Health Care battle, post Baucus,
approaches climax
Ed Note: See comments below to follow events post Baucus Bill as the legistature turns to reconciling its five drafts. And who will bell the 800 pound gorilla?
The only question re the mediocre Baucus Bill was whether Olympia Snowe, the Republican from Maine, would vote yes. She did.
Interesting tidbits from the pre-vote chat:
– The Dems are mad as hatters at the insurance companies re the report they put out over the weekend defaming (donkeys say) the reform effort. Perhaps sleeping dogs have been kicked and will bite. Ie perhaps positive, heading for the floor.
– Hatch, the arch GOPher of Mormonland, says the Baucus Bill will not even be the one that is voted on the Senate floor. Says the REAL bill is being written behind closed doors.
Interesting indeed. Does that mean the real, final Senate bill — which must deal in some fashion with the draft coming from Ted Kennedy’s old committee — will lean more leftward and include a public plan? But Snowe by voting yes has likely roped the Donkeys in about the center.
– Jay Rockefeller of West Virgina, whom I admire: “The misleading and to me harmful claims made over the weekend by the profit driven health insurance companies are politicking for corporate gain at its worst.
ed says:
The stocks of the insurance companies reacted negatively, then bounced a bit.
Her participation may make the final bill that comes out of the Senate less lefty than otherwise.
Will be interesting to continue watching how the big health insurers — the profiteers who should not exist as they do — react across coming days and weeks.
October 13th, 2009 at 4:47 pm
ed says:
This is a reaction I wrote elsewhere to a friend’s angry reaction to the supine White House approach to the Baucus bill etc.
I don’t blame the Prez here, yet. What’s really going on is obscure. When I can see something maybe I’ll start yelling.
The regulatory scheme is very important, esp if the bill that passes (pace Pelosi) doesn’t have the public option. For the regulations that Obama highlighted in his Sept speech will drive the profiteers out of the business, across … five, seven, years? Opening a place for a public plan.
This is clearly what the inner circle people — including Bill Clinton — have been thinking since labor day. (Big Bill was on the Stewart show in Sept and indicated this, to my ears.) … Read More
Snowe voting for the Baucus Bill will tend perhaps to keep it in the center. But there’s other ideas in the Senate to be reconciled. And then the conference with whatever the House produces.
I think Obama is, on balance, wise to be quiet here at this moment. Wise to let the likes of Pelosi take the flack when it comes.
The asshole political unrest here is not to be taken lightly. The black boy beaten to death in Chicago last week seems to me a serious portent.
October 13th, 2009 at 5:17 pm
ed says:
A study saying a single payer plan would be great economic stimulus:
http://www.calnurses.org/media-center/press-releases/2009/january/first-of-its-kind-study-medicare-for-all-single-payer-reform-would-be-major-stimulus-for-economy-with-2-6-million-new-jobs-317-billion-in-business-revenue-100-billion-in-wages.html
October 13th, 2009 at 7:44 pm
ed says:
In Florida, the hurricans of 2004 and 2005 chased away most of the house insurance companies. Too expensive doing business there. And now there is a state-run insurance system called Citizens instead.
That’s the pragmatic idea I ws referring to above. The thing is, the frickin’ lobbyists are whittling down the regulatory scheme too. It’s very important that the final bill be strong here.
October 13th, 2009 at 7:47 pm
ed says:
I wrote to our new New York Senator — Hillary’s replacement — Kirsten Gillibrand, last week, asking her to stand up for a public plan, and received this reply:
QUOTE
Dear Admiral Ney,
Thank you for writing to me about the current state of our healthcare system.
I share your concerns and am committed to finding a solution that will give quality, affordable health care to every American.
I believe that by opening up a not-for-profit public health plan like a “Medicare for all,” we can ensure that every American has access to quality, affordable healthcare where anyone could buy in at an affordable rate, such as 5% of their income.
In the world’s wealthiest nation, it’s unconscionable that people are turned away from coverage because of a pre-existing condition and that families are just one illness away from bankruptcy.
Offering a public health care plan option to compete with private insurers is the best way to truly lower health costs, improve quality of care and ensure access to care in rural and other underserved areas.
Injecting healthy competition into the health care market is the only way to achieve real health care reform. I am committed to addressing this important issue and will work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle toward a bipartisan solution.
Sincerely yours,
Kirsten Gillibrand
United States Senator
END QUOTE
This is cheering because the Senator is something of a cipher, for being so unknown, and came into office with a reputation for being very middle of the road. Like Baucus.
Thus, cheering to find that she seems to be standing with about three out of four americans on this.
Mark twain where’s my tricorn, athwart amidships, full speed ahead!
October 15th, 2009 at 12:25 am
ed says:
Howard Dean has spoken on the Baucus Bill:
Admiral Halsey notified me we better get a plan or the shore’s a lee.
Avast abaft, ahead amidships! Heave to, Mr Reid! Club haul that hassif and disrate the drogues! Scupper my Howse and you’ll hang from the hapax you whoreson head piece!
October 15th, 2009 at 11:40 am
ed says:
Times piece on the legislature turning its attention to the 800 pound gorilla.
October 15th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
ed says:
FROM:
WASHINGTON — MarketWatch.com
Virtual monopolies that health insurers have enjoyed in a multitude of markets face possible breakup under a proposal made Wednesday that calls for revoking the carriers’ exemption from antitrust laws.
U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said the exemption granted to insurers under the McCarran-Ferguson Act of 1945 should be repealed in light of repeated concerns that individual insurers often have a stranglehold in major markets. The act granted exemptions to such entities as Major League Baseball and the railroads.
“The health insurance’s antitrust exemption is one of the worst accidents of American history,” Schumer said in a press release.
“It deserves a lot of the blame for the huge rise in premiums that has made health insurance so unaffordable. It is time to end this special status and bring true competition to the health insurance industry.”
END QUOTE
Here’s Huff Post re same.
October 15th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
ed says:
And Wall Street Journal today discerns “signs of a split” within corporate insurers as the car crash approaches.
And leading Blue Dog Donkey in House says maybe Medicare For All ain’t such a bad idea after all.
And 30 unions declare a public plan is necessary. YEAH !
October 15th, 2009 at 11:37 pm
ed says:
Here’s Paul Krugman as to how the apparently dumb analysis (by Price Waterhouse Coopers, a big shot consultant firm) released by the corp insurers over the weekend backfired by angering the donkeys in the Senate.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/16/opinion/16krugman.html?_r=1
October 16th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
ed says:
Wow. The Prez comes out blasting the insurance companeies.
Let’s go to a new thread.
October 20th, 2009 at 9:37 am