Fixing Our Health Care System Means Getting to 60 Senate Votes

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/03/18/fixing-our-health-care-system-means-getting-to-60-senate-votes/

by Mike Hall, Mar 18, 2008

Given that 47 million Americans are without health insurance and as many as 40 percent who have coverage are underinsured, the 2008 election is likely to be a mandate on health care for all, a panel of health care and political experts told a Take Back America symposium today. The annual conference, in Washington, D.C., which runs through Wednesday, brings together activists and organizers to discuss strategies for moving progressive strategies that address the economy, foreign policy, health care and more.

http://www.ourfuture.org/video/tba-2008-healthcare-all-plan-get-there

Jacob Hacker, an economist and political science professor at Yale University and author of the Health Care for America proposal, said health care advocates need to develop a “template” that doesn’t compromise core health care principles but one that also can win the political support needed to be enacted.

There are a lot of good ideas out there that don’t stand a chance of passage and there are a lot of bad ideas out there that seem to be in favor among certain constituencies and the hope is one can put one really good alternative on the table that can be passed.

The Health Care for America plan parallels many of the same principles the AFL-CIO is calling for, including comprehensive coverage. Health Care for America builds on the best portions of the U.S. health care, including employer-based coverage and Medicare, while controlling costs and calling for shared responsibility among employers, the government and individuals. Hacker’s plan was developed for the Economic Policy Institute’s (EPI’s) Agenda for a Shared Prosperity. (Click here for the latest detailed cost and coverage analysis of the Health Care for America proposal.)

Even as the health care forum took place, the Kaiser Family Foundation released a new report that shows the longer health care reform is delayed, the more costly it becomes for employers to provide health coverage. It found the cost of employer-paid heath insurance has jumped by nearly 62 percent since 1999. Today’s costs are sure to be even higher because the latest available statistics were from 2005.

People of color are among those hardest hit by the nation’s crumbling health care system. As Dr. Maya Rockeymoore, founder and president of Global Policy Solutions, said at the conference:

African Americans, Latinos, Asians are less than 30 percent of the nation’s population but they are more than 50 percent of the nation’s year-around uninsured…we have a broken system.

FULL story at link.

[Clear Blue Sky]

1. Good luck.

The only way you'll get 60+ votes is if they are voting themselves a raise.

[SammyWinstonJack]

2. So cynical and so true. It sucks!

[aquart]

3. Thank you for your concern.

Have you called your Senate candidates and asked for their position on universal healthcare?

[Omaha Steve]

8. Hagel is on his way out

He votes Republican on everything except the war. He talks change in his book that is coming out. He sure never voted much for change.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

4. Sadly, the only way they were probably vote for a Universal Health Care program would be if they

were under threat of losing their Excellent health care that is paid by the citizens of our country.

[bobbolink]

9. Which is exactly what Edwards promised to do.

So, he was kicked to the curb.

:cry:

[bobbolink]

5. So, tomorrow there's 60 senate Dems...

THEN what will be the excuse????

[Better Believe It]

6. Why 60 Votes?

Why would it take 60 votes? As I understand it, the only thing opponents can do if you have more than 50 but less than 60 votes is filibuster.

Is that correct?

If so, that's not a "problem" at all.

[bobbolink]

7. Why are you questioning me? *I'M* not the one who brought up 60 votes.

What *I'M* saying is that we always forgive the DEMS for not doing what's right.

There's always some excuse.

We always look for a change in the future, when they won't betray us.

Why is that?

[avenger64]

10. The only way to 'fix' our health care system ...

.. is national health insurance.