Harkin sees passage of Kennedy-backed health plan

[Joanne98]

Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The veteran liberal lawmaker who succeeded Edward Kennedy as chairman of the Senate health committee says he's confident Congress will pass healthcare reform with a government-run public insurance option by the end of the year.

Although the measure faces stiff opposition, Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa said he expected his fellow Democrats would join with President Barack Obama to pass the kind of comprehensive healthcare reform that Kennedy described as "the cause of my life."

Kennedy, the long-serving Massachusetts senator and patriarch of the Kennedy political family, died last month of cancer. He had thrown himself behind Obama's campaign for healthcare reform in the last year of his life.

"I'm convinced we're going to have a healthcare reform bill on the president's desk before we go home for Christmas," Harkin told Reuters in an interview.

"And there will be some form of a public option," a government plan offering coverage cheaper than that provided by private insurers as part of comprehensive reform, Harkin said.

"There's a lot of support for it," he said.


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE58L5EY20090922

[mdmc]

1. 3

[Skink]

2. A democratic challenger could win Iowa if we don't get a public option.

[polichick]

3. True - I hope we get a "robust" public option. nt

[emulatorloo]

10. You mean against GRASSLEY, right? Because Grassley is the obstructionist here

Not Harkin, who truly is one of the most liberal Senators we have.

[WestSeattle2]

16. I'd be honored to be the first out-of-stater to donate to their

campaign. And no "trigger" crap either, we need an honest, straight-forward public option. Period. End of story. The insurance racket has been fleecing American's for too may decades, they need to either play straight or leave the game. A strong public option is the big stick that will make them pretend to have morals and ethics.

[orpupilofnature57]

4. $600.000.00 A day to keep things the same,should be a big clue as to

Why?

[PearliePoo2]

5. The Dems will give the country the nicest Christmas present ever

The fucking corporate, sell-out, RePukes put coal in stockings. The liberal, commie, Democrats will give health care to everyone.
Happy New Year America!

[mvd]

7. Indeed! I'd trade any regular gifts for that

:thumbsup:

[SPedigrees]

6. I hope Senator Harkin is right. Howard Dean has made the same prediction.

[SandWalker1984]

8. If it is not a STRONG, Medicare-type Option, it's just more corporate welfare!

Any Public Option that is not a strong, government backed (and government funded) plan available to ALL Americans as a choice over private, mandated, for profit insurance is NOT health care reform, it is merely another big handout to the corporations.
(Remember AIG? Heard the news this week that we are not to expect full re-payment from them for our generous bailout, even though the bonuses continue?)

Mandatory private insurance is NOT health care reform!

Neither is giving up a Medicare type public option to get pre-existing conditions covered by the insurance companies (who would be required to cover those people, but how high would the premiums be???)

Putting in a "trigger" for a public option is not only not reform, it's a corporate cave in of the worst type.

I found a post over at DK web site the other week by Hunter titled "Your Corporate Bought Government" that said it better than I possibly could.

He stated that the insurance companies agreed back in December of 2008 to covering pre-existing conditions if they got mandatory private insurance requirements for all of us in exchange. Here is a portion of that post:

"This is likely exactly what we're going to see in a final bill. No public option. Weak regulation, in exchange for making it a United States law that every American has to buy the products of industry that has been unconscionably corrupt, a wildly profitable industry that has served as the defacto "death panel" of every American for the last generation. It would be like solving AIG's woes by mandating that every American give them several thousand dollars each year, or bailing out the domestic auto industry by making failure to buy a new car every year punishable by time in jail, or fighting organized crime by making the payment of "protection money" mandatory for every man, woman and child.

It is a stupid, asinine, corrupt, and spectacularly meanspirited proposal, which is exactly why our House, Senate and administration find it to be far less "controversial" than daring have government involvement with the physical health and well being of its own citizens.

It seems unremarkable to say that yes, the insurance industry would be willing to scrap preexisting condition denials -- in exchange for mandating that every single American in the nation purchase their product. That seems more than a fair trade, for an industry that values profits above all else. AHIP has been broadcasting television commercials touting that very point -- "if everyone is covered, we can make healthcare affordable" -- for at least the last month. And it seems obvious that our Senators, who are so beholden to the whims of lobbyists that they will do nothing, absolutely nothing, that it is not first proposed by those very same lobbyists, would eagerly go for such a thing.

Mark my words -- we are at the point where no legislation can be passed unless it benefits an American corporate sector more than it benefits anyone else. We are that corrupt, and our government is that beholden. No matter how hated an industry may be, or how many citizens of a nation it may have hurt, it will always receive the kind graces of the government that it has paid for."
*********

ARE YOU WILLING TO SETTLE FOR PRIVATE MANDATES AND NO PUBLIC OPTION AS HEALTH CARE REFORM?

ARE YOU WILLING TO GIVE THE HEALTH CARE CEOS MORE POWER, MORE CONTROL AND MORE OF YOUR MONEY?

OR DO YOU THINK WE DESERVE BETTER?

Republican or Democrat, if they sell us out, WE ARE STILL SOLD OUT!

This fight is not just about health care, it is about we the people vs them the corporations for control of our Congress, our economy and our way of life. Those worried about socialism should take a long hard look at what the corporations are doing to our country.

I'm far more concerned about corporate fascism than socialism. You, as citizens, can vote out corrupt socialism but you cannot vote out corporate fascism once it takes over.

[grahamhgreen]

14. Say NO to the PAY OR PUNISH CRAPSURANCE OPTION! Let's get back to Single Payer, Medicare for All

[emulatorloo]

9. KICK AND REC!!!!! n/t

[Deep13]

11. Thanks, Tom.

You're a good man.

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

12. I hope his confidence proves true. The American people really NEED a public option.

Of course the Republican-backed profiteers will fight that option tooth and nail because it impacts their very large and overly stuffed pockets.

[midnight]

13. Providing citizens access to affordable health care faces stiff

opposition, but not an illegal war? What could be more insane?

[grahamhgreen]

15. Not just 'some' form - a VERY strong, very real, govt program that any of us can buy into.

[mother earth]

17. Single payer public option would be ideal.

[pinto]

18. Kick

:kick:

[eridani]

19. If nothing actually comes into effect until 2013, Dems are going to get creamed at the polls n/t