Dean and fellow governors and their attempts in the early 90s to get health care.

[madfloridian]

In Howard Dean's book, "You Have the Power", he talks about trying to get help from congressional Democrats in 1991 for the states to pass health care bills on their own. He and several governors went to talk to the House leadership. They asked for changes in federal laws that were keeping states from working out their own plans for universal health care. The leadership refused to help on the grounds, he says, that many had waited their whole careers to pass it, and they did not yet have the votes....and they did not want to states to do it. (Page 62)

And a paragraph from page 63 that just makes me furious. Again from 1991 and early 90s.
SNIP.."Many of the congressional Democrats wouldn't take a risk on anything that might be unpopular, be subject to attack, or allow other people to outshine them in getting some actual work done. So they wouldn't give a green light to the governors in 1991; and a few years later, they wouldn't hear the signals coming from Bob Dole that he was willing to compromise on Clinton's health-care plan. They were paralyzed between their fear of losing an election and their fear of change. In the end they lost and became the victims, in 1994, of the most sweeping congressional changes in sixty-two years. They set the table for Newt Gingrich. It was an awful irony: After decades of domination by the so-called party of the people, the party of FDR and Harry Truman, America continued, at the turn of the millennium, to be the only country in the industrialized world that didn't have health insurance for all its people. "

"The Democrats, who by the early 1990s had been in power in Congress without interruption for forty years, became so obsessed with keeping their seats and staving off challenges that they forgot why they were there."

..."SNIP..."We became afraid of the Right, afraid of the anger, and instead of being steadfast, we pandered....The Democratic Party has paid a big price for that. Worse, our people have paid a big price for the collapse of our will to lead. We failed to articulate a vision for American that keyed into Americans' hope of overcoming economic and social instability. ..."

...."By remaining silent about the things that mattered so much to Americans, we allowed ourselves to be painted into a corner and to be defined by the Republican opposition. .."

Then he says this kind of behavior "laid the groundwork for the rise of the radical right".

[Cleita]

1. The first time I became aware of Governor Howard Dean

was back when Sixty Minutes was still a respectable journalistic show. The segment on him was exactly what you have put up in your post about how he got some universal health care in Vermont, but he stated that it would take Federal funds to help the states to get universal health care to everyone in the USA and this was his quest in life. I filed his name away for future reference back then and of course in later years he became well known and a presidential candidate whom I would still vote for today if he ran.

[sandnsea]

2. He got SCHIP, for one

He got that program, amongst others, plus waivers - that helped him get the kind of coverage Vermont had. It is simply not true that Dems in Congress didn't work with states to expanded health care and help pass their own plans. Sorry, MF, Dean was never honest about health care.

[madfloridian]

3. Depends on who tells it, I guess.

Was Dole ready to compromise? Was that a lie as well?

Yeh, I know. According to DU he was not honest about anything. Yet everyone else is a saint and tells the gospel truth.

So be it.

[madfloridian]

4. And if you want to go down that road.....

about who did not tell truths....if that game is going to played again...I'm ready.

I think most realize he was one of the more centrist, BUT more honest.

Now 1, 2. 3. jump.

I posted about all kinds of things not to post about politics...and someone finds stuff on every one. So hey, why not post what I believe in.

[sandnsea]

5. SChip is a reality

Everyone knows their state has it. Not much else to say.

[madfloridian]

6. Formed in 1997 or 98 I think....my posts refers to visits in the early 90s.

Schip is for kids. and used to be for some parents whose incomes were too high for Medicaid. I remember some parents talking about trying to get the coverage when I was teaching.

Florida's schip...Kidcare...had frozen enrollment for ages..now I am not sure.

It is a serious thing to call a politician a liar. I find that goes on too easily here.

We should have health care for everyone. I know an elderly couple who might lose their home because of medical debt...and that bill about bankruptcy was pushed by our party.

We did have the power to get things done and we did not get health care done. Now we don't have that ability.

I was not going to answer your post about saying he was lying. I did not want to make a deal of it. However I just got the hell attacked for not liking plane noise and for having hesitation over our "stand your ground"shoot anywhere bill...so hey, what the heck.

There's a back story to why health care did not pass, but I will leave that one alone.

Talk about lies? Want to talk about lies?

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/1372

[sandnsea]

7. Sorry, it's not true

Here are the press releases from 1992. Clinton hadn't even been elected yet. We had just come out of the nursing home fiasco. A variety of things were being considered, including national health care with the Clintons. Democrats were leading on real health care reform, at the state and national level. Howard Dean was never some rogue outsider taking on the entrenched establishment. He wasn't. He was just another middle of the road governor, implementing the same Clinton policies as the rest of the governors and making improvements in health care as new programs came out of DC.

http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/1992.html

[madfloridian]

9. Then that makes this website wrong?

http://www.results.org/website/article.asp?id=1561

"The State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP)
In the most recent estimates, there are more than 9 million children living in the United States who lack health insurance. SCHIP (the State Children’s Health Insurance Program) was created through the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 to help states provide health insurance coverage to uninsured children. SCHIP was formed to give health insurance to children and some parents with incomes too high to qualify for Medicaid, but for whom private health insurance was either unavailable or unaffordable. Since 1997, when SCHIP was first created, the number of uninsured low-income children in the U.S. has decreased by one-third. Today, SCHIP covers more than 6 million children. Together, SCHIP and Medicaid cover one quarter of all children and half of low-income children."

You mentioned schip, said it was ongoing about the time I posted. It was according to this website not formed until 1997.

I don't see anything on your link mentioning schip.

Please post a direct link if the site I mention is wrong. Sounds like the kind of argument being put forth about the war....no one really voted for it.

This is sad, sandnsea.

There is more from Al From about why the heaoth care went nowhere...they threatened Clinton. I don't think I even mentioned Clinton in my OP....did I? This was not about Clinton....the OP was about the fact we could have done more. Let's not go there.

Dean has been passionate about health care, even though he was a centrist governor.

[sandnsea]

10. They started working on that in '94

Just like they started working on waivers before '92. Different state waivers got passed at different times. They worked on health care reform all through the 90's. Clinton's immunization program was proposed in '93 and implemented in '94. None of what any of the states accomplished could have been done without federal assistance. I'm done with this conversation. It's so self-evident that it isn't even worth the fight.

[wyldwolf]

8. just as well that this info was debunked in this thread, MF

...it sort of contradicts the "progressive" meme that the DLC and Clinton caused the GOP takeover in 1994.