Robert Reich: The Public Option Lives On

[flpoljunkie]

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2009

The Public Option Lives On

Tomorrow (Tuesday) is a critical day in the saga of the public option. Democrats Charles Schumer (New York) and Jay Rockefeller (West Virginia) are introducing an amendment to include the public option in the bill to be reported out by the Senate Finance Committee -- the committee anointed by the White House as its favored vehicle for getting health care reform.

Before you read another word, call and email the Senate offices of Democrats Max Baucus (Montana), Tom Carper (Delaware), Robert Menendez (New Jersey), Kent Conrad (North Dakota), and Ben Nelson (Florida) -- telling them you want them to vote in favor of the public option amendment. And get everyone you know in these states to do the same. Hell, you might as well phone and email Republican Olympia Snowe (Maine) and make the same pitch.

Background: Every dollar squeezed out of Big Pharma and Big Insurance is a dollar less that you'll have to pay either in healthcare costs or in taxes to cover healthcare costs. The two most direct ways to squeeze future profits are allowing Medicare to use its huge bargaining leverage to negotiate lower drug prices, and creating a public insurance option to compete with private insurers and also use its bargaining clout to get lower prices and thereby push private insurers to offer lower rates.

But last January, the White House made a Faustian bargain with Big Pharma and Big Insurance, essentially scuttling both of these profit-squeezing mechanisms in return for these industries' agreement not to oppose healthcare legislation with platoons of lobbyists and millions of dollars of TV ads, and Pharma's willingness to cut drug prices by some $80 billion over the next ten years. The White House promised these industries they'd come out way ahead -- getting tens of millions of new customers who'd be buying private health insurance policies and thereby paying for an almost endless supply of new drugs. Healthcare reform would be, in short, a bonanza.

Big Pharma and Big Insurance have so far delivered on their side of the deal. In fact, Big Pharma has shelled out $120 million in advertisements in favor of reform. Now the White House is delivering on its side.

more...

http://robertreich.blogspot.com/2009/09/public-option-lives-on.html

[DJ13]

1. "Big Pharma and Big Insurance have so far delivered on their side of the deal"

Actually I dont think thats correct.

Sure they havent run their own counter ads, but they certainly have been shoving money to key Senators from both party's to kill off the public option.

Also they were funding all those astroturf events during August.

They arent the choir boys our political class (like Reich) are trying to paint them as.

[Gwereeya]

2. Agreed!

The Ivory Towers don't seem to get that it's a red-meat dogfight.

[flpoljunkie]

5. Reich is not a fan of Big Pharma.

[Cha]

3. I think I'll Rec'd and Kick this before I call these dinos..

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8636511#8637564

[jumptheshadow]

4. If true, this is self-destructive

>>But last January, the White House made a Faustian bargain with Big Pharma and Big Insurance, essentially scuttling both of these profit-squeezing mechanisms in return for these industries' agreement not to oppose healthcare legislation with platoons of lobbyists and millions of dollars of TV ads, and Pharma's willingness to cut drug prices by some $80 billion over the next ten years. The White House promised these industries they'd come out way ahead -- getting tens of millions of new customers who'd be buying private health insurance policies and thereby paying for an almost endless supply of new drugs. Healthcare reform would be, in short, a bonanza.<<

They probably thought they were pursuing a pragmatic strategy, if this is true. But are they really as worried about failing that they made a promise that essentially is a huge giveaway to insurance companies and a overall blow to the average American citizen?