Subscribe to Common Dreams News Updates
Most Popular This Week
Popular content
Today's Top News
Senate Unveils Health Care Compromise
Senate Democrats unveiled the latest version of their health care legislation today and the proposal appeared to have the 60 votes it will need to pass -- setting up a historic vote on the bill as soon as next week.
The final Democratic holdout, Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, said in a news conference on Capitol Hill this morning that he will support the legislation after changes were made to address how abortion would be handled under the bill.
"Change is never easy, but change is what's necessary in America today," Nelson said. "I truly believe this legislation will stand the test of time and will be noted as one of the major reforms of the 21 Century."
Nelson, however, fired a warning shot at the House -- saying repeatedly that he would "reserve the right" to vote against the measure later if the proposal was changed as lawmakers work to reconcile differences between the two versions of the bill.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada has said he wants to vote on the bill before Christmas.
Democratic Senate Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., will speak with reporters at 10:45 a.m. ET. Read the text of the legislation here.
The legislation would give states the right to bar insurance coverage within their borders and would mandate that every state provide at least one insurance option that does not cover abortion. Nelson said the bill will also prohibit federal funds from being used to pay for the procedure.
95 Comments so far
Show AllDuh DEMs are t'rowin the Series! Bounce duh Bums OUT!! Free again, in Twenty Ten!
Some have called the individual mandate an added tax. It more closely resembles extortion, pioneered by the mafia and now institutionalized by Obama and Congress.
To the non-propertied worker, capitalism has always just been extortion.
The individual mandate will just further tighten the current system in medical-access driven indentured servitude even further. Think of all the people who will face economic ruin if they DARE try to fallow their dreams and leave their corporate wage-slave and student-debt indenture?
People who do not want and/or can not afford health insurance but who comply will be legally slaves to health insurance executives or to the penalty division of the IRS, their choice. (At least you get a choice as to who you are a slave to, laugh out loud.)
This is a very fascist oriented bill in many respects. It is also distinctly feudal, with the health insurance executives similar to powerful feudal lords and the people forced to pay them the serfs and the weaker feudal lords who “need protection”.
So...whadda we gotta do to organize a general strike? I keep reading about it but have yet to see any kind of organization attempts being made. Anyone have any ideas or a link?
If things don't SOON start to turn around in this priority/values feeble country, I will strike all "news". At least my blood pressure will get a reprieve.
I don't mind a good fight but I haven't seen my phone calls, letters, and typing getting much of anywhere. The government has a dark agenda and have become almost totally deaf to we underlings.
ears plugged with cash
If some asshole tries to make me pay for this shit, someone is gonna need some "healthcare" alright, and it ain't gonna be me.
Jail, you say? We're already in JAIL.
And I would add that if any progressives on this site pays for this piece of shit, then they deserve all the misfortune they get. No one, I mean no f*cking mandate from a corrupt-as-hell govt. will force me to pay for private insurance.
An alternative might be to start s healthcare coop. If everyone took thier health care insurance premiums and pooled them they could hire a doctor. Based on the free clinic model. You have to do more than not like something, if this passes the right to health care is going to be restricted and many people will be hurt by it. My employer just cancelled health care benefits entirely. They are not even paying cobra expenses which most people cannot afford anyway. It is really time to start thinking about how to get care if you are sick.
not a clue
Hey dumbass, read the bill and you get a clue. Geez !
I just read the Senate bill...
When we pay the CEOs of the health insurance companies our legally mandated funds we must also kneel at their feet, humbly bow our head and say "Thank you master".
You forgot the part about crawling on your belly to reach their feet.
There is something wrong with legislative process when a Nelson or a Leiberman can prevail over a majority of senators. The filibuster must go,
When the Blue Dogs and GOP big wigs win, the people lose, Please congress vote down this piece of dog do do,
AD
they are all dogs wearing different colored collars
vote for people
So much for the fantasy that Bernie Sanders is a progressive. Just another bought and paid for corporate shill. I always wondered why the Cat has this silly grin on his face: truth be told, his corporate paymasters are always fishing around inside his panties while making cash deposits.
Sanders is either not a progressive, on the take big time, or a complete wuss. I doubt he would "make the cut" to make it into a genuine non-right wing party.
Sanders might be thinking that improvements will be made. But this bill is far more likely to be repealed than improved in the future. How are you going to improve something with new provisions that are even more objectionable to the Republicans than the ones they already unanimously refused to support, keeping in mind that the number of Republicans in both the Senate and the House is going up about a year from now? The Republicans will be out to repeal much of it, not improve it, and I don't blame them.
This is dead on arrival and guaranteed to fail or, to be more precise, to do more harm than good. All of "the good stuff" directly regulating the insurance companies should have been law already, for years and years and years. Obviously, these things could have been passed by themselves and then there would be no big problem going forward as there is now.
tremaine you don't have a clue
Actually, tremaine and elohim are correct. Sanders is losing credibility on being a progressive and an independent. He voted for the 636b in war spending just passed in the Senate and his withdrawal of his amendment on attempting to bring up single payer isn't good.
ELOHIM YOU are a complete idiot '
go cry on Bernie's shoulder, moron.
The right wing and the insurance industry got what they wanted. Nelson's "compromise" is no compromise since no insurer will offer abortion services if people using public money apply for coverage. And he knows it. Not that there will be much public money available in any case. Obama's wars and bankers will see to that.
My brother used to say "the worse, the better". My oldest son said recently that greed is never satisfied, and the rich will implode on their greed. Meanwhile we're a bunch of enablers emptying our wallets to keep them going. I read that the bankers are having their biggest bonuses ever this year. So how's everyone else doing out there? I was in Toys R Us last night getting presents for my grandkids. The shopping was skimpy the Friday night before Christmas. Almost as many employees as shoppers.
My two new bumper stickers say:
Unionized
We Stand
Don't Trust
Corporate Media
Saw the latter on a car in Eugene and wanted my own. You know the saying; if you repeat something often enough it becomes believed. So get the word out, everybody.
When the people fear their government there is tyranny,
when the government fears the people there is liberty.
~ Thomas Jefferson
"...I read that the bankers are having their biggest bonuses ever this year. ..."
highest yearly profits for the banking sector EVER.
harpers article goes to a whole new level...
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2009/12/0082740
oil companies did the same a few years ago
insurance is next
Does anyone know whether a cloture vote (60 votes) is necessary to vote on the final version of a bill once it comes out of conference?
yes
Ok. So we will likely see no meaningful changes in the Senate bill in conference.
Exactly.
And the winners are: right wing christians, big pharma and the health insurance companies.
If Harry Reid had a backbone he would let the Republicans filibuster a real bill, not this travesty. He would make them talk 24/7 until their vocal cords hardened. And he would call for a vote now, so the filibuster would run through Christmas.
So, caving in completely to the anti-abortionists, anti-public optionists, anti-reformers, big pharma, and the health care lobby is what passes for "compromise" these days - compromise when you own a super-majority. The only thing that's been compromised is the American worker.
I'm confused about this whole thing. A mandate of enforced public compliance to private industry? Sounds like a republicans dream..so why is the 'party of the people' supporting this AT ALL? This whole thing needs to be shaken down to it's foundation of HEALTH FOR THE PEOPLE, and rebuilt accordingly for the benefit of health care, NOT a profit generating industry for the elites. WE need a PLAN for simplicity, not more complications.
there isn't a "party of the people"
There was, of course, no room for any more compromise. There is to be no real health care reform. Since this process of achieving nothing in HCR, plus the non-progress re climate change in Copenhagen, took a lot of our attention lately, we might pause and wonder what other things are going on that we missed. Still, the media finds time to examine Tiger Woods' personal life and other such irrelevant nonsense.
The assault on our few remaining civil liberties, last handful of cash, and reason itself is steady, constant, and absolutely relentless.
These a..holes only care about themselves...when will the masses rise up and throw these clowns into the street??????
The left bought OBamas line for change hook, line and sinker...aren't you fired up and ready to kick him out...what we have seen thus far is only prelude for the next 3 years.
They can get 60 Dem votes for a bill that only 33% of Americans want? Even among Democrats only 37% want it.
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/12/18-9
They've been reading aloud the Reid "compromise" in the Senate all day today, but they couldn't read the Sanders single-payer amendment a couple days ago?
Are we watching the Democratic Party commit suicide?
No, they are alive and well and happy counting the spoils.
They have sold the middle class out to the Insurance business. Don't you all get it yet? WOW!!!!!
Take a look at your insurance now if you have it because tomorrow it will either be gone or the cost will skyrocket!
Fans of the late, great "Seinfeld" sitcom may remember Mike and Carol, a couple who in two episodes pestered Jerry and friends to come and see their new baby: "Jeh-Ree, you gotta see the Bay-Bee! You gotta see the Bay-Bee!"
For comedy purposes, each time the "bay-bee" proves to be so appallingly ugly that Jerry, Elaine, etc. repeatedly flinch, gag, and turn away at the sight of the critter while trying not to offend the proud parents.
In one of the episodes, Kramer cheerfully announces that to him, the baby looks like LBJ.
When I saw the headline "Senate Unveils Health Care Compromise", it might as well have read, "You Gotta See the Bay-Bee!"
No Insurer Left Behind is just such a super-ugly baby-bee! And yet I predict that if it is born-- er, passes-- everyone will politely squint and declare that in a dim enough light, it really IS an attractive and delightful bay-bee!
Few will have the guts to stand by the belief that it would have been better if this monstrous bay-bee were drowned.
· Yr Obd't Servant
The same people that added 2000 pages of loopholes claim that this is a "Great Compromise".......Not for the American People but for the insurance companies Ole´ ......Approximately 36 million new insurees at about $7000 per year gives them an additional 252,000,000,000 and over ten years over 2.52 TRILLION DOLLARS they didn't have........Wow, sounds like the American People get screwed again and Obama led the way!!!!!!
There's more, Herbert, Some stubborn senators like the one from Nebraska were given special gifts (at taxpayer expense) to coerce them to sign the bill. I think that Nebraska will have Medicare payments paid for by the federal government. How do we find out what other enticements at our expense were given to stubborn senate holdouts?
Get real! People are actually suffering out in the real world. This is not a comedy sitcom. Idiots!!!!
15% FAT ---- DO OR DIE
Amazing, everyone knows their high fat diet means an early grave,
government telling them on average they eat 50% fat, and yet they
worship a medical system that butchers people on an operating
table of greed unequaled in the history of man.
Moral of the story, put nothing in your shopping cart that is more
then 15% of calories fat.
I'm getting tired of hearing about all those complaints about 'people who eat fat' - as if this was a choice. Americans today are miserable - and the people who eat the most fat, the poor, are the most miserable. Fat is a 'comfort food' - used to ease the pain of daily life for those trapped in a fascist society. Do you think these people would choose fat if they had a healthy life and an affordable healthy choice? You're putting the cart before the horse - a mistake made by too many people who don't have to walk in somebody else's shoes. This FACT has been proven many times - happy, well-adjusted children will choose healthy foods when they are available. Try buying healthy food on food stamps, and see where you get. And don't forget all that glitzy advertising - propaganda brainwashed into children from Day One - or the billions of dollars that go into producing such unresistable propaganda. There is hardly any way for a normal person to resist such a barrage of nonsense - especially when they can get 'instant gratification' from eating fat. The vendors of these vile products know this - they spend those billions on recruiting immoral psychologists to figure out how to sell poison to unsuspecting children - and adults.
Stop blaming the victims of our fascist society for the ills of a failed social experiment! When there is no hope for a better future, people will take comfort in a single moment of enjoyment, no matter the consequence, because there is nothing else. Just think about it - considering our pornographic advertising - how many kids decide "I want to grow up fat and lazy and unproductive" - and what would they (or their parents) do if they had a viable alternative?
I know, because I went from being well-off to being impoverished by a work-related injury, and found out that all the exciting things I used to do were no longer possible. After many years, I lost all hope - but once in a while, I do indulge in some fatty foods - although I usually save up my pennies to eat healthy (which is NOT possible on food stamps) and find I can afford about ONE healthy meal a week. Oh yeah - my worker's comp case is still not settled - although I lost my house, my job, and everything else of value I'd accumulated over the years. (Such as tools of my trade, my property - where I grew my own garden, with plenty left over for less fortunate neighbors - and any hope of ever recovering a normal life.
Insurance is extortion. It should be limited to luxuries only - even in 'home insurance' - most of which goes to cover liability for the lack of national healthcare (as does a chunk of my car insurance) - luxuries are rated seperately. I lack adequate healthcare - and an adequate diet. But wars of aggression - war crimes - are considered 'necessary' expenditures. Social welfare - a healthy society - doesn't even make the list. That's the way it goes under fascism - corporate/military control of everything in your life - and you're sold a bill of goods by professional propagandists, even if you don't watch TV (I don't, and never did) - it's everywhere, and polluting our minds even as I write. Stop to think before you write such nonsense. Americans used to be very active, and ate healthy meals (with every family member at the table) before the neo-fascists started destroying our society. Without hope, there is little alternative. Enjoy what you can today - tomorrow will probably be worse. We're all vulnerable to propaganda - but we don't all have to ingest it. And propaganda is much more deleterious to your health (and that of our society) than a little fat as comfort food today.
"Change is never easy, but change is what's necessary in America today," Nelson said. "I truly believe this legislation will stand the test of time and will be noted as one of the major reforms of the 21 Century."
There you go Amerika, you'll have to wait almost another 100 years to get real healthcare reform. :-) Satisfied?
What reform? If there's even the whiff of a PO or anything public Nelson won't vote for it. His abortion stance was a red herring. How can a guy approve of basically 45,000 a year dying for lack of care, homes beings lost to medical bills, etc. and say he's pro-life? I don't see this bill addressing any of this, except to make Americans poorer and even more desperate -- and they'll still be dying for lack of care.
Public option is a ruse.
Universal only moral option.