MONTPELIER - U.S. Sen. Bernard Sanders will likely make history this
year when - for the first time ever - he brings a bill creating a
national single-payer health care system to the floor of the Senate for
a vote.
As a compromise on a public-option plan that would allow
states to opt out gains steam in the U.S. Senate, Sanders, a Vermont
independent, continues to focus his attention on a single-payer bill,
although he acknowledges that there are not enough votes to pass it.
The public option was always a compromise for serious supporters of
health-care reform, who -- like Barack Obama when he was running for
the Senate in 2003 -- knew that a single-payer "Medicare for All"
system was what America needed to provide health care to everyone while
controlling costs.
But, in the reform legislation debuted Thursday by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the compromise was even more compromised than had been expected.
SUNRISE - Two people were arrested early this afternoon when they refused a request to leave during a demonstration outside the Cigna health insurance offices in Sunrise.
Progressives rejoiced when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced this week that the final Senate health care bill would include a public option. The announcement was a major victory for left-wing Democrats.
Better yet, it would be a public option without a trigger. Earlier proposals called for a triggered public option which would only take effect if private insurers failed to bring down costs on their own. Under the opt-out compromise, the public option would come on line automatically (albeit not until 2013), but states would later have the option of quitting.
Every time I hear about Joe Lieberman's latest apostasy, I think, Oy vey! There he goes again. More Joementum.
At least three doctors will be risking arrest in civil disobedience actions during Mobilization for Healthcare for All's
third wave of actions this week, which are being held to demand an end
to insurance abuse and to demand real health care reform for all.
How do you spell "hypocrisy"?
Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) told reporters today that he would in fact
filibuster any health care bill he doesn't agree with--and right now,
he doesn't agree with the proposal making its way through the Senate.
Suppose President Obama and his aides had decided to take on the worst offender among the big insurance companies this fall.
Suppose the White House had highlighted the failure of the company to
provide quality care, the abuses in which it has engaged and the
behind-the-scenes campaigning by a self-interested corporation to
influence the health-care debate in a manner that helps it while
harming Americans.
Majority Leader Harry Reid says health care legislation headed to the Senate floor will include an option for government-run insurance.
Reid says states will have the prerogative of opting out of the program if they choose.
Reid noted that polls show widespread public support for giving the government a role in the overhauled health care system envisioned by President Barack Obama and his allies in Congress.
