Leading Blue Dog: Covering uninsured not top priority of health reform

Source: The Hill

Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark.) said on Wednesday that providing healthcare to uninsured Americans is "not what this healthcare reform debate is about."

In making his comments, Ross, who is the centrist Blue Dogs' health reform point man, questioned one of the primary healthcare goals of the White House and Democratic leaders.

"That is a side benefit to healthcare reform and an important one," Ross told the Arkansas Educational Television Network. Instead, the fifth-term congressman said the bill should focus on "cost containment."



Read more: http://briefingroom.thehill.com/2009/08/20/leading-blue-dog-covering-uninsured-not-the-top-priority-of-health-reform/

What's also obvious is only insurance companies and large medical firms are to prosper.

25 million underinsured running up the costs of the insured.

The best way to contain costs is to make sure that everyone is covered, preferably by a not-for-profit government plan. A strong public option at the very least.

How the FUCK are we supposed to 'contain costs' without it?

the desire and ability of the entrenched to foc us.

He and Ed Schultz got into a hot tiff last night over the public option. Alter said it was more important to cover all the uninsured than it was to have the public option.

I've liked him in the past, but he's just not getting the whole picture.

And that's someone who makes a living talking about politicians...

How do these numbnuts keep getting elected? :banghead:

They talk like republicans, they vote like republicans, they take payola like republicans. How on earth is it a good thing they are in the party - and don't give me that "majority" bullshit - we have NO majority with these turncoats in office. If we did, health care and cap and trade would be done deals by now.

...with these bagmen allowed to be "swing votes" on critical issues....

are pathetic scum - no courage, no vision, no place in history. Just there to take up space, make easy votes, and cash in on the health care and retirement benefits. I say better the devil you know than the devil you don't know.

If we didn't have to deal with Baucus as chair of the finance committee and had someone else in the party in charge, even with one less vote, we'd be better off and could go the 51 vote reconciliation route...

Until the DNC starts cracking down on Blue Dogs, they will remain. I had to unsubscribe to emails and chastise the Nebraska Democratic Party while doing so (for the 2nd time), for always sticking up for dickweed Nelson. They had the balls to say that Nebraska is a Red State, so we shouldn't have the typical Democrat representing us. FUCK YOU.

I guess the NE Dem Party is as fake as Nelson is. Sickens me.

We're trying to do reform with industry insiders crafting and voting on the bill? It's not going to work.

Perhaps they should just go back to the kennels.

I said this about your colleague Mr. Dan Boren before. Take him and Gene Taylor ("D"-MS) and just go join the fucking Republicans.

On the public option, Ross said he would not vote for a plan that would "force government-run healthcare on anyone. Period." But he also said that the House bill contained a public plan that is "strictly…an option."

Providing government subsides for abortions, coverage for illegal immigrants, rationing of care, and deficit increases comprised Ross' deal-breakers.

<snip even more asinine comments by Ross>

Ross said the bill should reduce costs by allowing the Medicare to negotiate prices with drug companies and by dropping co-pays for preventitive doctors' visits.

In the end, Ross acknowledged that the House version may not make up the bulk of the final bill. He estimated that 90 percent of the conference committee bill would come from the Senate Finance Committee's version.

-----------------------

So is he saying they're going to get their co-ops?

This guy needs to be a congressman no more.

Profit... that's it.

More profit for his cash cow insurance company campaign donors.

at least according to this:http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6352983

and this:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8601389

"In the end, Ross acknowledged that the House version may not make up the bulk of the final bill. He estimated that 90 percent of the conference committee bill would come from the Senate Finance Committee's version."

- end quote -

There's your story right there- it's going to be a Blue Dog/Max Baucus-type co-op bill with no public option.

:mad: I am really getting to the boiling point on this issue. Every day we get bullshit messages from those claiming to be "Democrats".

With "Democrats" like thse, who the fuck needs Republicans???

A pox on Mr. Ross and the Blue Dogs like him who are fucking over the American people in need. :mad:

+1

It's not about covering the uninsured.
It's not about the public option.
It's not about negotiating lower drug prices.
It's not about forcing the insurance companies to lower premiums. (The nonexistent "competition" is supposed to bring those prices down. :eyes: )

So WTF is reform going to do? Eliminate exclusions for pre-existing conditions and rescission? That's great - those things should be eliminated - but what good will it do if people still can't afford the premiums, deductibles, copays and medication?? Middle class people who can't afford coverage right now won't be able to afford it after "reform" if premiums and out-of-pocket expenses don't drop significantly. Most probably won't qualify for subsidies because they "should" be able to afford coverage ... at least that's what it looks like on paper. As we know, reality can be very different. We all have bills to pay.

So what is reform going to do for us? :shrug:

or do you love picking up the tab for emergency room care for every ailing uninsured American, because that is what you are doing by ignoring it

Every time i go to the ER for a Migraine headache ( that is out of control) i get $1,700.00 added to my bill for those with no insurance...since i have private insurance!

So please..spare us the you will have to pay for others..WE ALREADY ARE!

aND I DON'T MIND PAYING OUT OF MY TAXES AS LONG AS IT IS NOT COMING OFF MY LIFETIME CAP OF HEALTH INSURANCE.. so it is there when and if i need it!

40 years ago basically the entire world agreed on what was right & decent & a worthy goal, even though there were a lot of huge problems. But people AGREED on what the goals should be. World peace, clean water for all, food & education & health care for all. Now those aren't even the goals anymore!

St. Reagan (patron saint of mental fog) changed all the rules, and we all went along with it quietly! Corporations got the same rights as people, being a good corporate citizen now means nothing, employees are liabilities not assets - and the most important measurement of everything right & good is "The Stock Market". When the shareholders are happy, God is happy. :wtf:

Peace isn't always desirable anymore because there are jihadists "out there". Your water is "clean enough". Everyone isn't entitled to food & education or HEALTH CARE. Politicians aren't public servants, they're corporate whores.

Ross doesn't get it either, apparently. We don't CARE what they think anymore. WE want decent affordable health care for all & they can pay for it by ending wars & taxing their corporate pimps!

:rant:

Mike Ross has said repeatedly that he would vote for a bill with a public option. He insists that the most important part of the reform is to reduce costs over all and stop the doubling of the cost of health insurance every few years. He said that getting insurance available to more people is a side benefit of reform.

The one part I was unclear on is where he said (he thought) the majority of the bill would come from the Senate Finance Committee's version. What I found myself wondering about that was if this means the concepts of co-ops was more likely if this is the case? Wasn't it from the Senate Finance Committee's version that the idea of co-ops was first introduced?

hasn't produced a bill.

this health care reform 'debate' -- where guys like this set the bar for change so low -- it's almost indistinguishable from what we have now.

all part of the dumbing down of the country.

and it seems to be working -- that is unless you're one of the 18,000 who are dying annually.

party. They certainly talk the talk, and walk the walk of the republicans.

August 19, 2009






But, but, but..... ConservaDem Senator Kent Conrad has just admitted that co-ops WON'T drive down costs of health care.



August 18, 2009







This whole contrived pack of lies is swinging wildly before it all will come crashing down.


And these turncoats WILL go down with it.

how these guys sleep at night.

The Party's Congressional campaign committee should not move a dime to his re-election run, and should warn off donors from the reptile as well....

Time to bring these dogs up sharp to heel!

What is the point then?

Where are these idiots coming from? What is their reasoning? They are not repukes, so it can't be the anti-government crap.

And when you talk about cost containment: How the FUCK do you propose we get there?

Fuck this guy.

That's too tall an order for our campaign funders. We gotta be fair to the insurance companies.

Let those 47,000,000 of our fellow citizens eat band aids.

protecting all, the uninsured, and the underinsured! dental and vision is a must too!

they're afraid that their hard-earned tax dollars will be spent on those they don't feel deserve it, bottom line. and many are racists.

healthcare to uninsured Americans is "not what this healthcare reform debate is about."

....then what's it about? Greed? You and the rest of the blue-dog republican-lite scum seem to forget Americans are suffering and dying out here because of you, your corporate masters and this for-profit healthcare sham....

....you need to become more Patriotic and Christian, mikey....you need to give up some of those whores, lobster dinners and kickbacks so more of your fellow Americans can live and survive....you need to become more American!

....and you, being a Bible-totin' good-ole Southern boy from Arkansas....I'm ashamed of you, mikey....

Did the mutts say they opposed the health care reform?

If so, where can I find it in the following form???


http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/Platform%208%207%2008%20(2).pdf

if this is the fact, I would rather no health care bill be passed.

One wonders if "cost containment" is double speak for mandated cash flow to corporate medicine?

We need more med schools and more health professionals and health care comparable in cost and access to other modern industrial nations or we are a society of barbarians and the cause of our own fall from grace.

The government is for the good of the people not vested interests.

100s of pages of legislation is fog and more opportunity for paper pushers and a drain on the day-to-day world we face in our real lives.

What if a health care bill passed without the votes of the Progressives that want parity with other western oriented modern industrialized Nations that are our closest economic and security allies?

Health care should not be tied by job, circumstantial health, nor high priced and foggy insurance gates but part of a civilized society.

What if "Progressives" and "Leftists" not voting for a health care bill so marginal to status quo but effectively closing the debate for years being scapegoated as obstructionists (to what are essentially corporatist and globalist capitalist benefit that destroys or degrades further local American systems?

Sheeesh I am not radical just somewhat rational.

You can see the uninsured pay 20 cents on the dollar for the costs of their care.






Along with Medicare and Medicaid paying less than the cost of the care, the system is slowly grinding to a halt.

Let me guess. This guy is in the front pew every Sunday worshipping supply-side Jesus.