The fate of HCR

[Politics_Guy25]

You know what final passage of health care reform by Congress supported by President Obama will do don't you? It will create very valuable health insurance exchanges and the toughest regulations that the insurance industry has ever had to deal with even though they can never be tough enough. However, the key is that it will create a framework. Then in a time in the not too distant future, the Congress will realize that the exchanges alone are not keeping premiums down enough and that the insurance regulations need to be tougher. Then, you will see Congress use reconciliation procedures to add a public option to the exchange (remember the exchanges are the fundamental reform-the public option was to be part of the exchange). At first, it will be weak but each time Congress deals with it, the public option will get stronger and stronger, cheaper and cheaper, more easily accessible. Eventually, the public option will be made so strong that it will force the death industry out of business or at least create a government insurance plan that is so strong that insurers are scared stiff.

You talk about wanting a public option as a foot in the door to public health care. What you fail to realize is that THIS bill is the first step. It's the beginning, not the end. Senator Harkin has repeated this lately. President Clinton told the Democratic senator luncheon that he went to that this bill will be "ammended year after year and toughened." He's right.

If you kill this bill, you lose the framework. If you accept it in all its flaws, you have a very valuable framework to work with and step 1 to public health care is achieved. It won't take decades either. Congress will closely monitor the exchanges and their effects on health costs. If costs aren't dropping enough, bam!, public option added.

This bill makes what comes down the road easier. I really do think that it will be strengthened like Social Security was.

[gratefultobelib]

1. I have your kind of faith, too!

[PM Martin]

2. Will the regulations be there?

[Politics_Guy25]

3. They can make things tougher by add-ons

Like adding a health care ammendment to a defence spending bill or agricultural spending bill that must pass and no one will fillibuster such a key bill. As for the public option, it can be added through the budget reconciliation procedures and the parliamentarian won't be able to throw it out. You can probably get tougher regulations by him as well. Reconciliation wouldn't work for the omnibus health care bill but it probably will to toughen it up or at least I think so.

Another key is for the base to continually hammer their reps/senators for a P.O. and eventually it will come.

Patience. Grasshoppers (even though patience for this comes at a high price I realize)

[OHdem10]

4. If you believe the Republicans will strengthen it, you have more

faith in them than I do.

The Incumbent Party(Democrats at this time) naturally lose seats
in 2010. It is a given. The more Republicans there are, the
less likely the Spineless crowd will fix anything.

It has been reported that the GOP will run their election on
Repealing Health Care.

Considering this, I say they had better get it right and have
people liking their new health insurance.

[Hello_Kitty]

7. 2010 is going to be ugly.

And many proponents of this HCR are so unbelievably politically tonedeaf I have a hard time believing they're going to come up with an effective message to counter the GOP freedom/small government mantra. Also, as I've tried to explain to several people here, the people who are most likely to fare well under the bill are the least likely to vote in mid-terms. The electorate in mid-terms is older, whiter, and more likely to be middle class. We are fucked, unless by some miracle the House is able to get popular things like the public option and Medicare buy-in back in the bill.

[Hello_Kitty]

5. We have a Democratic Presidency and Democrats controlling both chambers of Congress

If this is the best we can get out of the situation I fail to see how it will be improved upon. That would require both holding on to those branches for decades to come and a substantial leftward tilt. Keep in mind that the insurance industry, bolstered by billions of dollars in subsidies and millions of captive customers will pour buckets of money into lobbying against reform and into the campaigns of Republicans and corporate-friendly Dems.

[heidler1]

6. I am pleased to read that there is hope for HCR.

It appeared to me for way too long that each side was willing to toss the whole objective because they couldn't get their way.

[eridani]

8. Selling the entire population to insurance companies makes reform harder, not easier

The regulations are not tough at all, and extremely easy to evade.