ARGH! Democrats divided over Waxman's plan to grill insurance executives

One Dem shows a spine, and the whiners run for cover. Infuriating! :argh:


Democrats divided over Waxman's plan to grill insurance executives
By Jared Allen - 09/16/09 06:00 AM ET


Democrats are split over Rep. Henry Waxman’s (D-Calif.) plan to hold high-profile hearings to pressure the insurance industry.

Some are convinced that additional attacks will help drum up the public support necessary to carry reform across the finish line.

“It’s completely fair to talk about profits and reserves and compensation and how they make their decisions,” said Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), a leader of the Progressive Caucus. “Let them come and make their case.”

Schakowsky leads a caucus that has fought for a public option to compete with the private insurers, and she said she hoped an executive compensation hearing would have the same impact as last year’s hearings examining the salaries of top oil company executives during the height of the gas crisis.

Other Democrats aren’t sure grilling insurance executives is the best strategy. They argue it could complicate the narrative that Democrats should be writing, which is that reforming healthcare involves much more than insurance reforms.


more...

http://thehill.com/homenews/house/58919-democrats-divided-over-plan-to-grill-insurance-executives

How do you make a plan to solve a crisis without investigating the crisis itself?

those opposed wished instead to fry them. ;-)

:grr:

They give ONE name here, and his reasons are more about strategy than anything else.

It is getting so tiring that the media write to defend their own agenda rather than to report facts.

I don't know of any even-handed equivalent.

should be over whether they get a dry rub or a marinade first. Other than that, fire up the coals!!

What they really want is Federal preemption written into the bill. They're very afraid that without Federal preemption, California, Vermont, and perhaps Ohio and New Mexico will pass single-payer systems very soon.

We have the health insurance companies over a barrel. We can interrogate them all we want with little fear of any repercussions. All it will take is for one state to enact a single-payer system and the dominoes will fall. There's only one excuse for Democrats to pretend to be spineless at this point--they are bought. They serve the health insurance companies and not the people.

:dem:

-Laelth

If anyone has watched Henry Waxman work, he's both relentless and a master of the rules. He rammed through a healthcare bill WITH the Public Option through his committee and made the Blue Dogs look silly in the process.

Of course there are those who will hand-wring and concern troll without giving a name, but behind committee doors, the Chairman wields a lot of power and has the votes to hold these hearings. Let's hope it happens.

It's not IF reform is needed, it's WHY and HOW to reform. Part of that process is putting out all the waste that exists in the current system. It's pushing the enormous profits made by the Insurance companies and turn the tables on their massive lobbying effort...throw them on the defense. Up to this point, the Insurance companies haven't had to justify why they should be the sole gatekeepers to healthcare in this country...it's been covered up with tea parties and death panels. Now with the rushpublicans and obstructionists marginalized, the light needs to be shone on how corrupt this current system is and the need for competition. Those suffering from little or no coverage or have been bankrupted by a system gamed against them aren't going away...if anything, their voices have yet to be heard in this debate. I see a strategy developing here to make this matter of morality...especially with millions more who face the loss of their coverage. This is like a poker game...you don't show your hand in hopes your opponent makes a mistake first. The lack of any rushpublican cooperation is that mistake. Game on.

:hi:

I think Dems need to step up that framing.

:hi:

for flying to DC on corporate jets to beg for a handout, the referenced hearings were worthless. What concessions did they ring from the fat bastards? What new regulations and laws have been implemented to prevent Enron Part Deux or protect consumers and small business from the unrelenting pressure of expensive energy?

Oh, that's right. A stern lecture, some harsh letters and a promise to be good and all's forgiven.

The oil companies are doing their bit to rig the oil market and keep prices high, the ongoing spate of record profits is proof enough of that. But Congress didn't even pretend go after the real players - the Banks, Insurance Co.s and Wall Streeters who are (still) using public money to manipulate the commodities markets.

Big Oil, Big Pharma, Big Insurance, Big Chemical, Big Agra, Big Banks etc..., as long as the money keeps flowing to the PACs, parties and campaign coffers, Congress is simply an endless, three act per day circus meant to placate the unwashed masses while huge sums of money are traded for inaction on any substantial change.

If, as has been reported, there is a denial of coverage/services rate in CA of 21%, the insurance companies can't afford, at any cost, for their national numbers of denials, recisions and price hikes to reach the public. If we do get those numbers into the public discourse, it's going to be very difficult to avoid a true public option. Possibly even an expansion of Medicare to cover everyone who wants it.