Howie Bledsoe,

You have an INDIVIDUAL SOLUTION to an ORGANIZED PROBLEM, which doesn’t work.

The Private Option is an ORGANIZED SOLUTION to an INDIVIDUAL PROBLEM, which doesn’t work either.

You prefer the ORGANIZED PRIVATE option to be covered by savings stuffed in a shoe box under the bed; that’s as INDIVIDUAL as you can get, but really irrational, as capitalist have ORGANIZED against INDIVIDUALS, big time.

Besides thieves, fire, tornadoes, etc. that would/could destroy your CASH; hospitals and doctors do not accept CASH, they only accept checks and you must have verification of PRIVATE ORGANIZED insurance.  Since you have given up on banks and neither hospitals nor doctors accept CASH for payment, what’s an INDIVIDUAL to do?

Should the receptionists decide to take CASH, YOUR CASH would/could be dispersed to whoever, like the plane loads of CASH the Bush administration recklessly sent to Iraq that disappeared, then YOU would still owe YOUR hospital/medical bill, as the receipt YOU thoughtfully requested was in disappearing ink, and all information will be gone in a few days, so you have no proof you ever gave them CASH in the first place.

But all of this is irrelevant, because it all gets down to FREEDOM and EQUALITY, and we are all free and equal as INDIVIDUALS, aren’t we?  As long as we have our FREEDOM and EQUALITY as INDIVIDUALS, we really don’t need no stinking HEALTH CARE, right?

The answer is an ORGANIZED SOLUTION to an ORGANIZED PROBLEM, terms that are alike, called “like terms” must be dealt with to be equal.

An ORGANIZED GOVERNMENT PUBLIC OPTION is the only solution to ORGANIZED PRIVATE INSURANCE and ORGANIZED PRIVATE PHARMACY.

It is really retarded to argue for INDIVIDUAL SOLUTIONS to ORGANIZED PROBLEMS.

Individuals have to trust government, but we must get some representation as a Class and Culture for the 70% MAJORITY COMMON POPULATION so that our trust will be warranted. Right now the government represents the Nobles and Nearly Nobles at the expense of the 70% MAJORITY COMMON POPULATION.

The crazy two party system has been most insane, for differences seem contrived for effect instead of reality.  So we have the blow hard Republicans taking the skin off everyone’s nose and the Democrats who seem whimpy, gutless and just like Republicans except lite.

So no skin off everyone’s nose, just a boot up everyone’s collective arses. Thanks Dems, you are so worthy. 

As long as our representatives represent not the people, we have what we have.

George Carlin, RIP.

Howie Bledsoe, August 17 at 5:57 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

I prefer the private option. Keep your money in a shoe box under your bed. When you get sick, take it out and give it to your trusted doctor friend. You can cut out the middle man, his cousin, the niece of the cousin´s wife and 30 odd politicians to boot.

Tongue in cheek I presume..but, it better be a darn big show box.

dpmaccready—Being a liberal is not an insult, nor is expecting the government supported by our taxes do its f***ing job and use those taxes to take care of those who paid them—with infrastructure, health, schools, and whatever police or military is needed—so that citizens can enjoy their unalienable rights to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. Your way leads to a very different road—feudalism, fascism, failure.

As our government is not doing it’s job, we’d have to be crazy to continue voting for the two parties who obviously don’t represent we the people. You need to get in touch with your inner Thomas Jeffersons and Tom Paines.

Kay Johnson,

“It ain’t over, when it’s over.”  It is not over until we 70% MAJORITY COMMON POPULATION give up on a Single Payer or a Public Option, and we must NEVER GIVE UP, because the Right-wingers will NEVER GIVE UP trying to harvest the 70% MAJORITY COMMON POPULATION as a Class and Culture for privatized benefit.

This is all very depressing for me!

This morning, Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) interviewed Chad Terhune and Keith Epstein who wrote an article for Business Week, The Health Insurers Have Already Won.

In other words, we were sunk before the fight began.

The substance of the article is about United Health Care, the largest of the industry giants, a corporation that is poised to make even more money with Obama’s “health insurance reform” bill. In fact, the CEO, Stephen Hemsley makes $102,000 per hour. United Health is the biggest provider to S-Chip and Medicaid.

Amy and Angela also broadcast a clip of Robert Greenwald’s new documentary, Sick For Profit. There is a link to the film on the Democracy Now! website.

To watch/listen to the interview, go to:

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/8/17/business_week_the_health_insurers_have

So co-ops are the flag du jour to see who salutes. Government run co-ops are the same as the public option. They are presented as non-profit, but they are also subsidized by the government - our tax dollars. Co-ops are like Federally Funded Research and Development Companies (FFRDCs); they are mandated by the government for federal agencies to use, and are mandated to be non-profit. They do the same thing as private businesses; but because they are subsidized by the federal government - your tax dollars - private businesses cannot compete for those same niches. Further, because they are mandated to be non-profit, what comes in must go out to equal zero. FFRDCs are the most expensive contract “option” that federal programs encounter, but are further subsidized by our tax dollars. In other words, co-ops are still the public option under a different name.

“I am not an expert on the Reconciliation process, but I saw on Rachel Maddow a week or so ago that if they go that route, many of the key components would have to be stripped from the bill if they don’t directly affect the budget for next year.  That would include the public option. 

Additonally, while they only need 51 Senators, when you have 30 so-called blue dogs, it could fail from a lack of Democratic votes.”

Just structure the public option in such a way as to affect the budget for next year.

PT,

I am not an expert on the Reconciliation process, but I saw on Rachel Maddow a week or so ago that if they go that route, many of the key components would have to be stripped from the bill if they don’t directly affect the budget for next year.  That would include the public option. 

Additonally, while they only need 51 Senators, when you have 30 so-called blue dogs, it could fail from a lack of Democratic votes… 

This is where I wish a J Egdar Hoover was around with the dirt on those 30 to blackmail them into voting for true reform…  you just can’t get anything done openly and honestly in this country because of the special interests..

The Obama administration is looking for excuses to surrender.  They could use the budget reconciliation process, where they would only need 51 votes in the Senate, not 60.  Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush used it to cut taxes on the rich.

The Mendacity of Hope!

Why am I not surprised? My Health insurance again has just gone up, it is so nice to know we can spend money on the military complex and support capitalism at the same time.

I see more resignation in these comments than in those of Obama. Perhaps he is simply trying to downplay the public option.

But for those who insist on disappointment, remember Obama botched this one from the start. It was a decisive tactical mistake to take single payer off the table. While almost any proposed reform was sure to bring out the khaki colored orcs of mordor, his compromise (“bipartisan” a loathsome term) bill failed to inspire a balancing outcry of support from the left.

Once again the left brought a knife to a grenade and mortar fight. But then, in America, the home of wild-west capitalism, one should never expect health care to come before wealth care.

I WANT SINGLE PAYER
I WILL SETTLE for a PUBLIC OPTION

I am one of those without health care. I’ve been working for over a quarter of a century. We’ve been insured practically forever. Here comes the recession, and I get laid off twice in five months. My wife and I now have no insurance. Our three children are covered under the state plan, but I make too much money on unemployment ($269.00 a week) for my wife and me to get insurance (Medicare or medicaid, or similar state plan). America needs an alternative to the for-profit insurance companies. Private companies want $500.00 to $800.00 a month to cover us. How am I to afford this? Explain to me how my family deserves this. After all, the only thing I’ve managed to do is bust my hump and earn my way for 26 years. I don’t necessarily advocate a public plan. I would like to see regulation on the insurance industry(ies). The prices these companies charge should be a crime. They make you do a lot of unnecessary tests, and then raise the rates to charge you for the useless tests. They deny dying children coverage because it’s too expensive, then give themselves billion dollar bonuses. Insurance companies are government-sanctioned thieves, and they own our politicians.

It is remarkable how the newspeak was transformed from single payer to public option, but the answer remains the same no.
Here a few words banned from newspeak: single payer, public anything, open source, solidarity, Linux, Ubuntu, free of charge, humanity to others, why is my pay so low?, why do they get all the money?, I do not need identification, I already know who I am, why are we spending money on wars?

The so-called public option in the House bill is not an alternative for anyone offered an employer’s plan, or getting VA, Medicare or Medicaid. It is only allowed for people uninsured, and was one of many choices.
The public plan would have taken years to implement under the House Bill, and was really an extra alternative for the 47 million forced to buy insurance under this bill.
It would not reform healthcare because it would not bargain with the drug companies, and would probably be administered by insurance companies (just like Medicare, which outsources to insurers to add more “private” profits).
Private insurers would probably have virtually killed the public plan by running better ads, and the government would have weakened the public option by offering a lousy plan on purpose.

True ardee… I’m just seeing red right now, but it does make me wonder.

Jaded Prole, I’m in the same boat as you. I actually had health insurance, and when I went to go get tested for my sleep apnea they denied coverage. I just wanted the insurance I paid into my whole life, not have it yanked away from me when i needed it.

To the guy who selfishly cares only about his own health insurance… be grateful you have it and hope it doesn’t get taken away. My very life depends on health care reform. I am unable to hold down a job because og sleep apnea, of course unable to find one now, and am at a much higher risk of heart attack and stroke among other issues. Not that you would care, but if you can see it from my point of view?

Single payer, NO! Public Option, NO!

I am beyond disappointed!

Who cares about the 50 million with no insurance? Good-bye Democrats! Good-bye Republicans! FUCK YOU, very much!

screamingpalm, August 17 at 6:12 am #

As Obaama has made health care reform a sort of lynch pin of his entire first term agenda I do not believe he has participated in a “staged effort”.

I believe that the Town Hall meetings were indeed carefully orchestrated, but by the health care industry with the collusion of our bought and paid for legislators.

The minute Obama let the Legislature proceed without guidance, the instant he moved in favor of the maintaining of for profit health care, this entire reform was doomed to fail. The President, as the leader of our nation and his own party, is supposed to lead, he has not.

As a middle-aged person with hypertension, a chronic condition and no job I know how sold out we are. President Caveman is the last Dim I will vote for even if I live until the next selection. Like Clinton, he is a Republican who serves the Corporatocracy.

By CaptRon, August 17 at 1:55 am #

“I now believe we the people have been duped.”

**************************************************

I’m usually skeptical of conspiracy theories, but I really believe this was all staged.

The tiny forums for the town hall meetings that only held a handful of right wing nutcases, while Single Payer advocates were left outside with their banners… coincidentally in every one of these town halls. This got the ball rolling to control and actually dictate public opinion. On TV it looks like you’re in the minority if you support Single Payer despite polls saying just the opposite.

Then the story about the woman who claimed to just be a “single mom” that the MSM accidentally uncovered- she turned out to be affiliated with the Rubublican Party although she claimed she wasn’t. I wonder how many people like her Obama’s team asked to show up at these spectacles.
The brave Sen Specter standing face to face to a yelling “constituent”, and then telling officials to let him speak and not drag him outside (yeah as if).

The brave Obama going into conservative districts not afraid to take any amounts of objections to his plan, so he can now ultimately look like the good guy reaching out to the right and making compromises on behalf of the American people.

ETC ETC

All brought to you by the Ministry of Truth.

John K, August 17 at 12:38 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

Another possibility is that the general public, most of whom have health insurance, recognized the threat from the “public option.”
.........................

While I doubt you will be back to defend your throwaway nonsense I ask anyway; what threat?

Rush Limbaugh for the insurance companies - 1
Corporate sell out cowardly president Obama - 0

If Obama cannot deliver health care reform with a public option, he is political toast. He’ll never get reelected and the reality is this country needs an opposition party to the Democrats. The Republicans are a sick joke & cannot renew from within; the Democrats are as corrupt as Rethugs; they’re all greedy swine hunkering down at the trough. A waste of protoplasm and oxygen.

We’re royally screwed but I can’t say I’m surprised. Ralph Nader in 2012.

In diverting trillions of dollars to Wall Street, Obama himself gave the Blue Dogs and Republicans their most compelling talking points.

He is more than just a disappointment. These days, I find myself strangely aligned with Fox News, wanting his polls to unravel at an exponential pace. In short, I want his entire power base to implode.

I voted Dem in 2000, 2004 and 2008. Never again.

I now believe we the people have been duped. I heard the Senator from Missouri(Cornelius sp?)say in her townhall meeting that there is no way the Senate is voting for public option, it wasn’t or won’t be in the bill generated there after their vacation, nor was it there when they left for vacation-“she guarantees this”.Now this comes out like it’s new news. Too coincidental for me. I’m sick of the 2-party system. All Republicans & all Democrats are out for themselves. So, if we don’t get the insurance they have, lets level the field & quit paying for their health insurance. Also, if they want to represent me, they will have to be something other than a Republican or a Democrat. You win Republicans, to hell with us for the sake of your party. You lose Democrats for selling us down the river when you could have been special. I’m taking control of my taxes and not spending it on either party any further, at least by vote. I’m sorry President Obama, you can’t do it by yourself, but you evidently don’t have enough influence or power to get these promises done. Yes, I’m pissed..

I’m with Martha. Can’t believe he caved so easily.
(Commented on another thread—“Nader was right…” I think—why I think progressives are being ignored by the overall Democratic party, and what we haven’t done that makes them think they can get away with it. Too depressed to go through it again.)

We must vote all CONSERVATIVES and Moderates out of the Democratic Party, no matter how long it takes while we still can.

Ah almost as if it was a written script isn’t it? Perhaps this was the game plan all along, behind those closed doors with PhRMA and the insurance companies. At the end of the day, the usual excuse from the pragmatic Democan’ts… “it just wasn’t practical”.

I’m sure the Truthdig faithful will bring out all the tired old excuses as usual.

Obama is becoming a bigger disappointment than I thought he would be. He may as well be George Bush III. For all the support the dimwitocrats are giving him, he may as well be a rethuglican. We, the People, are screwed…again.

Repugs will never, never, cooperate with Obama. He needs to do as Bush did, threaten to veto if the Repugs don’t go along with what he wants, after all G.W. threatened all the time and the dems wilted. Obama should have not backed donw on the stimulus that was started by G.W.-lest the repugs forget that fact.By taking single payer off the plan, the consultation of the “living will” information which to the ignorant peons = death panel and whatever else we haven’t heard about, when the repugs finally get done killing this bill, we will still have about 50 million uninsured, higher medical cost, higher medication costs and the insurance and pharmaceuticals will be richer at the end of the day.

How that jackass from Alaska, who had talked to her fellow Alaskans earlier this year that having a living will was a good thing to have. So because the government would cover the cost of your doctors time to discuss with you the options you have about your own personal medical decisions, Sarah has decided to twist, manipulate and out and out lie to the public with her ignorant and unfounded mis-information, that advanced directives, made by you after you are informed and educated on the information about your care options, that they = death panels.

How did she ever graduate from high school? Oh that’s right, weren’t both of her parents or maybe just her father, teachers. And as most of us know, teachers children cannot be failed by other teachers, no matter how poorly their school work is. Perhaps this is why it took 5+ colleges to get her BS degree, which she has managed to put to good(bad?) use.

Hey Sarah, we already have death panels, it is called the for profit insurance companies and big pharma who hold up treatment authorization or deny it altogether, kick you off if you “might develop” a condition or become sick and ever need your “less that guaranteed” coverage or do like the drug companies-price people out of the market with pumped up prices. I know a lot about that. Last year my IV infusion was over 150K(K as in thousand dollars)but under 200K per year, this year they upped the price to about 410K+ per year(16K per treatment) and that is just for one thing out of several medical problems. There is NO justification for medication to cost that much. I expect any day now to hear about it from my insurance company. And yes this is actual cost of just this medication.

MarthaA (August 16 at 7:25 pm), great point but there’s one problem. Even the liberal Democrats in Congress aren’t taking their fights to the House floor. Take John Conyers for example. He has a wonderful bill but he’s not using his powers to force single payer on the table. People can preach that we the people must “make them do it” but if they’re not using their powers where it counts despite our pleas, I don’t even know which of the Democrats any more are worth trying to save.

RobertinWestbury,

The Blue Dogs and New Democrats are fake Democrats, that should be on the other side as they stand with big insurance, big banks, big industry and big business capitalists.  All the little capitalists and the common population are on their own if the rest of the Congress who aren’t conservatives or moderates, the liberals, are unable to handle the legislation.  Just being a Democrat doesn’t do any good for liberal legislation, when there are so many CONSERVATIVES and Moderates in the Democratic Party.

We must vote all CONSERVATIVES and Moderates out of the Democratic Party, no matter how long it takes while we still can.

I can’t be too surprised. Obama’s in bed with Big Pharma/Insurance just like the rest of the pols anyway.

I agree that the public option should have been nonnegotiable but I will not join those who blame the American people for their being kept in the dark, fed lies with little to no counterbalancing with facts and figures and thus seeming to accept the fanaticism of the few.

In reality I think one must accept that those most vocal about such crap as “death panels” and the like are tools, fools or trolls. But they are also in the minority by far. The Democratic Party is a disgrace, its leadership gives new meaning to the word inept and Obama , who left the nuts and bolts of health care reform to Congress, failed miserably to lead on this most important campaign promise.

Republicans can almost always count on the general stupidity and willful ignorance of Americans to come through for them.

Well, I think the public option was the best thing we could have had.  I’m disgusted at how stupid Americans are, collectively.  The people at the town halls screaming about death panels aren’t smart enough to ask themselves who is behind the emails they get that whip them into a frenzy, nor do they ask themselves who stands to benefit if the public option is dropped. 

So now we are left with non-profit insurance collectives, which I know nothing about.  Does anyone know how the 47 million uninsured will get insured with collectives?  How do we get into one?  Do you have apply?  Who decides yes or no?  Is it likely that - if you have a pre-existing condition - that they could turn you down in order to protect the rates of those already in it?  Is there going to be a government co-op for those who can’t get into one of these? 

And, as employers now pay 2/3 of the cost of insurance, if an individual gets into a co-opp - even one that has negotiated a reduced price - will the cost to the individual now be too expensive minus the employer contribution now not there? 

I just don’t see how non-profit co-ops are going to get everyone covered….. 

Obama can’t get the public option through b/c of Democrats… Democrats for God’s sake! 

Unbelievable..