A Senate Vote on Medicare-for-All?

[flpoljunkie]

A Senate Vote on Medicare-for-All?

By MIKE LILLIS 12/14/09 5:10 PM

It’s looking that way.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the only member of the upper chamber to endorse single-payer health coverage, said Monday that he plans to introduce an amendment to the Democrats’ health reform legislation that would establish a Medicare-for-all insurance system.

We have got to understand that one of the reasons that our current health care system is so expensive, so wasteful, so bureaucratic, so inefficient, is that it is heavily dominated by private health insurance companies whose only goal in life is to make as much money as they can. <...>

The result is we are wasting about $400 billion a year on administrative costs, profiteering, high CEO compensation packages, advertising and all the other stuff which goes with the goal of private insurance companies to make as much money as can.

Michael Briggs, spokesman for Sanders, said Monday that Democratic leaders have indicated that Sanders’ single-payer proposal could be fourth in line among the amendments to get a vote on the Senate floor — the first vote of its kind in the history of the upper chamber. That the provision is certain not to pass hasn’t discouraged the Vermont Independent.

“I am not naive. I know that we will lose that vote,” Sanders said. “But … at the end of the day — not this year, not next year, but sometime in the future — this country will understand that if we’re going to provide comprehensive, quality care to all of our people, the only way we will do that is through a Medicare-for-all, single-payer system.”

http://washingtonindependent.com/70866/a-senate-vote-on-medicare-for-all

[maryinthemorn]

1. YES> see this and send a FREE fax...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=433&topic_id=57848&mesg_id=57848

[polichick]

2. We are lucky to have Sanders in DC, fearlessly speaking the truth. k&r

[AndyA]

3. Bernie Sanders is one of the few who actually makes sense at this point.

Harry Reid should have his butt kicked hard for the pitiful job he's done leading the Senate. When you allow a lightweight like Joe Lieberman to call all the shots, and he's someone who isn't even a Democrat, you are seriously compromised and unfit for the task at hand.

Max Baucus should have never chaired the committe on health care reform. He's compromised and everyone knew it. This should have never happened, and that was mistake #1 that guaranteed failure. I blame all the Democrats who stood by and allowed Baucus to be the chair. Of course, many of them are also compromised. Mistake #2.

Obama was not forceful enough going into the health care reform debate. He could have helped frame this debate, but he allowed the right wingers and tea baggers to do it instead. Mistake #3. He should have used his popularity and momentum to make his point in the beginning.

It will be a miracle if we wind up with anything other than another abusive law that benefits only corporations and harms the American people. With so many out of work, and with every single other expense increasing, most can not afford to be saddled with an additional expense for forced health insurance.

Shame, shame, shame on anyone who votes for such a thing. There are other, better options.

[whirlygigspin]

4. Bernie Sanders is the best!

(but don't listen to me, I have a secret agenda that i'm masking by pretending to be a progressive on a board in order to one day make something or other happen to people I don't really know for no apparent reason)

[AndyA]

6. I suspected as much.

;)

[AzDar]

5. K & R

:kick:

[Clio the Leo]

7. Should happen some time after 5pm. NT