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Lee, Woolsey Push for Public Option
Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), in the background, and Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) in this Capitol Hill file photo. Both Congresswomen have vowed to fight back against the Senate version of healthcare reform that was passed today. (WDCpix) eve of a historic health care vote in the Senate, liberal
Democrats in the House have launched a full-throated defense of the
public option — a sign of battles to come when party leaders try to
meld the two bills.
“Now that the Senate is poised to pass its version of a health care
reform bill, it is time to turn to reconciling it with the House
legislation," California Reps. Barbara Lee and Lynn Woolsey said in a
joint statement Wednesday. “For Congress to achieve true health care
reform we must have a meaningful conference process that integrates
both bills into the best possible piece of legislation for the American
people."
Their top priorities:
"A public option — If the bill requires people to buy health insurance,
there must be a public option to bring down costs by providing
lower-cost competition to private insurers and choice to consumers."
"Affordability protections — The legislation must protect lower and
middle-income individuals by ensuring that subsidies make coverage
affordable and that Medicaid patients have access to primary care
physicians."
"Tighter market regulations — New regulations must keep premiums
reasonable and end abusive practices. Insurance companies should no
longer be exempt from anti-trust laws and any premium increases must be
reviewed before they take effect."
“Employer mandates — If individuals are required to buy insurance, employers should be required to provide it.
“Tax surcharges — Health care reform should be financed by tax
surcharges on the wealthy not excise taxes on health insurance plans
offered to many workers and union members.
They're not as critical of the Senate package as New York Rep. Louise Slaughter;
Lee and Woolsey, who serve as chairwomen of the Congressional Black
Caucus and Congressional Progressive Caucus, respectively, even go out
of their way to thank the Senate majority leader and Sens. Roland
Burris (D-Ill.) and Ben Cardin (D-Md.) for adding a provision on health
care disparities and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) for helping to secure
$10 billion for community health centers.
But it's clear that they're not going to roll over, as some senators
have suggested they should. “We look forward to working with the House
and Senate leadership to ensure that the final legislation provides
affordable and comprehensive health care to people who need it.”
- Posted in
77 Comments so far
Show AllThis article demonstrates how low this country has sunk when the top priority of liberal Democrats is, not universal health care, but a public option. The priority under Employee Mandates and Affordability Protections is also quite misleading as it does not mention that insurance companies under the current Senate plan will be able to jack up their premiums for such preexisting conditions as Parkinson''s Disease [which my wife has] as well as charging older people up to three times higher than what younger people are currently paying. It would not be at all surprising to find that leaders of other industrialized countries are shaking their heads in amazement that a country as rich as the United States does not provide universal health care for its citizens.
The public option as written would force insurance companies to offer low cost identical insurance as the government run policy. Medicare for all would have been the best outcome but that WAS impossible. Forcing people to buy sub standard insurance is a joke. They are also not going to cover biologics that are essential to the cure in breast cancer. My best wishes to the poster for whose wife has Parkinsons. My hope for you and everyone is good medical care everyone in you position.
Peace
Attorney Generals in the states of Alabama, Colorado, Michigan, North Dakota, Texas and Washington have expressed concern about the constitutionality of the Nebraska capitulation, and the constitutionality of criminalizing those who do not buy insurance from the corporations who wrote the health care legislation.
If you vote in any of those states contact your attorney general and tell them to pursue this issue.
raydelcamino
Greg Abbot, the AG of Texas has pretty much declared there is little question that its unconstitutional and has pretty much said he will pursue it if it passees with this type of Imperial policy in it.
I am sure others will join him and his office.
Erroll
Absolutely spot on posting.
Don't you think that the leaders of other countries are just shaking their heads period?
Sorry to hear about your wifes condition and you are right, as it stands, you are about to get handed an increase in cost.
Shameful!
Yes, and employers will be looking at their employees in the healthy versus unhealthy category and premmiums will increase on those deemed too unhealthy from high glucose levels to being overweight.
This is our last hope. Contact your representative today and hold them to supporting a strong public option. Make them understand seats are going to fall in the house in November. We cannot afford to lose the seats we fought so hard to get.
Tell them to stand up for US...we the people who have to fund this. Forcing insurance on people who are havng problems putting food on the table of the house they just lost seems a bit unfair.
The provisions they want will set women's rights back at least 50 years. Cause young people to avoid medical school because the cost out weighs the outcome and give doctors every right to stop treating not only Medicaid, but Medicare. Does this make sense to you?
I have been doing that for months - letters and calls. Since democracy is only an empty buzzword for PR spin and the Corporate Mafia really run the show, I knew that it was futile, but I did it anyway. Hope is another word for irrational expectations.
Rich? With a national debt of 12 trillion? You must be kidding. We are akin to the proverbial aristocrat living high on the hog while amassing huge debts. His heirs will find out after he dies.
Crowsnest
The U.S. would be able to substantially decrease that 12 trillion dollar national debt if it were to cut in half its military budget. But that prospect seems about as likely as the politicians in Washington, D.C. actually pushing for universal health care in this country.
We could start by banning all of the fat-cat private contracts by the Pentagon, and rolling back the tax cuts enacted by the Bush Administration and the Democrats in Congress. Wasn't that one of the hollow campaign promises made by HRH Obama?
It is even simpler than that. Close all overseas bases in places like Germany, Italy, the UK, Japan, Korea, etc. and the balance of payment deficit vanishes. Redirect "defense contractors" to doing things like developing alternative renewable energy technologies, potable water and sewage treatment systems, and food and medical care distribution (first at home and then overeas).
Doing just this would stablize currencies, provide meaningful jobs, a foreign policy that made friends instead of advarsaries, and (most importantly of all) a more equitable distribution of the more than adaquate wealth of the planet to all of its citizens.
Poet
There are many misconceptions - deliberately spread ones - regarding the national debt. It is not like a household bank account. Increasing national debt only becomes a problem if it starts creating inflationary pressures. Little chance of that happening in the mid-term.
And as others noted, there are sufficient funds from "defense" spending, plus a modest dedicated tax, to create a first-class Canadian-style system with even dental coverage.
I WILL NOT PAY INSURANCE CARTELS A DIME. THEY HAVE BEEN PROVED TO LET PEOPLE DIE FOR THEIR PROFIT. THAT'S NOT MANSLAUGHTER. ITS MURDER.
If this legislation passes, not buying private insurance will be a crime and we will all face penalties. What are they going to do, put us all in prison for not paying for un-affordable insurance?
You get free health care in prison!
Excellent, what do I have to do to get in? Maybe during the next protest they will oblige me.
What are they going to do, put us all in prison... ?
________________________________
They might.
Incarceration is a booming business-- like the warmongery trade, especially but not limited to so-called "defense contractors", there's gold to be wrung from every drop of blood coursing through the veins of disadvantaged and struggling ordinary citizens of ALL nations.
Thus, these depraved livelihoods very much endorse "the more, the merrier".
''Are there no prisons?'' said the Spirit, turning on him for the last time with his own words. ''Are there no workhouses?''
Happy Holidays, if it ain't out o' keepin' with the situation.
· Yr Obd't Servant
Cheers OS! You indirectly gave me a stock tip, Corrections Corporation of America, the largest private prison corp in the world.
http://quote.morningstar.com/Stock/s.aspx?t=CXW
Although I am just kidding and being satirical, I would bet that their stock does go up in the coming year, as it did last year.
Enjoy your holidays. I will try and not talk politics with my extended family, who (like many) has a wingnut Uncle who watches Fox News and thinks he knows everything.
Yes, because the prisons are now for-profit enterprises. Its a win-win for the shareholders all around, and, after all, profit is the bottom line in America above all else. If profits are up all is well with the country.
No, they don't....they push for nothing....They are speaking hollow words and I don't know why they are lying.
It's hard to even listen to Obama and any of these spineless Democrats any more.
Nancy Pelosi cannot wait to pass this thing so what does that tell ya?
let's start shaming relentlessly the by-bribe-only demobliRats in congress by comparing W's give away of ~60 billions to the pharmaceutical industry through his no-price-negotiation Medicare reform’s drug benefit (which got ted kennedy hysterical at the time and rightly so!) with the obscene ~one (0.866547732121) trillion dollars that congress demobliRats want to throw at the healthcare leeches now that "change has come".
let's demand that the full brunt of antitrust legislation be imposed on the healthcare industry immediately ! let's compel demobliRat senators and representatives to defend from *capitalist* competition --live in front of the cameras, explicitly and shamelessly-- the obscene profits of the healthcare leech cartel.
let's call for binding legislation to be phased-in to bring down healthcare's share of the GPD to below 10% *before* obama's 1st term will end._ one should simply increase in a phased way the taxation of excessive profits of the clepto-medical complex, and reserve the extra revenue for education and infrastructure improvements, especially in rural states.
such hard numbers and measures would not allow demobliRat senators and representatives to equivocate any further around the issues and furthermore they would not allow the few progressive push-over senators (like sanders) or venalo-progressive ones (like byrd) to hide behind tear-jerking statements like "now we can give healthcare to another 20,071 rural grandmothers" while at the same time voting to increase the healthcare cartel's share of the GPD to 30%.
Barbara and Lynn are both good gals who have been on the people's side in this matter from the git-go. But this latest outburst, along with Weiner's withdrawal of his ammendment, along with Bernie Sanders withdrawal of his ammendment are merely posturing for the 2010 elections.
Democrats and progressives are looking around and suddenly realizing that they have absolutely nothing to show for their last two years of being in charge of both houses of Congress except a lot of verbal flatulance.
The only people more frightened than them are the Republicans who just may get the Old Maid of responsibility of government passed into their grubby and greedy hands next election with absolutely no clue of how to handle it and the growing public outrage over how things are going.
Poet
Only after we get a Universal, Single Payer Healthcare Systen shall I consider voting for Democrats again. Never Republicans...
That means you will not be voting D for many decades, if ever :)
We got 460+ Reps and 100 Senators. In all that bunch we got 3, maybe 4 that are actually working for We the People. Amazing, ain't it!
Actually only 435 Reps--otherwise everything else you say is right-on.
Poet
Not amazing at all it is quite predictable, what does one expect from a phony democracy? The Industry spent a million dollars a day to write the legislation, what's the surprise?
Public opinion polls have shown for over thirty years that a clear majority of Americans want a universal single-payer, Canada-style health care system. Yet our leaders can ignore the public for decades and get away with it. What does that tell you?
No, it's not clear at all that they're "not going to roll over, as some senators have suggested they should." The Dems have received word from on high (Rahm Emanuel)--pass the Senate version and don't worry about the Left.
any congressman or woman that pushes for a public option during the reconcilliation process is going to be threatened by Obama - just as he jabbed his finger in Rep Wydens chest and threatened him......
doesn't it feel great that Obama sides with lieberman and threatens any congressman that is even half-way not a sell-out to corporate ameerica............
The Democratic Progressive Caucus needs to demand that the public option be a Medicare Buy-In to every American who would prefer to have medical insurance and NOT pay into any "for-profit" insurance corporation. The premium for this buy-in MUST be truly affordable (for me the "buy-in" that was in the Senate plan before it was out would have cost me $600/mo. which is NOT AFFORDABLE).
But, alas. The Progressive Caucus members will NOT be asking for a TRUE Public Option. The Public Option they are clamoring for will only be open to a select group of Americans, which is discrimination!!!!
I predict that they will do what they always do. What Sanders and Weiner did. They will "go along to get along" and CAVE.
The only hope we have now is that this legislation will get killed in the courts.
We need health CARE and NOT INSURANCE. The single payer plan of the other developed countries WORKS for most, but it takes a congress with the spine to stand up to the corporate masters -- which ours has not.
I appreciate Barbara and Lynn standing up to get a crumb added back into the bill during reconciliation, but WHERE are the OTHERS of their caucuses? They ALL need to be standing up TOGETHER.
And yes, Rahm will be over there in a flash threatening them. And if all are TOGETHER, he may just find out how truly fractured the party has become since he's taken over the reins and continued the corporate agenda of Bush and Clinton.
Hey Rahm, there's a REASON Obama caught the public's fancy last time around and it wasn't just Palin. His young lemmings actually BELIEVED that he represented REAL CHANGE. WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Certainly not out voting for ANYONE anymore. Did you actually read the polling results on VA and NJ?
BTW--My representative, Henry Waxman, is holding a series of TOWN MEETINGS finally IN his district the first part of January. Anyone who is in the LA area then should make sure to BE THERE and have your voice heard. He was one of the people who wrote the original House bill and who kept the Kucinich amendment OUT (it would have allowed a waiver of ERISA laws and made passage of single payer by individual states easier). He, along with Nancy Pelosi, kept single payer OFF the TABLE in the beginning. Thus, the total sell-out to the for-profit insurance monopolies continues.
"what does one expect from a phony democracy?"
We have a phony democracy because we have a phony public.
Why is everyone blaming corrupt politicians for what our
corrupt and self-absorbed majority pay it to do?
Why is everyone saying all those in good homes are fooled, when deceitful
and serpents and wise as a fox they laugh all the way to the bank?
How do politicians get away with ignoring the public for decades and get away with it?
Why did the Industry spend a million dollars a day to write this legislation?
Are you that naive?
You tickle my funny bone socialist, tickle it royal.
Over half of society into good homes with savings invested in stocks,
while 2 billion of those we have plundered suffer hunger on less then
$2 a day, self-absorbed you surely are I would say.
You miss the point, you need to read up on how power and intrests work in this country. Putting all the blame on victime is a typical lazy way to explain the situation, and something the mainstream media does a good job of.
You think our winner takes all election system is fair and democratic?
You think the corporate sponsored, big money elections are free and fair?
You think that the corporate bribers in Washington have no influence?
You think that the legal framework that gives corporation the rights of individual human beings is just and fair?
You think that a legal framework that defines money as free speech is democratic?
You think that election fraud is not rampant?
I got some land south of Key West for sale cheap, let me know.
In the meantime, turn off the TV
Sioux Rose
SOCIALIST: Don't waste your breath. This individual has a very narrow agenda, and wants to blame the public for eating fat as if that's the ONLY issue under discussion or coloring this awful debate (or would-be debate, if we had a respresentative democracy).
Thanks for the warning Sioux Rose, I have not seen this person post here before.
Sioux Rose
SOCIALIST: Happy holidays.
I have used my name since the site opened for comments, but it's very easy for a poster to log in and out using at least one different screen name. The persons who do this usually give themselves away as their pet peeves and knee-jerk favored causes show up. Their use of cover, in the form of a variety of names, gives naive members of the forum (or newcomers) the false sense that such views are represented by more persons than the few who regularly use this tactic. I think persons should use their own names. It would make for more integrity, although it might make things easier for Homeland Security, too; and therein lies the rub. Bet you've never been accused of being one and the same with an astrologer before? I'm about ready to log off for the night and become social... blessings to all who give a damn about their fellow man & woman.
Another clue (or tip) is that usually those new to the forum state as much. And they don't HOG a thread. Not such a new light has done 10 of the 52 postings. I submitted an idea for a posting limit on the threads, and I think it holds merit.
You are posting ten times more words then me,
most of it fiction and your not fooling anyone.
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
Your contention that "our corrupt and self-absorbed majority" pays for our corrupt politicians to do what they do is false. The middle-class has been effectively priced out of MEANINGFUL participation in the political process by two factors: (1) Corporate media continually driving up the cost of political campaign ads, and (2) the ability of only a percentage of the CEO class to afford the sustained scale of campaign finance donations able to command Legislative and Executive Branch attention from members of Congress and presidents. The proof of this is 25 years of polls that repeatedly show that on major issues such as the environment, education, the economy & jobs, health care, etc., the agenda of the increasingly merged corporate (upper-class) & political class has drifted farther and farther apart over time from the wishes of the majority of voting Americans.
To quote a former Vice President of Procter & Gamble speaking at a convention of advertising executives:
"The American people don't know what they want. It's up to us [corporate America] to tell them what they want."
Rush Limbaugh drives his middle- to lower-class lemmings over the cliff on behalf of corporate America.
DLC campaign shape-shifters like Rahm Emmanuel drive their BS indoctrinated middle- to lower-class buffalo over the cliff on behalf of corporate America. The corporate "mainstream" media are generic cattle herders who instill public credence in whatever the sugar-coated poison of the day is that their corporate upper-class owners order them to dispense.
Poster above, poster below, they are one and the same.
Read their comments, pure confusion.
Socialist
Intelligently and persuasively well stated.
The answer to your question socialist, the American people need to take a long hard look in the mirror!
I guess this is all part of the same coin. We must look in the mirror, admit that we are in denial, and resist the Oligarchic system. This legislation ought to make it crystal clear that the Corporate Mafia calls the shots and the poeple do not.
Admit that the self-absorbed voting majority rules absolute.
Admit that self-evident fact, or prove that all elections are fraud.
don't bleive me, read the following authors: Howard Zinn, Sheldon Wolin, Steven Hill, Arend Lijphardt, and Michael Hudson for starters.
You must be an apologist for the status-quo or naive.
The rich have our intelligent middleclass majority enslaved by
a guilt complex.
For thought controlled into being self-absorbed, focused inward
always are they on emotions, and suffering such a delusion, they
become victimized by their own emotions.
I hope the House can force improvements on this worse-than-current-health-care-system bill. The senate bill only cements the insurance companies' control of health care delivery and costs. They are going to cull patients with pre-existing conditions by pricing them out of the market instead of via recission. They will penalize the older patient by surcharging them, the better to improve profit margins by. What has changed? Just the verbiage.
“Why did the Industry spend a million dollars a day to write this legislation?”
A little over half of society has all the wealth and fund all elections.
So Congress has a burden to keep us in the lower class locked in economical
slavery and settle any disputes between our different industries.
So the healthcare debate is all about the medical industry wanting to charge
what the traffic can bear, manufacturing industry wanting healthcare costs kept
to a minimum and all the paid actor politicians wanting to please their voters.