Health Care Reform?....Public Option? ........FORGET ABOUT IT!

The insurance companies have been fighting like hell to kill the public option. Republicans have unleashed a torrent of lies and propaganda to whip up hysteria adn fire up the masses. And they have done a good job of it too (Goebbels would be so proud of his followers). Consequently, we are now faced with a getting a fraudulent Health Care reform bill being passed which includes massive subsidies to for-Profit insurers but no means of cost control or help for those who still won't be able to afford health insurance even with Governemnt subsidies.

There has been a lot of criticism of Dems not fighting for the Public Option. (I have been among the biggest critics) But realistically, if your Senators and Congressmen do not hear from people that they want the public option, how are they supposed to gauge the situation? Just by polls in the paper? They are being leaned on heavily by 6,000 lobbyists and have to try to deal with the most recalcitrant Republicans wanting to protect profits of insurers and win socialized medicine - FOR INSURANCE COMPANIES.

THink about it. If they do not hear from constituents by email or phone-call or letter what do you think is going to happen?

Those who criticize Congressmen for not fighting the Republicans for the Public Option but who can't be bothered to send an email to say they want the Public Option, or to say "No insurance company subsidies without a Public Option!" can hardly be critical of Congress for not fighting for what's right.

A lot of people say they are for the public option but have not sent one email or made one phone-call in suppport of the Public Option.

How can you say you are FOR the Public Option, and that you are AGAINST Subsidizing insurance companies without getting a Public Option - without having sent an email or made a phone-call to tell your congressmen to fight for these things.

My bet is most people who say they are for the PUblic Option will not email or call their Congressmen to tell them to fight for it. I bet the public option is going down. The Republicans and the insurance companies win, Glen Beck will gloat and we are screwed.

But, if you'd like to prove me wrong,... have at it (I'm not worried, I'm confident I won't lose)..

go to www.congress.org they make it easy for you. Just put in your zip and it gives you your senators and representative. You type your message into an input field and just click on the submit button. And your message is sent for you.

What do you have to lose? (hey, show me wrong)

run of the mill bounce back reply! And for Bill Nelson, well he doesn't take emails these days, or at least he didn't the last time I tried. I had to make a phone call!

I don't think I made ANY difference. But, I agree with you, it's worth a try. I just live in the wrong place and have one of the VERY WORST Representatives possible. Unless you want to count the one I had before him... Katherine "Cruella" Harris!!!

There is no way he should not be accepting emails! (send Nelson a message through Harry Reid. THat ought to get his attention.) you might try this contact site: http://billnelson.senate.gov/contact/email.cfm

some suggested points to raise:

IF we have tax-support for insurance companies it is UNACCEPTABLE to not have a public option as a means of controlling costs.

With "previous conditions" being prohibited as a tool for denying insurance, insurance companies can save money as less man-power will be needed in the efforts to find previous conditions in insured parties' records. Insurance companies will just use the reduced expenses to pad profits unless they are forced to stay 'lean'.

With HCR some portion of the uninsured will be covered. They will not be going into hospitals and doctors offices and becoming part of the uncompensated care expense which leads to increased rates for paying 'customers' at hospitals and doctors offices. This is how Medicare and Medicaid will see reduced costs. Doctors and Hospitals will have less uncompensated care expenses to be recomvered from "paying customers". The cost of the uninsured in 2004 was about $35 billion dollars to the Government (Kaiser Family Foundation). With no health care reform if you inflate that figure through 2010-2019 it comes to $816 Billion (including a linear increase in the number of uninsured (very conservative)). Now if half the uninsured became insured under HCR it's likely the "uncompensated care" costs to the Government would be cut in half, for a reduction of about $400 billion dollares. IF 3/4ths are covered then the reduction should amount to about $600 billion (over the 10 year period). Most of the cost to the Government is through Medicare and Medicaid - paid when these people go to a doctor of to the hospital.

There are a lot of older people in Florida who have been scared by GOP propaganda that their Medicare coverage will be reduced. This no doubt is a big consideration to Mssr Nelson.


The way the calling has been going on HCR, I'm surprised you can get through to his office by phone. Sometimes that's better than email, but there are advantages to both.

What effect you're having?...you never know ChicB1, you never know. Your call might have just been the one to reach the 'tipping point'. (doesn't hurt to keep calling and emailing. Bug him. That way he'll know you mean it!)

Just this week, over 300,000 people jammed Congressional offices with phone calls in support of the public option.

More and more Senators and Representatives are now changing their tune on the public option.

A month ago, your post would have been relevant. But given the events of the last couple of weeks, it isn't.

What's the bill number that it's in?
Thanks

Be patient.

have that. I guess your comment is payment enough.

If you think this is over, I know 6,000 lobbyists (plus all the Republicans in Congress) who'd love to .... well, thanks to that attitude they're gonna give it to you in the rear anyway.

Anybody who preaches complacency before the war is over is an idiot, or a member of their fifth column.

Dems scrambling for support fo public option - 10/23

I just love it when people put word into your posts.



I simply stated the facts that many, many people are still working very hard to make the public option a reality. Your post makes it sound like everyone has given up and isn't doing anything, and that's not the case.

"A month ago, your post would have been relevant. But given the events of the last couple of weeks, it isn't."

saying that urging people to call and tell Congressmen they want the PO is not relevant IS preaching complacency.

and speaking of putting words iin somebody's mouth:

"Your post makes it sound like everyone has given up and isn't doing anything, and that's not the case."


I didn't say "everyone has given up and isn't doing anything" .. I did say the Congressmen: "... are being leaned on heavily by 6,000 lobbyists and have to try to deal with the most recalcitrant Republicans wanting to protect profits of insurers and win socialized medicine - FOR INSURANCE COMPANIES."

does THAT sound like I'm saying the are doing nothing. UH,,,,I don't THINK SO.

What I did say is that those people (specifically those people represented by Congressmen, therefore, NOT CONGRESSMEN) who say they are for the pubic option .. if they mean it: need to call and email their congressmen and tell them that.

I don't care if you want to believe this fight is all overwith (and won) - I just don't want others to think that this is anywhere near the truth.

(IF I was a lobbyist for the insurance industry though, I certainly would want those who are for the public option to think it was won and sit back and drink a beer and do nothing more, while I worked my ass off to kill the Public Option.


This fight is NOT overwith. It is NOT WON. And if people think that it is, then it's overwith and LOST.

AS OF RIGHT NOW, The Public Option is NOT WON.


Dems scrambling for support for public health plan - 10/23

But it's also obvious to me there are a lot of people DOING SOMETHING to make it happen.

I'll pit 300,000 citizens bombarding Congressional offices over 6,000 lobbyists any day.

I think people should continue calling and pressing for a public option, but I don't think your post is truly representative of what's going on right now.

When you say "public Option" what are you talking about?

Do you mean the 10 million Americans enrolled by 2019 that's in the house bill HR3200?


Because I can't see that as being worth fighting for.

If you are talking about something else, then who do you think is going to introduce it into the House and Senate? Isn't getting late to be fighting for something that hasn't even been introduced yet?

Thanks for your response. I'd like to know why you think it's critically important to get something passed that won't be available to the vast majority of Americans and that won't contain costs.

and that something is better than nothing.

Speaking of something not introduced, where is single payer in the legislative process? Idealism is laudatory, but I think one has to be realistic.

http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h3200/show

HR 3200 - America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 - is intended to cover 40 million uninsured: "it seeks to expand health care coverage to the approximately 40 million Americans who are currently uninsured by lowering the cost of health care and making the system more efficient. To that end, it includes a new government-run insurance plan (a.k.a. a public option) to compete with the private companies, a requirement that all Americans have health insurance, a prohibition on denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions and, to pay for it all, a surtax on households with an income above $350,000. A more detailed summary of the bill by the House Committee on Education and Labor can be read here (four-page .pdf)."

some more here: http://edlabor.house.gov/documents/111/pdf/publications/AAHCA-BILLSUMMARY-071409.pdf


If you can lift mountains and get single payer, my hat is off to you. but I think you'd have to be FDR, JFK and Obama with maybe a bit of Jesus Christ thrown in, to get THAT. I think getting a Public Option is going to be challenge enough.

As I said it won't happen unless (and maybe) if everybody who says they want it calls, emails, appears in person and demands Congress deliver on it.

It's the Kucinich amendment that was passed by the tri-committee process back in June or July.

I read the bill and I read that the public option would cover, maybe, 10 million people by 2019.

How will that keep the cost of health insurance affordable? If it's not afforadable, then benefits will be cut, just like in MA under Romney Care.

If getting fewer and fewer benefits for more and more money is your idea of reform, then OK.

But it's not my idea of reform.


I happen to think that any reform that is worth a damn will be fought by the insurance industry, not embraced by that industry like this "reform" is.

I also think calling and writing to help the insurance industry get passed what they want to see passed makes no sense to me.

Single Payer would be far easier and more doable if people wouldn't get distracted by every untried, untested, market based alternative that comes down the pike.

Also, the public option I heard explained was suppo0osed to cover 125 million Americans at the least, was supposed to use medicare reimbursement rates, and was supposed to be accessible by everyone who wanted to access it.

That's not what's in HR3200. What's in HR3200 is a sham, as far as a "public option" goes.

That's what the 6,000 lobbyists are for and that's what they pay the Republicans to call it a Government take over of health care for.

PUblic option to cover 125 million americans? The latest data show there are 46 million uninsured. Who is talking about a Public option to cover 125 million. http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2009/aug/18/barack-obama/number-those-without-health-insurance-about-46-mil/


I think you should email what you are in support of. I also think those who are for the Public Option should email and call in support of it.

If you think single payer in separate states which vote for it (how long will that take) is single payer as most people think of it - for the whole nation then "good on you", as the Aussies say. I don't think it amounts to much more than a promise. But if you are for it send an email. I think the public option is something much more tangible. That's why the insurance industry is fighting it with all they've got.

makes sense, since the Repos have no power and are irrelevant.

The person who invented the public option, Dr Hacker, testified in front of congress on the public option. He said that for his idea to work (that is for it to keep costs down) that it needed a minimum of 125 million people enrolled, and that it needed to be able to negotiate drug costs, and it needed to reimburse care providers at Medicare rates.

Then, after that plan was touted and pushed as a market based way to actually drive down costs and keep private insurance companies honest, then that plan was gutted and the tiny tiny 'public option" was what was put into the house and Senate bills.

That's a plan that won't keep costs low and won't act to keep insurance companies honest.

It's a joke, really.

Tell me, how can a "public option" that cover 10 million by 2019 cause any kind of downward cost pressure? How could it possibly keep insurance companies honest?

It can't. It's just a sham.

I'm off this week and feeling like a jerk so I'll prolly call and email everyday to remind them:


I want a strong public option that everyone can choose. No opt out. No opt in. No mandates. No taxing 'cadilliac plans'

What we really need is single payer. The insurance companies are fighting so hard because they like the big banks are chock full of bogus balance sheets and really insolvent. Keep them in the game and they will nickel and dime their 'customers' out of necessity as it is their only real revenue stream. Let them die.

on them. That's what loobyists do. They wear them down.

That's what we have to do. WE have to fight for what's right as hard as the lobbyist fight for what's wrong.

Unfortunately, we might need a time machine. We have a few too many pre-compromising, short sighted 21st century Dems when we desperately need some large minded 20th century models.

The 21st century dem is far more comfortable bailing out banks, and staying in Afghanistan, than she is doing big minded, sweeping, and epic programs that directly touch Americans, provide legacies and majorities as far as they eye can see.

Good thing FDR didn't highlight his "kind of new deal" with a "social security option" He would have gotten creamed.

Ask the producers of the billions of direct mail pieces - todays Dems are still riding the coattails of FDR, LBJ and JFK. Isn't it time to come up with some big ideas of our own? I'm pretty sure "the public option" isn't one - but if it's all we can get - we better try and make it look like it's gigantic.