Well, looky here! Turns out there are lots of different health care options on the table!

[KamaAina]

The M$M has studiously ignored these, of course. The best-known hereabouts is, of course, H.R. 676 ("Medicare for All"), a single-payer plan. But there are at least three other progressive options out there: Rep. John Dingell (D-MI)'s National Health Insurance Act (H.R. 15), Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA)'s AmeriCare Health Care Act of 1009 (H.R. 193), and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT)' American Health Security Act of 2009 (S. 703). Also, the unlikely pairing of Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Bob Bennett (R-UT) have the Healthy Americans Act (S. 791).

A side-by-side comparison of these, and the various bills under consideration in House and Senate committees, is here:

http://www.kff.org/healthreform/upload/healthreform_sbs_full.pdf

The first 21 pages are devoted to the bills moving in Congress, and Obama's proposals; the last 21 are devoted to the alternatives described above, plus the repukes' "Patients' Choice Act" (S. 1099 and H.R. 2520).

Any policy wonks out there ready to roll up their sleeves and tackle this?

edit per THOMAS:

http://thomas.loc.gov

the Wyden/Bennett private-based mishmash, predictably, has the most cosponsors with 14, followed by Rep. Stark's AmeriCare with 3 -- but two of those are Keith Ellison (D-MN) and Jan Schakowsky (D-IL). Dingell's and Sanders' plans have no cosponsors, while the repuke package has 7 wingnut Senate cosponsors (et tu, Alexander??) and a mere six in the House, sniveling backbenchers all.

edit: cosponsors, and repuke bill numbers

[snappyturtle]

1. K&R Bookmarked to study later. I wouldn't want to tackle it right now and

besides I'm no policy wonk. Thanks for posting.

[DeltaLitProf]

2. Stupid question probably, but

. . . how trustworthy is this document, seeing as it comes from the Henry Kaiser foundation and Kaiser Permanente is one of the big managed care companies. Is there a connection?

[stuball111]

4. Good point..

Seems there is an awful lot left out of the Obama column...

[Mnemosyne]

10. Welcome to DU and to the country, stuball111!

There is more hope, though slowly building again, even with the failing economy and corruption.

I'm just pleased to be on the Earth for now, most of the time anyway. :evilgrin:

:hi::toast::smoke:

[stuball111]

11. Thanks!

Been here for a while, and lovin it, music, politics, festivals, My VW buses!, Now, I'm on board to help y'all get Universal Health Care!

[KamaAina]

5. Yes, Kaiser money endows the foundation

but I got it in an email from my rep, Neil Abercrombie (D-HI01), who is a cosponsor of H.R. 676. Apparently his staff feels that that's the best thing out there.

[Stinky The Clown]

8. Kaiser Permanente and Kaiser Family Foundation are two separately funded, independent organizations

Kaiser Permanente is a non profit HMO.

Kaiser Family Foundation is a privately funded health information collection and dissemination organization.

Here is their wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiser_Family_Foundation

[stuball111]

3. First glance

Seems Like "O" is going for a national plan, similar to Canada/Europe But giving tax dollars back to people to pay private insurance companies for coverage (which I assume the Repubs want) is just another tax subsidy to them, am I correct?

[wildflower]

6. If only they had *started* from a single-payer plan

and negotiated with the R's and Blue Dogs from that point...where might we be? But instead they started by saying *maybe* a public option, and going downhill from there.

[Mnemosyne]

12. What a common sense point! How dare you?

:hi:

[dflprincess]

13. The way they want to slam something through Congress

before anyone has a chance to really study what's being proposed should have been the final sign that neither Obama nor most of Congress have ever been serious about real reform. They're looking for a way to protect the health insurance companies while trying to fool us into thinking they've done something for the public.

There are more bills out there, but until they get hearings they really aren't on the table. We need to keep hammering them about single payer - at least let them know we are paying attention.

[slipslidingaway]

7. #5 n/t

[Wednesdays]

9. K&R

:kick:

[jcarterhero]

14. Damn insurance companies

Always trying to fight us regular folk. How I hate them.