Obama keeps all-Democratic health care option open

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON – The White House signaled Thursday that an aggressive, all-Democratic strategy for overhauling the nation's health care system remains a serious option, even as President Barack Obama invites Republicans to next week's televised summit to seek possible compromises.

The administration's stance could set the stage for a political showdown, with Democrats struggling to enact the president's top domestic priority and Republicans trying to block what many conservatives see as government overreach.

A senior administration official said Democratic congressional leaders have nearly finished efforts to reconcile two health bills, which the House and Senate passed separately last year with practically no Republican help. Obama will use their legislation to expand coverage to some 30 million and require most Americans to carry insurance as the basis for a proposal that the White House will post online by Monday, three days before the Feb. 25 summit, said the official.

(snip)

House congressional aides said they expect leaders such as Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to tell colleagues that using all their parliamentary muscle to pass a health care bill — even if it triggers withering criticism from the right — is preferable to facing voters empty-handed this fall.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_health_care_overhaul

We will never have this opportunity again.

At least not for that. And we may have lost the opportunity for even the sorta-kinda reform that passed the Senate.

for ease of discussion...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7735567

The Whitehouse is being to deferential to the legislature on this matter.

* In fairness, Harry has been showing his fighting side lately.

majority leader in my lifetime (I'm 72). He even talks like he is afraid that some republican might be angered with him. The word "leader" does not befit him.

Your post just gave me a good idea.

Uh... that would be ZERO Republican help. One lone congressman (who says he won't vote for it again) is not even near "practically".

irrelevant. Democrats alone had the power to pass whatever they wanted.

much as i want it to happen, i refuse to hold my breath for single payer.

i think obama really, REALLY wants something, ANYTHING he can call a bipartisan compromise, and he doesn't really care much about the substance of the legislation as long as he gets his bipartisan agreement.

letting the left wing run the single payer / reconciliation idea up the flagpole puts pressure on the republicans to sit down and agree to something with obama to avoid what they'd consider a huge loss.

but make no mistake, obama does not want the compromise path to fail, leaving single payer / reconciliation as the only remaining option.

it's not that he's opposed to single payer per se, it's that he'd MUCH rather campaign on a compromise rather than a partisan solution.

elsewhere bc in this country, we have all these "legacy programs" (whatever that means).

..they had better come up with something good, that IMMEDIATELY improves the Health Care situation for the majority of Americans, or they are committing suicide.
The Senate Plan is obviously a No Go.
The anemic House Plan with a weak Public Option that does NOT Kick In until 2013 would also lead to a Blood Bath at the polls.

If the Dems DO THIS, they had better DO IT RIGHT.
A Health Insurance Industry Profit Enhance Bill with a Tax Increase (Cadillac Tax) on the Working Class isn't going to Play Well in Peoria (or anywhere else Americans have to Work for a Living).

Letting everyone Buy In to Medicare (if the want to) combined with a Tax Increase on the top 2% to pay for it all would be about the easiest plan to sell to America.
In fact, this is very close to what America though they were voting for in 2008.

THEN, Sit back and let the Republicans attack Medicare.

or go home.

All "Options" are on the table !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Never take the "nuclular" option off the table.

keep contacting

"Democrats are insisting on several changes to the bill the Senate passed on Christmas Eve, before Brown was elected to succeed the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy. The changes include reducing or eliminating a proposed tax on generous employer-provider health plans, and eliminating a Medicaid subsidy aimed only at Nebraska.

Also, some House Democrats who oppose legalized abortion are demanding that the Senate's more permissive language on the topic be replaced by the House provisions. It was unclear Thursday how that might be achieved."



Given what Pelosi said about not having enough votes without a public option, I've been thinking the House was holding out for, at a minimum, the public option. This article mentions only the tax, Nelson's unholy bargain on behalf of Alaska and maybe stronger anti-choice language. WOW.

Yes, I know what "include" mean, but if the House were holding out for something as significant as a public option, the author would be very remiss to bury that in "include." Ditto repeal of the monopoly exemption.



Mandate, no public option, and no repeal of the monopoly exemption==more competition and more choice for consumers? Freakin' joke, that is. Then add the anti-choice language to boot.



I am very disappointed. More disappointment:



"The cost of the legislation — about $1 trillion over 10 years — would be paid for through Medicare cutsand a series of tax increases. House officials said Democratic leaders are not yet pressing wary colleagues to back a health care bill under the special procedural rules. That could happen soon, however, if next week's summit fails to produce a bipartisan breakthrough.


Great news for health insurers, PHRMA and big health care, bad for consumers, women, elderly and disabled. Typical Republicans! Oh, wait....

Wake up and smell the coffee, Dems.

You pass (a bill) or you FAIL.

own way. Bumbling around.

K & R!

in the Senate if a Public Option is included?

:scared:

:puke:

to get the GOP to go along with what was on the table before. Is this just a threat?

if they fuck the American people over on this and cave to the insurance industry, I am officially done with being a member of the Democratic Party. I have been teetering for years, but this will be the final push for me. :( I hope to the gods they get this right.

They're one slip from losing my vote.

the "Ds" who are liberal/progressive and writing in/voting 3rd party when my choice is a crappy Dem. I'm just too old for this shit! We had an opportunity for true, profound change with this election -- the American people were begging for it -- and what we have gotten so far is either more of the same or tepid at best. A once in a lifetime chance and it was thrown away. :( :cry: Fuck. That. Shit.

regardless if there is some weak watered down public option or not.
Nothing will change my mind.

They need to lower the eligibility age of Medicare to include all American citizens and be done with it. It's not that hard.

i like the cut of your jib, Sir, and i'd like to subscribe to your newletter.

Cadillac tax, and mandates remain though, wish I could be surprised...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7751609

And it would do so very well!