This Is Reform? By BOB HERBERT

Ouch...

This Is Reform?
By BOB HERBERT

It’s never a contest when the interests of big business are pitted against the public interest. So if we manage to get health care “reform” this time around it will be the kind of reform that benefits the very people who have given us a failed system, and thus made reform so necessary.

Forget about a crackdown on price-gouging drug companies and predatory insurance firms. That’s not happening. With the public pretty well confused about what is going on, we’re headed — at best — toward changes that will result in a lot more people getting covered, but that will not control exploding health care costs and will leave industry leaders feeling like they’ve hit the jackpot.

The hope of a government-run insurance option is all but gone. So there will be no effective alternative for consumers in the market for health coverage, which means no competitive pressure for private insurers to rein in premiums and other charges. (Forget about the nonprofit cooperatives. That’s like sending peewee footballers up against the Super Bowl champs.)

Insurance companies are delighted with the way “reform” is unfolding. Think of it: The government is planning to require most uninsured Americans to buy health coverage. Millions of young and healthy individuals will be herded into the industry’s welcoming arms. This is the population the insurers drool over.

This additional business — a gold mine — will more than offset the cost of important new regulations that, among other things, will prevent insurers from denying coverage to applicants with pre-existing conditions or imposing lifetime limits on benefits. Poor people will either be funneled into Medicaid, which will have its eligibility ceiling raised, or will receive a government subsidy to help with the purchase of private insurance.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/18/opinion/18herbert.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1250594032-U iwcxPrjn 8HjV6hWkfw&pagewanted=print

Reading this made me sick to my stomach...

speechless.

stinging sensation you feel between your shoulder blades? That is the cold hard steel of betrayal. Did you REALLY think the whores in Congress could or would say no to all that money? Single payer, public option. Pull the chain, Barack and flush it all away. Change you can believe in--that's the cruelest joke of all. Why don't the Dems just pack up and leave town and leave to the pukes?

Well, who did you vote for?

The stinking rotten corrupt two party system that controls all of the pols also controls who we vote for. Never mind who you want to vote for, here is who you are GOING TO VOTE FOR. So I held my nose and marked the ballot for Obama. He was my 4th choice and really no choice at all. Just another smooth talking hack from Chicago. The only thing Barack is going to change is his underwear. At least the pukes are organized and on message.

You ream Obama voters only to claim that you also supported him... then hop back on your "smooth talking hack from Chicago" smear. Please, try not to be so transparent in your over-the-top concern trolling.

I knew I was getting a pig in a poke when I cast my vote. You used the word supported-- past tense. I was never very high on Barack. But he was the candidate the system gave us. I voted for him, so I think I can dog him now. After 30 years of Reaganomics, just about anything would have looked good. I was disillusioned from the start. I'm no troll, but I am also not a glassy-eyed 'hope we can believe in' Pollyanna. Wake up.

Sorry if the majority of Dems did not vote for someone besides Hillary and Obama but it seems to me that we all had plenty of candidates across the spectrum to vote from, including Kucinch. The voters chose who they wanted to choose. I participated in the primaries. Maybe you are pissed if your state was one of the last to participate but its still a democracy. Its not a "system". Its voters like me and you who choose.

And there are some here dumb enough to fall for your transparent tactics.

Please. The pukes still want to destroy the country and being out power has not stopped them. And neither will the Democrats.

... which, very oddly, nobody posted or discussed. The column in which he said, essentially, that although a public option in the exchange would be better, no public option would be like the Swiss system, which works ... and that it would be vastly better than what we have now.

My head hurts, because I don't even know who to believe anymore.

For those too lazy to open a link, from yesterday's Krugman:




Do we just not discuss articles that are inconvenient? Who do I listen to? I love Herbert, but then Krugman is the economist who should know something about how this works. Honestly, my head is going to split.

The only thing I can keep thinking is how riled up we all got when Bill Clinton signed the welfare reform bill. We felt it would put people's very lives at risk, that there would be children dying in the streets, that the apocalypse was near. And of course, it didn't really play out that dramatically at all.

Are we in the land of hyperbole on both sides now? Will we have the armageddon of insurance tyranny or just a little piece of Switzerland if no public option is passed? How the hell are we supposed to know? Anyone who claims they do know isn't being honest.

Ours are on the frigging stock market--and surprise--went up yesterday after the Obama administration comments this weekend.

imho, should not be listened to. our president has insisted on it, many in our party, including 100 house members and several senators, are insisting on it.
some loudmouth assholes on one committee are throwing their bodies on the tracks trying to derail it. and the media is falling in line, making a big deal out of these fruitloops who are hollering and threatening.
but i think there is no way that obama can AFFORD to let these assholes win. when he says he it staking his presidency on it, i take him at his word, since it is clearly at stake. if he wins, he gets to rule. if he loses, he is flattened. he is too smart not to know that.

two different things.

interesting concept.

Everyday, there are diametrically opposed stories of "yes, he did," vs. "no, that's not true."

The bill is still in the "noise' stage, and everyday the noise gets louder.

I suspect that the truth of the matter lies somewhere between Herbert's version and the White House's statements.

I'm paying attention, but I'm not ready to rend my shirt yet.

That's absolute bullshit that has been debunked.