August 20, 2009 - Obama Says "I continue to support a public option."

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-the-President-at-the-Organizating-for-America-National-Health-Care-Forum/

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Q And all of my volunteers say the same thing -- they're behind reduced cost, they're behind guaranteed choice, they're behind health care for all. And they believe, and I believe, that the only way to do this is to guarantee a public option available to anybody who wants one. And my question is, if that's the solution that you believe in, why aren't we pushing it harder? And if that's not the solution, what other solutions out there would accomplish all three goals that you have?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, it's a great question, and this is an example of sort of a controversy that has been somewhat manufactured this week. So let me just be clear: I continue to support a public option, I think it is important, and I think it will help drive down costs and give consumers choices.

The only thing that we have said -- and this continues to be the truth -- and I mean, sometimes you can fault me maybe for being honest to a fault -- is that the public option is just one component of a broader plan. So let's just talk -- let's just use the example of making sure that insurance companies are treating their customers right.

One way that we're doing this in this health reform bill is very directly through insurance reforms. We're saying to them, you have to take people with preexisting conditions, you cannot have caps on lifetime expenses or yearly expenses that people bump up against and suddenly have to pull out a lot of money out of pocket that they may not have. So we're putting in place a whole bunch of insurance reforms that regulate the behavior of insurance companies.

Now, alongside that, if there's a public option that is also offering a good deal to consumers, then the insurance companies have to look over their shoulder and they say, gosh, you know, if the public option is providing that good deal to consumers, then maybe we can't just charge exorbitant rates and then mistreat our consumers. So it gives them a benchmark from which to operate.

Now, my point is, this is sort of like the belt-and-suspenders concept, to keep up your pants. You know, the insurance reforms are the belt. The public option can be the suspenders. And what we're trying to just suggest to people is, is that all these things are important, and that if the debate ends up being focused on just one aspect of it, then we're missing the boat.

If all we're talking about is the public option, then the 80 percent of the American people who already have health insurance in the private insurance market, they say to themselves, well, what's in it for me? Their attitude will be, this is not relevant to me, and in fact they start getting scared thinking, maybe what the public option means is that you're going to force me to give up my current private insurer and go into a public option.

That's what those who are opposed to reform have been counting on, is to try to twist the debate and feed into Americans' natural suspicion about government and to use that to cloud the fact that right now people are not getting a good deal from their insurance companies.

So I just want to make sure that we're focusing on all the elements of reform -- what will benefit people without health insurance, what will benefit small businesses, what will benefit people who do have health insurance -- so that we can build the largest coalition possible to finally get this done.

Okay. All right. Go ahead. Here, you got a mic right behind you.

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you actually listen to someone/and/or read what they've said.

people letting the M$M get to them.

I personally think that left wing astroturf is easier to spot then right wing astro turf, because the left wing astroturf is filled with same type of paranoid rants about the Obama administration being corrupt, selling out, and being incompetent. HOWEVER, unlike right wing astroturf, after all this paranoia about not trusting the federal government, the left wing astroturf post concludes by demanding single payer!

What? After ripping on the federal government, the Democrats and the Obama administration, and saying that they are incompetent and that we should not trust them, a so called liberal then demands that we should want these same entities to run a single payer health care program?

I am sorry that makes even less sense than the paradnoid right wingnut, because at least the wingnut is consistent in concluding his rant by asking to be left alone. Of course, this does not stop the wingnut from using Medicare, but at least thier demented rhetoric is consistent if their actions are not.

by the media and others are, amazingly, being taken as the gospel truth by some. The President has been consistent in his support for a public option yet the 'hair on fire'/rending of garments folks seem to prefer to 'trust' the media and others to be the REAL truthtellers.

It has been fascinating to watch, in a macabre way.

Listening to David Axelrod this morning, I have the impression the POTUS would love to have a public option, but it's not going to happen. If it was, Axelrod would have calmed the masses and said so. We're going to thrown under the bus on Wednesday. It's a shame a whole lot of us can't afford to go to the emergency room afterward.

pharma on C-Span.

:shrug:

Also, with respect to negotiate drug prices, I am not familiar with the issue you are referring to. Do you mind explaining? A link to President Obama's prior support for drug companies and his current statements on the matter might be helpful. Thanks!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/04/AR2009090403565.html?hpid=moreheadlines

C-Span promise

(sorry for the crappy other content in this youtube, but the Obama crew seem to have scrubbed other videos of this campaign promise.)

I can find no list similar to the following of meetings with pro-single-payer or pro-public-option people. Pharma seems to have an open door to Obama's white house.

Bill Tauzin (President and CEO, Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America):

• March 5 (meeting with president)
• May 19 (meeting with Sarah Fenn)
• June 2 (meeting with Sarah Fenn)
• June 24 (meeting with Clare Gallagher)
• July 7 (meeting with Jim Messina)


Karen Ignagni (President and CEO, America's Health Insurance Plans):

• March 5 (meeting with president)
• March 6 (meetings with Elizabeth Bafford and Larry Summers)
• March 11 (meeting with Jennifer Cannistra)
• June 30 (meeting with Sarah Fenn)
• July 24 (meeting with Sarah Fenn)

Richard Umdenstock (President and CEO, American Hospital Ass'n.):
• February 4 (meeting with Tina Tchen)
• February 23 (meeting with president)
• March 5 (meeting with president)
• March 25 (meeting with Jennifer Cannistra)
• March 30 (meeting with Ezekiel Emanuel)
• April 6 (meeting with Tina Tchen)
• May 22 (meeting with Sarah Fenn)

J. James Rohack (President-elect, American Medical Ass'n.):

• March 25 (meeting with Ezekiel Emanuel)
• June 22 (meeting with president)
• June 24 (meetings with Clare Gallagher and president)


William Weldon (Chairman and CEO, Johnson & Johnson):

• May 12 (meeting with president)


Jeffrey B. Kindler (Chairman and CEO, Pfizer Inc.):

• March 5 (meeting with president)
• May 6 (meetings with Sarah Fenn and Elizabeth Bafford)
• June 2 (meeting with Sarah Fenn)


Stephen J. Hemsley (President, CEO, Director, UnitedHealth Group, Inc.):

• May 15 (meeting with Sarah Fenn)
• May 22 (meeting with Peter Orszag)
• July 14 (meeting with Aneesh Chopra)


Angela Braly (President, CEO, Director, WellPoint, Inc.):

• February 13 (meeting with president)

George Halvorson (Chairman and CEO, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan):

• March 27 (meeting with Keith Fontenot)
• June 5 (meeting with Peter Orszag)
• July 23 (meeting with Kathleen Sibelius)
• July 24 (meeting with Sarah Fenn)

Jay Gellert (President and CEO, Health Net, Inc.):

• February 10 (meeting with Tina Tchen)
• March 11 (meeting with Jennifer Cannistra)
• March 20 (meeting with Matt Flavin)
• July 24 (meeting with Sarah Fenn)


Thomas Priselac (President and CEO, Cedars-Sinai Health System):

• April 3 (meeting with Ezekiel Emanuel)


Richard Clark (Chairman, President and CEO, Merck):

• March 24 (meeting with Ezekiel Emanuel)


Wayne T. Smith (Chairman, President and CEO, Community Health Systems):

• June 4 (meeting with Sarah Fenn)


Rick Smith (Sr. Vice President, Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America):

• May 19 (meeting with Sarah Fenn)
• June 2 (meeting with Sarah Fenn)
• July 7 (meeting with Jim Messina)
• July 24 (meeting with Sarah Fenn)

I always understood from President Obama's campaign that he promised that he WOULD meet with all stakeholders and members of Congress. Indeed, wasn't the criticism that President Obama would not cut them out of the process?

Meanwhile, patriotic Americans who chose to serve their country continue to be thrown out of the military for loving the "wrong" gender.