There seems to be some confusion on DU over what Howard Dean said about the Senate Health Care anti-Reform bill. He said:
"This is essentially the collapse of health care reform in the United States Senate," Dean said. "Honestly, the best thing to do right now is kill the Senate bill, go back to the House, start the reconciliation process, where you only need 51 votes and it would be a much simpler bill." http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/HealthCare/howard-dean-health-care-bill-bigger-bailout-insurance/story?id=9349392 Also, David Sirota in USA Today said:
The Senate health care bill betrays the promise of fundamental "change" Democrats made during the 2008 election. It cloaks a handout to the health industry in the veneer of "reform."
The Senate health care bill betrays the promise of fundamental "change" Democrats made during the 2008 election. It cloaks a handout to the health industry in the veneer of "reform."
Though it includes some positive subsidies and regulatory tweaks, the bill creates few mechanisms to halt premium increases, bust insurance monopolies and end price discrimination — and it includes no public insurance option.
Worst of all, it doesn't actually extend "new coverage" to 30 million more Americans. Through the "individual mandate," it simply makes people criminals if they don't buy expensive insurance from the private corporations that helped create the health care crisis in the first place.
President Obama says this legislation "stand(s) up to the special interests" — but after spending millions of dollars on campaign contributions and lobbying, the special interests clearly disagree. When the Senate bill was unveiled, health stocks skyrocketed. Meanwhile, an insurance insider told reporters, "We win."
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I've tried to figure a way to consider this Senate counter-feit Reform bill somehow acceptable. I find I just can't do it. This thing is a insurance industry jack-pot. There is no mechanism for cost control (Public Option) in it so we are not solving the cost growth problem with this thing and it will only get worse in the next ten years. Without the threat of the Public Option the Insurance companies will have no interest in implementing changes which would lead to a more rational, efficient health care system.
The only hope now is if the House Democrats show Obama that since he handed the job of coming up with a health care reform bill over to the Congress they will do just that and pass ONLY a bill that provides for Health Care Reform (i.e. with the Public Option). Let the Senate REpublicans kill the bill as the insurance industry commands them to do and let the people see in the next few years what the Republlicans have wrought. Rapidly increasing Health Care costs, anywhere from 35% to 50% of those who now have insurance losing it as their employers can't afford it. Then we will see what the Tea-baggers (if any of them actually have group insurance) and Fox-News.GOP think of the situation then. Perhaps then with the Health care system going down the tubes people will then be ready for a fix.
OR, THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES CAN RESURRECT WHAT THE SENATE HAS MANAGED TO KILL - PASS REAL HEALTH CARE REFORM - I.E. WITH A PUBLIC OPTION.
NO SUBSIDIES WITHOUT THE PUBLIC OPTION. I would like to suggest that those who really want Health Care Reform to go to www.congress.org and send a message to your congressmnen and tell them to fix what the Senate fucked up. Health Care Reform isn'at dead yet. As Dean said,
"in the reconciliation process, you only need 51 votes" - which means the Public Option would be IN THERE. AND WE WOULD HAVE REAL HEALTH CARE REFORM.
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