The Democrats' secret health care plan (TNR Article)

[dtotire]

Surgical Prep by Jonathan Cohn
The Democrats' secret health care plan.
Post Date Wednesday, November 19, 2008


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If you believe what the pundits are saying, enacting universal health insurance in the next year won't be difficult: It will be impossible. As the argument goes, it would cost too much money, antagonize too many interest groups, and--given the difficulty of finding 60 votes in the Senate--require too much raw political muscle. Even before Barack Obama won the election, allies were advising him to stay far away from major health care legislation, lest he fail as miserably as Bill Clinton did when he famously tried for universal coverage back in 1994. As one anonymous Democratic senator recently told New York magazine, "Health care is a quagmire."


But not everybody thinks 2009 has to be a repeat of 1994. Since June, staff members from three key Senate committees--Budget, Finance, and Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions--have been meeting regularly to map out a health care strategy for the coming year. They've formed three working groups: one focused on expanding insurance coverage, one focused on improving the system's functioning, and one focused on financing a new initiative. They've also been meeting with officials representing almost every key stakeholder involved in the health care debate, from doctors to insurers to consumer advocates to employers. The goal of these meetings has been to develop a common vision among Senate Democrats for what universal health care should look like--and how to pass it. Although the discussions still have a ways to go, a rough consensus is starting to take shape.


More:
http://www.tnr.com/toc/story.html?id=d818fb23-9df8-4be5-8742-25e3f5ec6e09

[Cleita]

1. But war is doable and doesn't cost too much money?

If Congress doesn't address health care and soon, too many people will be dying from curable diseases because they didn't have access to decent health care. Doctors already are refusing many insurance plans and HMOs because they get stiffed in payments. Now they are clogging Medicare and Medicaid payments so doctors are starting to refuse new patients on these programs. I hope Obama has his eyes open to the revolt that will happen on his watch if he doesn't take care of these problems very early in his administration. He's not Clinton and doesn't need to fail where Clinton did.

[drm604]

2. They're meeting with insurers?

Why do insurers have any input? They're a major part of the problem.

Let's invite the foxes in to discuss why hens are disappearing.

[antigop]

3. "doctors to insurers to consumer advocates to employers"

Um, what about us?

[bluethruandthru]

4. I'm really tired of politicians wanting to give

taxpayer dollars to insurance companies! I want single payer universal health care. We don't need universal health INSURANCE... we need universal health CARE.
Medical insurance needs to go away...unless they want to sell coverage to the rich for plastic surgery.