Obama Aide Sees Public Health Plan as Part Of Reform.

Source: nyt/Reuters

President Barack Obama's top healthcare adviser said on Wednesday she was optimistic the White House and congressional Democrats could overcome opposition by Republicans and insurers to a proposed new government-run health insurance program.

"I'm actually very hopeful that we will be able to reach an agreement on that," Nancy-Ann DeParle, who was tapped by Obama to head the newly created White House office on health reform, told reporters. . .

Obama backs a public health plan that would compete with private insurers to provide affordable coverage to the uninsured. . .

Republicans and private insurers oppose creating a new public plan, arguing it would be a first step toward a European-style, government-controlled system because it would drive private health insurance companies out of business.

DeParle said a public plan would have much lower overhead expenses that would help meet Obama's goals of lowering the cost of healthcare and keeping the insurance market "honest and competitive."






Read more: http://nytimes.com/reuters/2009/04/15/washington/politics-us-usa-obama-healthcare.html

could be the saving grace of the Obama planO8)

the WH did and is doing.

but if a government plan is available and used by a majority it could become a single-payer via 'back door'. And unfortunately that's the only way I see us getting single-payer out of this Congress. It would be lovely if I was wrong!O8)

equation. this incremental approach by the WH sucks. The WH and the new secretary of HHS are too much in debt (as are most of our congresscritters) to the health insurance companies-and big pharm. "affordable" is a joke with the WH plan.

...it being sabotaged by propaganda like it was in 1993.

This is going to be a massive bait-and-switch. The public option will be hyped for years (it has been already), you'll get HCAN out there whipping up support for the consevadem bill b/c it contains the public option, but then when the rubber meats the payment, we'll find out 5 years later, when the opportunity for real reform has faded, that the public option was a scam.

We should be pushing for Single Payer HR-676. Read the bill. It's 27 pages and it's written, it has almost 70 cosponsors. I'd rather have a failed vote on a good bill, then a bad bill passed into law.

This conservadem authored mandate-and subsidize bill is "Pay To Player" healthcare reform. The insurance industry and the drug industry have made billions in investments to get conservadems in there who will put thier bottom lines before the need to have a healthcare system that works for people.

And that's the way Progressives need to talk about this.

The public option will not end self-rationing of care, and it will not end medical bankruptsies, it will not rememdy inequities in healthcare access. HR 676 will and it generates the savings neccesary to accomplish this.

The Public Option is a cynical concocted mirage of single payer.

you know what you're talking about!

People MUST recognize the complexity involved in establishing controversial programs. You, Odin, are not naive at all; you're very practical and I appreciate seeing it. After living thru primaries and election, OTHERS seem to be unable to recognize political reality.

The Public Option is not single payer. You need to do your research. First and foremost nobody knows what the Public Option will be. It may wind up being a government run PPO, just like a private insurer. Which will just add more complexity to the system.

A single payer system means 1 set of billing rules and can mean the reduction of all this billing for every bandaid and suture.

Single Payer is the solution. It's really sad that our politicians fear the Drug and Insurance Companies more than the fear the people.

The individual mandate turns out to be the big untold story here.

It's been a huge failure in Mass, and for all the talk of the public option, the real story is the individual mandate.

Here the government forces you to buy a defective product.

Centrist policies on health care are all about giving you a little bit more health care security. NO TOO MUCH.

What America deserves is one universal health care insurance program where everyone enjoys exactly the same high level of coverage, paid for with progressive taxation, with no out of pocket expense.

Anything less is a sell out, and it's time to send Obama and the Congress this message.

I'm going to make a prediction. Soon enough there will be a single payer dungeon on DU. Wait for it.

I enjoyed the photos (and video) from the demonstration outside of PBS. Although I am a little confused, if there is a single payer dungeon on DU point it out and I'm there. Just in case I'm not being clear enough-I WANT SINGLE PAYER ANYWAY WE CAN GET IT.




:bounce: "Make no unnecessary enemies."




Keep fighting the good fight!

It would be a first step, as suggested, and NO DISSING AT ALL.

Virtually everything this Admin is doing and wants to do is in increments, and we have to pay close attention.

One statement she made that I don't understand is that she said a compromise might be for the government to agree to pay the same amount that the private insurers do. How is that going to lower the cost of health care. The only problem I see with the public/private competition is that I can see the private insurers cherrypicking who they cover, even more than they do now, so that they push all the high risk cases onto the government while basically covering the people who are least likely to get sick. That would seem to lead to a case where it will appear that the government is spending a lot more money on health care and set the public program up for ridicule.

I put video on the subject on my company's web page for this week.

:headbang:
rocktivity

Only if they keep trying to take billions of dollars in bonuses.

The private insurers will make sure there are enough loop holes in the single payer bill so that the public option does not "Crowd them out".

GO look at the criticism about S-CHIP. It's all about how the poor private insurers are crowded out.

If this gets thru conference committee it will have some sort of way for the private insurers to destroy this public option.

If you think its going to be that you can buy into traditional medicare, dream again. It won't.

The only solution to our healthcare crisis is to eliminate the private insurers and pass national healthcare.

Taiwan did this in 1995 and they got everyone covered with excellent care spending little more then what they had before they moved to the NHI system.

America's Congress is in the pocket of Insurance and Drug companies. Esp the heads of the relevant committees.

And you have HCAN out there brainwashing liberals into thinking the fight is for the public option. Once they have thier fake Public Option victory we'll all be expected to get on board with the larger bill.

Unless Medicare is the only health insurer it will continue to be undermined and destroyed. Go try to find a provider that takes Medicare. Republicans and conservadems have been attacking it for generations.

We need Medicare for all so that it cannot be screwed around with.

Apr 15th, 2009 | WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama's top health care adviser said Wednesday a compromise is within reach on a government health plan for the middle class that wouldn't drive private insurers out of business.

Offering the option of government coverage to workers and their families has become one of the most contentious issues in the debate about overhauling health care to cover the uninsured and curb costs. Obama has proposed a public plan, and liberals insist it be part of any final deal. Conservatives and businesses fear that could open the door for a government takeover of the system.

...
But the insurance industry remains skeptical, and many Republicans say any kind of public plan would be a deal breaker.

DeParle suggested one compromise might be that the public plan pays hospitals and doctors rates similar to what private insurers pay. That would address fears that government would use its muscle to pay rock-bottom prices for medical services, allowing the public plan to charge discounted premiums that private insurers couldn't compete with.

Even if the government plan paid private-market rates to doctors and hospitals, it could still cut costs, DeParle said. A government plan wouldn't have to turn a profit, and could also save on administrative expenses.

"If it's a policy disagreement, there are ways of bridging that gap," said DeParle.

...

His plan would offer middle class workers and their families the option of enrolling in a public plan, along with private insurance, through a new kind of purchasing pool. But Obama has avoided filling in the details, thereby giving himself some room to compromise.

Those details would be critical, according to a recent economic study. The Lewin Group, a consulting firm, found that a public plan would help to significantly reduce the number of uninsured. But depending on how it's designed, it could also take away much of the business from private insurers.

If a public plan was open to all employers and individuals, and paid doctors and hospitals the same low rates as Medicare, it would become the dominant insurer in the country, the study found. But if the plan were open only to individuals and small businesses, and paid rates similar to private insurers, its impact would be limited. In that case, the public plan would mainly be helping groups that now have a hard time getting private coverage.
...
http://www.salon.com/wires/ap/2009/04/15/D97J3UI00_health_overhaul_compromise/index.html

As the way I see it the Private Insurers should be put out business on purpose for thier many crimes.

Who wants to save them? Why? They are needless, wasteful middlemen sucking out precious resources out of healthcare system.


HR676 provides generous reassignment, training, severance, extend unemployment benefits for those missplaced by the elimination of the private insurers.

There is no reason we need to have more than one payer in this country.

It's time for HR676.

The public wants it, the providers want it. It's time.

They don't profit by insuring you--they profit by taking in more in premiums than they pay out in benefits. When it comes to health insurance, THAT'S the reason why there are so many unhealthy and uninsured people!

For-profit insurance must die. America survived the death of the horse and buggy as the primary means of transportation. We could nationalize the banks, why not nationalize the insurance companies and put the profits right into the public coffers? THAT would lower taxes!

:headbang:
rocktivity

Bloody Hands.
Private Insurers make self-interested and arbitrary claim and coverage denials relegating many to premature death.

Restrict Choice.
Private Insurers restrict medical consumers’ choice in medical providers, inhibiting the proper function of the free market in medical services and enabling bad providers to thrive.

Adds Complexity.
Over 1,200 Private Insurance bureaucracies complicate and impede the practice of medicine with differing and often conflicting billing and administrative policies.

Drains Resources.
Nearly 30% of the healthcare spending funneled through health insurance middlemen is wasted on profit taking, underwriting, executive compensation and other unnecessary expense and waste.

Squanders Expertise.
Our current health care model diverts providers' attention from "how to heal" to "how to get compensated" by the shameless insurers.

Manipulates the Media.
Private Insurers exert a level of editorial control over the media via advertising
purchases.

Corrupts Our Politics. Private Insurers manipulate elected officials with campaign donations, plum corporate jobs, and an army of lobbyists.

Brainwashes the Populace. Private Insurers use paid media to lie directly to the populace, leveraging fear tactics and other highly sophisticated propaganda campaigns in order to evade accountability for the consequences of their actions and protect the status quo.

Restricts Debate. Private Insurers’ media and political operatives dishonestly malign genuine reform as “politically infeasible” in order to limit the debate to industry-blessed half measures.

Bottom line: Private Health Insurance Must Go!

Reform proposals that do not remove private insurers from our healthcare system are morally unacceptable, fiscally irresponsible, and unsustainable even in the near term. These “mandate and subsidize” proposals are not well meaning attempts at realism by so-called centrists. They are a sinister attempt to marginalize the opportunity our country has at this defining moment to sideline the private insurers and move to a healthcare system that works – publicly funded and privately provided Medicare for all, as implemented in HR 676 – The United States National Health Care Act.

not be bold at all.

He said too many backroom deals during Clinton Plan negotiations and said he would put HIS healthcare negotians on C-Span for all Americans to watch. Hello????

A doc in Ohio - Dr. Johnathon Ross - put it this way to me last year.

The health insurance industry is like a vicious dog, Dr. Ross said.

Those who would create a public plan to compete with the health insurance are just kicking the dog in the face.

The dog is going to counterattack and rip your face off.

Better to put the dog out of his misery.

HR676 is what we need. The bill being crafted by Conservadems in the congress is going going to be a big disappointment.

The public option is a scam. Even if it gets thru conference comittee the insurance industry will find it very easy to undermine it the same wave they've undermined Medicaid, Medicare and S-CHIP and the rest.

The answer is HR676 - One Nation, One plan.

Everything is covered from soup to nuts paid for with progressive taxation and you have no out of pocket expense.

This is a plan for people who want government to work for people. The Baucus-Kennedy bill is for sold-out politicians who dare not upset thier paymasters.

It's time for the people to lead!

Single-Payer or BUST. I mean that too. Whatever we get this time will be with us for a long time as they'll wipe their hands and be "done" with health care "reform".