No! Health insurance 'co-ops' ain't gonna make it.
Monday, August 17, 2009 at 21:16 Nossir! No how!
This is purely a case of the Obama administration backing away in a lame and desparate attempt to make nice and keep peace among fueding kinfolk.
Within both houses, fortunately, there is continuing support for the only thing that makes any sense: a ‘public option’ for health insurance.
In the Senate, where negotiations are now focused, John D. Rockefeller IV (W.Va.) said that a public option, as the plan has become known, is “a must.” Sen. Russell Feingold (Wis.) said that “without a public option, I don’t see how we will bring real change to a system that has made good health care a privilege for those who can afford it.”
Some Democrats are actually predicting that the House measure could lose as many as 100 votes without the public option, in exchange for two or three Senate votes.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) said that the plan will be included in whatever bill is voted on in the House. “There is strong support in the House for a public option,” she said, though she did not demand that the administration express support for the idea.
She should.
Three House committees and one Senate panel have passed versions of health-care legislation that contain a public option.
John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO, said the union will continue pressing House and Senate negotiators to keep a public plan. “The only way to force real competition on the insurance companies is a strong public plan option,” he said.
Damn straight.
Obama needs show some backbone and quit dancing around the public option and remaining “open to alternatives”. This is playing political ‘chicken’ when that’s the last thing we need in the face of a vocal minority that would doom citizens in this country to a third class medical system, in addition to the economic chaos that will result from it.
I’ve compromised as much as I’m willing. I wanted a single payer system.
If Republicans like Grassley, and the Blue Dogs don’t want to play, so be it. Let them look like the fools that derailed the choo-choo train.
For Nevadans: Sen. Harry Reid is playing hard to get. He “supports a public option in part because of the necessity to keep insurance companies in check,” said spokesman Jim Manley. “However, he recognizes there are different proposals on the table that could accomplish that goal.”
“Different proposals that could sccomplish that goal”? Wrong, wrong, wrong.
Jeeze, guys! You’ve got the jobs already. Now be leaders.
Damn the torpedos, Mr. President!
maven
Reader Comments (2)
Harry Reid is holding a tele-town hall on the 28th. I signed up.
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Hmm...I forgot the ending quotes...
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