would give people the option of a public health insurance plan. The move put

Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.)

s him on the opposite side of two-thirds of Americans.

A poll released this week by Consumer Reports National Research Center showed that 66 percent of Americans back the creation of a public health plan that would compete with private plans. Nelson, in comments made to CQ, joins the 16 percent of poll respondents who said they oppose the plan.

Nelson also said that not only does he oppose a public health system, but he intends to go out and recruit other Democratic Senators to stand with him against the will of the majority.

Nelson’s problem, he told CQ, is that the public plan would be too attractive and would hurt the private insurance plans. “At the end of the day, the publ

ic plan wins the game,” Nelson said. Including a public option in a health plan, he said, was a “deal breaker.”

He said that it would be too attractive. That it would “hurt the private insurance plans”. There are 40 million uninsured, and at least 30 million more under-insured that right now do not give a damn about hurting the private insurance plans.These are not individuals that are uninsured, but entire families. Families that could not get check-ups for their kids without SCHIP.

Nelson’s protection of the right-wing corporatist’s interests is the same kind of thinking that won over the Supreme Court in Bush v. Gore - and look where that got us.

Nelson is forcing Obama’s hand. Obama will have no choice

but to use the reconciliation process in negotiating the health care reform bill since Nelson will filibuster the vote himself. The way I understand it, the reconciliation process may be used to bypass the filibuster and go straight to cloture. It is used only for budgetary matters. Nelson must gain enough votes for a simple majority to kill public health, and looking around, he may not have such a hard time doing that. Including himself he only needs nine more, counting Al Frankin.

Lets see. Which conservative Democratic Senators might vote with him?

Mary Landrieu (LA), Mark Pryor (AR),  Bill Nelson (FL),  Blanch Lincoln (AR), Joe Lieberman (I-CT), Arlan Spector (PA), Tom Carper (DE), Kirsten Gillibrand (NY), Evan Bayh (IN), Michael Bennet (CO), Mark Begich (AK), Kay Hagan (NC), Herb Kohl (WI), Claire McCaskill (MO), Jeanne Shaheen (NH), Mark Udall (CO), and Mark Warner (VA)

That’s 17 Senators that might jump on the bandwagon with Ben Nelson. Blatantly backing the insurance industry and stating that any private insurance plan would hurt them is an attempt to limit the debate and is an outrage to the millions of Americans unable to obtain even simple preventive care.

Folks, we need to get ahead of this issue and fast.  A public health system will not only raise up the poor, but it will add jobs and help revive our economy. Please write or call your Senators to persuade them that we absolutely need a public health system now.

Contact information for all U.S. Senators can be found at U.S. Senate: Senate Home.

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