Key Democrat sees 'some form' of public option

[RamboLiberal]

Source: CNN

Democrats met Friday in hopes of achieving consensus on one of the biggest sticking points in the health care battle, while the House majority leader predicted final legislation will include a public option.

The question is what form it will be in, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Maryland, told CNN's "American Morning."

"We'll have to see how that legislative process goes. The public option is a priority for us, it's our objective, and we think that in some form, a public option will be available," Hoyer said.

A government-run public option has become the focal point of the health care debate.

In recent days, the White House has been speaking with moderate Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine, one of the Senate Finance Committee negotiators on health care, about her idea for a trigger mechanism that would bring a public option in the future if health care legislation fails to meet thresholds for expanding coverage and reducing costs, Snowe confirmed earlier this week.



Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/09/11/health.care/index.html

[Oregone]

1. One weak enough to pass but "optiony" enough to pacify their base

[uberblonde]

6. Amen to that.

They're corporate whores, they don't care about us.

[drm604]

2. Reading that article,

it sounds like they're talking about a public option with a trigger. Which is pretty much worthless.

[SandWalker1984]

3. Without a strong public option, real reform is DOA

A public option that is in name only will not give competition to the insurance companies and Congress knows it.

As to discussion about triggers, isn't the fact that premiums have risen 87% over the past 6 years, the fact that insurance companies are denying people's claims and care to increase profits prove that the "trigger" has already been pulled?

3 of the 4 bills currently being kicked around call for MANDATES for everyone to buy insurance.

Without a strong Medicare-type public option to compete, what will we be forced by law to buy?

Answer: Overpriced and under performing private insurance, where premiums have risen 87% since 2002 and denial of care to benefit the bottom line of the greedy corporations reigns supreme.

Do any of these plans address regulation of the insurance corporations to control costs?

Does Obama's?

Anser: No.

So what are they in Congress really offering us??

Answer: They are really offering to sell us, the people, into corporate servitude in the name of "reform" so the $1 million+ a day the insurance lobbyists are pouring into Washington brings results that will "insure" the corporate donations keep coming.


I expect this kind of behavior from Republicans, the fact that the president I supported and help elect, along with many Democrats, are willing to do this to us all overwhelms me.

Progressive Democrats, please keep up the fight. You're all that still stands between us and greed.

[Demit]

4. I wouldn't trust Steny Hoyer as far as I could throw him.

And that's all the big dramatic speech is going to result in? Olympia Snowe's trigger that she proposed months ago? Is that why she was so prominently featured in the audience the other night? Feh. Snow is an appropriate term for what they're trying to do, if this is the case.

[Triana]

5. "some form" isn't good enough

if the "form" of it is so impotent it can't COMPETE with the private for-profit insurance mercenaries.

It needs to be the public option on STEROIDS - OR THEY'RE WASTING THEIR TIME ON HEALTH CARE REFORM.

Period.

[flyarm]

7. Joe Wilson and AHIP Team Up to Write Max Baucus’s Health Care Bill By: Jane Hamsher

Joe Wilson and AHIP Team Up to Write Max Baucus’s Health Care Bill
By: Jane Hamsher

http://campaignsilo.firedoglake.com/2009/09/11/joe-wilson-and-ahip-team-up-to-write-max-baucuss-health-care-bill/

Friday September 11, 2009 7:06 am


There really doesn't seem to be any limit to what the administration will do to pass Rahm Emanuel's neoliberal giveaway to the insurance industry. The "author" of the plan released by Baucus (and apparently by Mike Ross) is a former VP of Wellpoint. Now AHIP is boasting about their role in crafting it:

Many of the changes to the insurance system now under discussion are the ones that have been advocated this year by the insurance companies themselves, said Karen M. Ignagni, the chief executive of America's Health Insurance Plans, the industry trade group. "The industry has been the leader in creating the proposals everyone is about to endorse," she said.

No wonder insurance company stocks shot up after the President's speech.

But now we find, per John Aravosis, that Kent Conrad and Max Baucus are changing their bill to appease Joe Wilson:

"We really thought we'd resolved this question of people who are here illegally, but as we reflected on the President's speech last night we wanted to go back and drill down again," said Senator Kent Conrad, one of the Democrats in the talks after a meeting Thursday morning. Baucus later that afternoon said the group would put in a proof of citizenship requirement to participate in the new health exchange — a move likely to inflame the left.

As John says, if Wilson's outburst turns out to be successful, it'll keep happening over and over again. And it will work every time.

If you want to stop this travesty from going forward -- and it's turning into a complete travesty -- ask these members of Congress from strong Democratic districts, all of whom have cosponsored Single Payer in the past and know better, why they aren't pledging to vote against any bill if it turns out to be nothing more than an insurance industry bailout:

read the rest at the link..........

[rhett o rick]

8. The new public option: Pay the high price for insurance or jump off a cliff.

Hey, it's an option. What do you want?

[Doctor_J]

9. Now all we have to do is wait 4 years to see if it's real

:eyes:

[bvar22]

10. Conviently enough, that is AFTER the 2012 elections.

Who in their right mind believes it will take 4 YEARS to get this thing up and running?

No.
They're corrupt, but not dumb.

They KNOW that the 75% of Americans expecting REAL reform are going to be very disappointed when they open their new Health Care Package, and find a BIG bill from the For Profit Health Insurance Industry....
AND, you will be a criminal if you refuse to pay it.

They are paying back their owners in the Health Insurance Industry, just like they did for Wall Street.

NOW we have Your Children’s Money too !!!
And there is not a fucking thing you can do about it!
Now THIS is “Bi-Partisanship” !
Better get used to it!!
Hahahahahahahahaha!


Can you smell it now?