So. Do you think we'll get a "robust public option" or not?

[leftofthedial]

Push is coming to shove.

I'm sure they'll pass something eventually this fall, but what?

Reform? Pablum?

And what the hell does "robust" mean anyway?

[elleng]

1. You used the word.

I'd bet no 'robust' anything for years. If we're lucky, we'll get something that will enable reasonable amendments down the road.

[QC]

2. No, we will get a handful of shit, but the White House and (the True Believers here)

will insist that it is actually delicious fudge.

[Mojambo]

3. My gut says no. n/t

[eridani]

4. If we can get them to allow voluntary buy-in to Medicare, yes. n/t

[Joe Bacon]

5. "Robust" describes a damn good cup of coffee.

You can bet any "Public Option" that survives will be effectively gelded by Olympia Snowe's trigger. Meanwhile McGuire and his fellow racketeers will cry all the way to the bank as their salaries double from 50 million more people buying their shoddy junk policies.

[ipaint]

6. Not.

Here is why:

Newly released records of visits to the Obama White House by health care executives provide some important new details not included in the White House’s July 22 letter sent to CREW on the eve of the President’s health care press conference. The records identify the names of the individuals the visitors were meeting with, and include information about scheduled appointments that apparently never took place. The new records include information from WAVES records, which show the scheduled dates of appointments, as well as ACR records, which show when the visitor actually entered the White House complex.

Bill Tauzin (President and CEO, Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America):

• March 5 (meeting with president)
• May 19 (meeting with Sarah Fenn)
• June 2 (meeting with Sarah Fenn)
• June 24 (meeting with Clare Gallagher)
• July 7 (meeting with Jim Messina)


Karen Ignagni (President and CEO, America's Health Insurance Plans):

• March 5 (meeting with president)
• March 6 (meetings with Elizabeth Bafford and Larry Summers)
• March 11 (meeting with Jennifer Cannistra)
• June 30 (meeting with Sarah Fenn)
• July 24 (meeting with Sarah Fenn)

Richard Umdenstock (President and CEO, American Hospital Ass'n.):
• February 4 (meeting with Tina Tchen)
• February 23 (meeting with president)
• March 5 (meeting with president)
• March 25 (meeting with Jennifer Cannistra)
• March 30 (meeting with Ezekiel Emanuel)
• April 6 (meeting with Tina Tchen)
• May 22 (meeting with Sarah Fenn)

J. James Rohack (President-elect, American Medical Ass'n.):

• March 25 (meeting with Ezekiel Emanuel)
• June 22 (meeting with president)
• June 24 (meetings with Clare Gallagher and president)


William Weldon (Chairman and CEO, Johnson & Johnson):

• May 12 (meeting with president)


Jeffrey B. Kindler (Chairman and CEO, Pfizer Inc.):

• March 5 (meeting with president)
• May 6 (meetings with Sarah Fenn and Elizabeth Bafford)
• June 2 (meeting with Sarah Fenn)


Stephen J. Hemsley (President, CEO, Director, UnitedHealth Group, Inc.):

• May 15 (meeting with Sarah Fenn)
• May 22 (meeting with Peter Orszag)
• July 14 (meeting with Aneesh Chopra)


Angela Braly (President, CEO, Director, WellPoint, Inc.):

• February 13 (meeting with president)

George Halvorson (Chairman and CEO, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan):

• March 27 (meeting with Keith Fontenot)
• June 5 (meeting with Peter Orszag)
• July 23 (meeting with Kathleen Sibelius)
• July 24 (meeting with Sarah Fenn)

Jay Gellert (President and CEO, Health Net, Inc.):

• February 10 (meeting with Tina Tchen)
• March 11 (meeting with Jennifer Cannistra)
• March 20 (meeting with Matt Flavin)
• July 24 (meeting with Sarah Fenn)


Thomas Priselac (President and CEO, Cedars-Sinai Health System):

• April 3 (meeting with Ezekiel Emanuel)


Richard Clark (Chairman, President and CEO, Merck):

• March 24 (meeting with Ezekiel Emanuel)


Wayne T. Smith (Chairman, President and CEO, Community Health Systems):

• June 4 (meeting with Sarah Fenn)


Rick Smith (Sr. Vice President, Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America):

• May 19 (meeting with Sarah Fenn)
• June 2 (meeting with Sarah Fenn)
• July 7 (meeting with Jim Messina)
• July 24 (meeting with Sarah Fenn)


http://www.citizensforethics.org/files/20090904%20-%20Summary%20of%20Health%20Care%20Visits.pdf

[leftofthedial]

15. I remember all those meetings being broadcast on C-Span per Obama's campaign promise,

don't you?

Uh, wait. I don't remember them being broadcast.

[ipaint]

18. I wish.

What we got was a one time phony round table infomercial. Could they be more condescending.

[polichick]

20. Gosh, I must've missed them. nt

[polichick]

21. Thanks for posting this - disgusting as it is. nt

[ipaint]

23. It is disgusting.

Some of them are the same people that sent employees to sabotage the town halls. And they had access and face time at the white house as early as feb.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-insurers-reform3-2009sep03,0,2545747.story

Single payer advocates not so much, they get hauled off to jail if they dare mention an alternative to for profit private ins.

[leftofthedial]

25. How long can the anti-"conspiracy" crowd keep denying the existence

of "powers that be"?

If 75% of the country, an overwhelmingly popular president, and control of both houses of Congress can't achieve change, then the entire concept of "government" in this country is a sham.

[cleveramerican]

7. a"public option" by another name will come along

[freddie mertz]

8. I'm leaning no, based on the current state of leaks.

nt

[daa]

9. No, just some BS and claim victory. bye 2010 eom

[leftofthedial]

24. that seems like the setup.

I don't have the sense that anyone in the white house sincerely gives a rat's ass about fixing health care. It's become just a political dog turd they can't keep from stepping in.

[joeycola]

10. Pablum

[newportdadde]

11. No. I think we will get a trigger, mandated insurance for everyone and pre-existing that noone can

afford.

[alcibiades_mystery]

12. "robust" means "We have an out to continue griping when a public option passes"

:-)

[leftofthedial]

17. so if we don't get a "robust" public option,

no one will gripe.

I see.

[alcibiades_mystery]

22. "robust" has no other content than that, so we'd never know if we "got it" or not

"robust" has one meaning and one meaning only: anything that passes is not enough! There simply is no set of criteria to judge robustness other than this.

It's the axiomatic: nothing will suffice!

[WeDidIt]

13. Nope, the Blue Dogs and Olympia Snowe will force Obama's hand

and the public option will die a "triggered" death.

Then Snowe will stab Obama in the back by not voting for the bill any way and Health Care Reform will be dead for another sixteen years.

[Hansel]

19. No, she will vote for it all right.

Then the RW will campaign on saving us from it for the next 5 years. They will promise to stop it in order to prevent the US from becoming a socialist communist fascist country that putting a public option in place would result in.

They will use the additional campaign donations from the insurance companies to put out extra ads about how they are going to stop this socialist communist fascist president and we will be back in a permanent Republican majority with even more insane morons in charge.

Public option will become the new "gay marriage".

[demwing]

14. I hate that word "Robust"

it a word you generally only hear around a conference table while guys in suits pretend they know what guys in jeans want and will pay for.

Or in a coffee commercial.

[ShortnFiery]

16. We better. eom