President Still Favors Public Option as a Means of Creating Competition and Choice, says Gibbs

Source: CBS News/Face the Nation

(CBS)White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said on Face the Nation Sunday that President Obama is still in favor a government-sponsored health insurance plan -- but does not intend to replicate the beleaguered U.S. Postal Service.

The federal government would be able to successfully administer a health insurance option, Gibbs told CBS Anchor Harry Smith, even though the government-run Postal Service is facing serious financial problems.

"I don't think he was saying that what we were going to do is create the postal service for healthcare," Gibbs said. "The president believes this option of a government plan is the best way to provide choice and competition."



Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/08/16/ftn/main5245252.shtml?tag=stack

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Kathleen Sebelius is saying one thing about the public option. However, Robert Gibbs is saying another.

Check out this article regarding Press Secretary Robert Gibb's comments on Face the Nation today.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/08/16/ftn/main5245252.shtml?tag=stack

If the public option is dropped, it's the Democratic Party that is going to be feeling outrage and despair when the elected officials all lose their jobs at the federal level.

it might be a good idea if all of us go to this link http://www.healthreform.gov/communityreports/comments.html and let the Whitehouse know how we feel about the public option being dropped. I did, letting them know that I read the story from Associated Press. It can't hurt to send your remarks.

This is inexcusable. The Senate should not have been permitted to go on summer recess until a bill was on the table.

The Republican extremists can protest anything they want. All we can do is call them liars.

We cannot respond in any positive way because -- we don't really have a bill. We have a bunch of proposals that say different things. What idiot allowed the Senate to leave D.C. without at least a draft bill? That person should resign immediately.

working out.

Here's what I just sent.. pulled no punches.

"I turned 65 last year and now have Medicare. Before reaching 65 I could not afford health insurance!! Period. I had no serious illnesses or accidents. I was lucky. We need Single Payer health insurance. Period. Any person with 1/10 of a brain understands that. DUH!! I mean, every industrialized country in the world has some form of single payer. So what's the problem??? The problem is dumb narcissistic fucks like Sarah Palin, stupid ignorant Americans, lying, greedy health and pharma corporations, groups like "AARPiss on people", and Republican owned media. FIGHT FIRE WITH FIRE. The hell with 'bi-partisanship." That's just cowardice. Go after those fuckers. We won- We one the presidency, the House and the Senate. If you jokers can't win this one, you can't win anything and I will just quit voting.. period. See 'ya."

if they produce a mess of pottage. It is a very smart approach, they have to get elected in 2010, Obama has another two years, and there is no reason to think the health care situation will improve fortuitously in the meantime.

Doing a little of both

They are sending a clear message that they are willing to work with congress, the Blue Dogs, so that the entire reform bill is not destroyed...The simple fact is there are not enough votes for a public option regardless of how bad many of us would like to see one...Co-ops will be the tool they use to try and keep Insurance Co. honest.

From what I read they seem to think there would be 10-12 million people that would enter the co-ops right away making it the 4th largest insurance provider in the nation. If this is true then it might work.

"President Barack Obama himself on Saturday suggested he won’t insist on a public option.

'The public option, whether we have it or we don’t have it,is not the entirety of healthcare reform,” Obama said at the town hall event in Colorado. “This is just one sliver of it. One aspect of it. And by the way, it’s both the right and the left that have become so fixated on this that they forget everything else.'

Sebelius said Sunday that what the president sees as essential is to set up competition to private insurers in the healthcare system. But she said that doesn’t have to come from a public health insurance option.

“Well, I think there will be a competitor to private insurers,” she said on CNN. “That’s really the essential part, is you don’t turn over the whole new marketplace to private insurance companies and trust them to do the right thing. We need some choices, we need some competition.”

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/administration-shifts-on-public-health-option-2009-08-16.html


See also http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4018197


The message is that Obama would prefer a public option. That seems clear.

However, it also seems, from several sources, that he is will, not eager, but willing to sign a bill that does not include a public option. That is less clear, but I think they want to tell us that we can do without a public option if Congress cannot get it passed.

"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A key Senate negotiator said Sunday that President Obama should drop his push for a government-funded public health insurance option because the Senate will never pass it.

Democratic Sen. Kent Conrad of North Dakota said it was futile to continue to "chase that rabbit" due to the lack of 60 Senate votes needed to overcome a filibuster.

"The fact of the matter is there are not the votes in the United States Senate for a public option. There never have been," Conrad said on "FOX News Sunday.""

I guess Obama's change cannot happen without 60 votes - it is time to let the Blue Dogs know that they are scum.

Blame Rahm! Fire Rahm Emmanuel NOW! He Gave Us the MF'n Blue Dogs In The HOUSE!

The objection is that using that process will end bi-partisanship. I was under the impression bi-partisanship ended around the time they impeached Clinton anyway.

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YWNmZmIxZTVmZTM5OTc5Y2E2ZTM2NTcyM2M2ZTE3ZjA=

The only things of substance that ever seem to get sixty votes are war resolutions and things like the Patriot Act and some judicial appointments. I could be wrong about that, but those things are the ones that leap out right now.

I think health care is worth it doing away with the myth that there is any real bi-partisanship worth worrying about. But, I doubt it will happen.

Frankly I don't care what Sebelius said, it is irrelevant to me.

Gibbs or Seibelius. Every day Congress delays only means that more people suffer and the pimps running the health insurance racket get richer!

to motivate yourselves to demand the Public Option. We can render their efforts moot!!!!

at least part of it - 'choice and competition' is the pithy statement of the week, apparently.

What sort of mealy mouthed language is that?

What happened to "Demands" "Will Veto" "Will not Sign" Insists Upon" "Must Include" ???!!!???






(CBS)White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said on Face the Nation Sunday that President Obama is still in favor a government-sponsored health insurance plan

... all hugs and warm fuzzies. You aren't likely to see him taking a principled stand on much of anything. Hallmark cards are designed to create a brief warm and fuzzy feeling, and that's all you can really expect from them. They aren't supposed to actually DO anything.

by a national media who stands to lose ad revenues from for-profit healthcare when the public option wins.

"I think what's important is choice and competition, and I'm convinced that at the end of the day the plan will have both of those -- but that is not the essential element," she said of the government-run insurance option on CNN's "State of the Union" show...

"I think there will be a competitor to private insurers," Sebelius said. "That's really the essential part, is you don't turn over the whole new marketplace to private insurance companies and trust them to do the right thing."
(link)

It's the REPORTER who's tying her "not the essential element" to the public option--maybe SHE'S tying it to the "choice and competition." And how does what she said eliminate the public option as one of the competitive choices?

:headbang:
rocktivity

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs avoided a direct response when asked if the exclusion of a government-run option would be a deal-breaker for Obama.

"The president believes the option of a government plan is the best way to provide competition," he said on CBS's "Face the Nation," but he added the <b>White House looked forward to the Finance Committee's ideas.</b>

<b>"The bottom line again is do individuals looking for health insurance in the private market have choice and competition?" Gibbs said. "If we have that the president will be satisfied."</b>

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE57D23Q20090816

...(Do) individuals looking for health insurance in the private market have choice and competition...If we have that the president will be satisfied."

That's direct enough a response for me!

:headbang:
rocktivity

if there is competition in the private market....... the president will be satisfied.

It's direct alright, but now how you are interpreting it.

Edit to add, are you aware co ops are what are in the Senate HELP bill??

is to provide it from OUTSIDE of the private healthcare market.

:headbang:
rocktivity

Gibbs said this, "The bottom line again is do individuals looking for health insurance in the private market have choice and competition?" Gibbs said. "If we have that the president will be satisfied."

in other words, if the bill creates competition amongst PRIVATE ins. companies the President will be satisfied.

I admit I'm confused lately, but they always trumpet any statement that they see as concession.

or do they know what they're doing? Fire Rahm.

at least until a bill is actually drafted. If you want real reform - work for it instead of bitching online to a progressive web site.

I vote public option.

Do you trust the changed government administration

or your insurance agent who gets some bonus when denying
you coverage?

K&R

There's another post about Obama backing out of public option, and they're ready to impeach him over something they don't even know is true.

if the administration would clearly outline exactly where it draws the line. Will Obama sign anything that comes out of Congress or are there some basic health care musts that he won't sell out on?

It's hard to back Obama's "plan" when he and his administration keep sending mixed signals about the public option and don't even clarify what they think that entails. Meanwhile, those on other side (and I include the Blue Dogs in this category) keep chipping away at anything they can find in the various bills that makes their insurance company/corporate health care provider contributors even the least bit uncomfortable. And then, without stopping to take a breath, they demand more concessions.

I sure "hope" that real "change" is Obama's bottom line goal in health care, but I am beginning to think that he will sign any piece of garbage that comes out of Congress just to claim victory. A bad health care bill that does not help bolster the middle class and provide stress-free health care is going to set back this issue many decades.

...........since its inception. Why not just say the obvious? Just like Medicare!!!!! We're going to get fucked big time by Barack Clinton.

is unfair. The post office delivers letters for a reasonable price besides offering overnight and other services. UPS and FedEx offer only the high end, high cost services and don't have to deal with everyday delivery to everyone in the country.

Besides, the argument is faulty. If government is so inefficient, how does that translate into having a government-run health care option?

VERY different operations. The Post Office delievers mail to every home in the country, gets stamps and uniforms designed and made, has offices for customers in almost every little burg in the country, etc., etc.

The people at Medicare don't do surgery or buy pills. They pay bills.

Is health insurance more like delivering mail or paying bills? Jeebus!

It means there is hope.

I think I heard them say it was a possible consequence of some of the health care reform plans on Meet The Press this morning. So what? I think they need to be destabilized. If remaining stable means they continue to screw us!
How about destabilizing the credit card industry while we're at it?
Off topic but I can't start threads yet. I just saw a Walmart commercial advertising check cashing for $3. Claiming they were saving people money. A couple shown calculating it would save them $200 over a year. Good God! No wonder the right-wing can get half-wits seething with anger to disrupt town hall meetings that are being held for their benefit. Is inbreeding that far out of control?

liberals can't have the "whole loaf of bread" card . . .

Evidently advising Obama --

Keep in mind Bill knocked out a good part of the New Deal --

also with the advice of Bill Gore on that one!!!

As they say, folks . .. you can only really be betrayed by those closest to you --

But, I sure want to keep hoping!!!

Is it yes, or is it no? Three different messages have been sent out today on this.

hours ago with all the hangwringing over those who are freaking out about Sebilius.

I thought I remembered her being wrong on something else a while ago..not sure what her deal could be?

is with the oligarchy not the people plan and simple

First he's for...

Then he's against...

Then he's for...

Then he's against...

Then he's for...

Then he's against...

:argh: :grr: :nuke:


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Same old corporate shit, different container...

he is not sure Congress will pass a public option. Please see Reply 49.

When he was an Illinois State Senator he was strongly FOR Single-Payer -- the ONLY way to go...

As candidate for President he was FOR Single-Payer (the best way to do it) but gave some lame excuse about how "if we were starting from scratch, we'd do single-payer." -- bullshit, Barack -- only Taiwan started "from scratch" -- the rest of the civilized world crafted a Universal, highly controlled system EVERY ONE OF WHICH works substantially better than USAmerika's non-system of profit promotion at far lower cost.

So, he gets into office then passes from;

"If we were starting from scratch, we'd do single-payer" to

"We absolutely need a strong public option to control costs." to

"Well, a public option isn't a requirement."

Lame, B.O., pretty fucking lame!

He's NO LBJ!!! (except for the part about coddling the war business -- he's just like LBJ when it comes to war!)

and a plan that is on paper and the two are completely different. Maybe the White House should have led on this issue.

...they block that message on my comcast site.

that nobody can compete fairly with the Government! Government operations will always win out! It's unfair! You know, like Fedex and UPS.

Will not sponsor a bill without a Public Option....

has agreed to vote NO on any bill that does not contain a viable public option...

That's enough to kill it in the House...

I pray they kill it...

What's Obama's position this hour?

How much has he given away now?

Flip-flop-flop-flop-flop...