Is the Democratic Party still Proud of Medicare?

It sure doesn't seem like it. For generations the Democratic Party defined themselves as the Party that fought for and won Social Security and Medicare benefits for Americans who needed them most. For generations the Democratic Party understood that Americans wanted and needed an institution that could stand up the the otherwise unmitigated forces of greed inherent in the monied vested interests of giant corporate businesses. Someone had to fight against exploitive child labor, the business community alone could not clean up that act. Someone had to fight for a 40 hour work week, business competition could not deliver that, if anything it worked against it. Someone had to say it is unacceptable for businesses to permanently poison our food air and water as a natural by product of making a short term profit, they did NOT effectively "self regulate" their abuses. But Democrats could and did continually deliver where and how it matters to most Americans, on those issues and more.

Medicare has been a Democratic crown jewel ever since Democrats got it enacted with little help from Republicans. Medicare is a Government administered health care program, and unlike the Public Option insurance reform now being debated in Congress, an option that would be entirely voluntary to enroll in, Medicare was the real deal when it comes to government run health care. All eligible Americans receive it as a benefit. And Americans overwhelmingly support and approve of Medicare.

So why are Democrats silent about Medicare now in the face of the MediScare campaign being waged by the hard right against all forms of "socialized medicine" now, as they try to gut health care reform of any competition to their backers in the private insurance industry? Medicare serves the elderly, yet no one cowers in fear over Medicare "Death Panels". The real fear out there is focused on private insurers who now have the power of life and death over those who they daily profit from. Private insurers routinely decide which health care procedures to allow or disallow, and they have a direct incentive to say "No" to expensive potentially life saving medical interventions, because those would hurt their bottom line. Where is the Democratic outrage over that?

Democrats should be proud of the continuing success of Medicare after generations of positive use by tens of millions of Americans. Democrats should cite it as an example of the positive difference government can make when it is government of, by, and for the people. But instead Democrats are hovering on the edge of surrender, poised to thrown in the towel on even allowing the public a choice on receiving Medicare like protection for themselves and their families in a competitive open market where private insurers hold a huge built in head start advantage.

The Right wing in America has long boasted that private business can run circles around government when it comes to providing services in a competitive market. "Let us run the jails, the schools, the roads, even the military through private security contractors", they crow, "we can provide services better and cheaper than any government, because free market competition drives out inefficiencies" they assert. "We're not trying to abolish public schools, or jails etc" they add, "just give us a chance to honestly compete".

Well if government always does such a terrible job delivering services to All Americans who need it (not just a business "cherry picked" profitable minority of Americans), where is the public outcry against Medicare? There isn't any because Medicare works as well or better than any program of it's size and complexity can reasonably be expected to deliver. If Republicans really want to protect America from a Government takeover of health care, let them start by trying to dismantle the program that has already taken over a large portion of health care; Medicare, rather than rail against a voluntary option for a public program in the current health care reform bills. Republicans don't because they know that government run Medicare works well and is hugely popular. It is high time for Democrats to act like they know that also.

never would have had without the level of care it provided. And my mom is having major surgery today paid for by Medicare.

I want Medicare for EVERYONE. Funded by our taxes (and I want the wealthy to pay more taxes than I do).

I DON'T want corporate hacks skimming off my healthcare dollars by providing "insurance coverage" but actually denying claims.

It is the Democratic Party of late that fails to.

The Democratic Party has been bullied by the Right wing media. It no longer has a real feel for what real people want, and it is afraid to even attempt to articulate those needs.

But the national leadership of the Democratic Party either is among them or has been conspicuously silent about the medicare model of a working government run health care program that disproves Republican scare tactics. If the National Democratic Party won't speak up on this, then the Democratic Party is not proud of Medicare.

:dem:

-Laelth

I really think a spotlight on Medicare now, how and why we got it and who would like to have it killed, is our opening, and this health care debate is the time for it.

Continue to drum out Blue Dogs out of our party and in a few years we won't have the Max Baucus's of the world to put a stop to real reform.

I'm not buying this "now or never" bullshit. Bush got Medicare Part D done and he didn't have high approval ratings.

If the best we can do right now is pass bullshit because Max Baucus has a veto, and all we get is fake reform that only helps the tighten the noose insurers have around our necks I say.... President say "no deal" and join the grassroots of your party who are demanding Medicare For All.

My point is that with public attention now directed toward health care reform, it is an optimal time to build on what Medicare began, starting with taking full credit for it.

But by the same token when you push this "now or never" meme you help inforce the Convential Wisdom that Healthcare will never get done, that the Insurers are just too strong, and that we have to take what we can get, even if what we get is bad for patients, great for insurers, bad for Obama's legacy, and will just help reinforce the notion that the Democrats are weak.

I say....stand strong now..... reject the bogus reform that the bluedogs are insisting on.... and take the case directly to the american people and explain why single payer is the way to go .... it saves HUNDREDS of billions and eliminates all the problems the insurers have created.

Presidential leadership can take a policy proposal from "politicaly unviable" to mainstream.

I'm really hoping this whole bit with the public option is just to show the people that the Republicans will cry Socialism and Nazism no matter how much we compromise.

I really want Obama to double down on Single Payer. I think it would be a risky move but I think it would pay off.

It's way easier to sell Single Payer. The Right wing is using the same exact arguments against ANY REFORM as they are against Single Payer, so why aren't we going for Single Payer?

Single Payer would win back the Independents because it SAVES MONEY and can be done revenue neutral with no additional taxes.

The Baucuscare model is 60 billion in new subsidies for the Insurance Company. Not only bad policy its bad politics!

Personally I can bend as far as accepting a bill that includes "a robust Public Option". To me that implies an option that can pave the way to a single payer system if it delivers the goods as promised for those who choose it, with better benefits and lower costs than the private so called free market alternatives. If we are offered a real government althernative to private insurance, I am willing to let the people decide over the next decade or so which system works better for them. Heck if you believe Republican rhetoric they should have no problem with that kind of fair competition either.
since they believe the private sector always works best. I think an honest competition of this sort will ultimately lead to single payer.

I would rather Obama double down on Single Payer now, but if he continues to refuse to, the above is what I will allow myself to temporarilly settle for. Less than that and we are selling ourselves down the river to private insurers.

Hope that we have a president that can triangulate in the different direction.

CONSERVATIVES in Congress
CENTRIST in Congress

PRESIDENT - LIBERAL

A boy can hope.

I just feel like....the Republicans have thrown everything they can at Obamacare. If he switches to single payer now the case is made stronger and no matter what the right wingers throw at them it's going to come off as even more shrill and chicken little.

In the end tho I think he's ready to sign the bill without the Public Option b/c that's what Wall Street wants.

:shrug:

The Democratic Party is a formal organization that elects it's leadership. There is a Democratic President nominated by the Democratic Party. There is a Chairperson of the National Democratic Committee elected by duly certified Democratic reps. There is a Democratic Leadership structure elected by the Democratic caucus in both houses of Congress. There are State Party leaders of the Democratic Party elected in every State and County. And there are media campaigns paid for by funds collected by official Democratic Party entities.

It seems you define real Demos by a progressive criteria you apply. I am simply taking the term at it's official legal definition. Medicare has been extolled in numerous official Democratic Party platforms over the years. My question was basic, are Democrats no longer proud to embrace it?

I won't be bullied into acting as if they're anything else, thanks.

But I want those who get elected as Democrats put on the spot about Medicare now. It is a quality government managed health care program or not? Yes or No, spit it out.

Failing that, you'd get weasel words.

Fucking corporatist bastards. That they still haeven't been driven from the party shows how many dems are fucking clueless.

seems to be the red-headed stepchild.

I'm in my forties and think it's wonderful; it gave me my parents for maybe 2 more decades than I would have had them otherwise.

Outside of hard right political gatherings virtually no one dares argue that Seniors would be better off if Medicare was privatized. Medicare is a make no mistake about it government run health care program that has been battle tested for 40 years, and it remains hugely popular. Medicare and the Voting Rights Act were the two most popular major Democratic Party initiatives since the days of the New Deal.

So why on earth are Democratic leaders from President Obama on down failing to point to its success at every chance they get during this health care reform debate? The tables can be easily turned on Republicans simply by stating that their position on health care reform agrues against the continuation of the current Medicare program, and that in fact is their hidden agenda in support of the private insurance industry.

There are many lessons for our leaders to learn from that segment.

It really isn't that difficult a case to make if the will is there to make it.

To say it's great too much when your saying it's bankrupting us, it's broken, and your going to cut hundreds of billions from it from the other side of your face.

The whole main selling point that we need reform from Obama is that medicare is broken and costs too much.

People just don't trust government to run it well and not cost several times what they are told it will cost. Medicare is about 10 times what it was proposed to cost.

It's going broke, and there's supposedly enough waste now to pay for 2/3 of this health care reform.

And do we -really- believe congress will make those hundreds of billions of cuts after the bill passes and the time comes to actually make those cuts?

I certainly won't be holding my breath on that one....

So if an employer offers health benefits, it's seen as a virtual freebie. There is little or no calculation of the added costs passed onto the price of goods and services that the consumer then ends up shouldering (let alone the loss of jobs to nations where government picks up the tab for health care rather than businesses having to). But as soon as taxes are involved, suddenly all costs are visible on the books, and people complain. Whatever the status quo is, people tend to take in stride. Government gives massive subsidies to the car and airline industries with air traffic control and interstate highways etc., but using newly earmarked tax money to pay for high speed rail now stands out like a sore thumb.

There are no free lunches. If Medicare is going broke it's primarilly because not enough money has been budgeted for it. Of course it can and should be improved, with electronic record keeping and a heightened emphasis on prevention etc. And yes there are also inefficiencies in a government run program like Medicare, but there are those and more in the private sector also, PLUS the vested interest of seeking profits drives businesses to cut costs out of policy holder hides, almost literally (by disallowing claims etc.) There is also tremendous duplication of effort and costs in a private based system that has dozens of private providers, and disproportionate executive compensation leeches away money also. And there certainly isn't more trust in the private insurance industry affordably meeting consumer health insurance needs than there is in government run Medicare doing it.

The begining of your post is the bottom line. People will always bitch and moan, but most of them like Medicare and want Medicare to stay the way it is. Medicare qualifies as what is known as a "popular program", even with its faults.

I was thinking about YK 07 and thought about how you really impressed me with your personal style.

That said, I'm wondering where Wes Clark has been to promote public option in the debate since I believe he supported one.

From what I can tell, in the political realm Wes Clark has focused mostly of late on energy issues and of course national security along with campaign fund raising support for specific Democrats in at risk districts. He seems to have lessened (but not ended) his involvement in Democratic politics after the Obama campaign chose not to include him in their 2008 Presidential campaign general election effort. Clark always said that he was happy being with his family more and trying to nail down some financial security for them after a relatively low paying life time career in the military, and he seems to be doing just that now. But you are right, Clark did strongly support a public health care option.

Fought for and won Social Security and Medicare. No shit, I've heard people say it.

The Democrats not only abandoned the Working People in this country for their personal Chic Special Interests years ago, while deferring to Corporate America lawyers, they have also forfeited past victories to the Republicans.

What the fuck is the matter with their message control?