Tag Archives: public option

Obama Puts Public Option and Single Payer Back on the Table

At the National Governors Association, President Obama just threw his weight behind a bi-partisan effort in the US Senate to allow states to innovate with health reform, including adopting a public insurance system or single payer health care system by 2013 instead of 2017.

At the National Governors Association, President Obama just threw his weight behind a bi-partisan effort in the US Senate to allow states to innovate with health reform, including adopting a public insurance system or single payer health care system by 2013 instead of 2017.

The governors embraced the state innovations waiver proposal, since conservative states want to weed back the federal health reform and states like California might like to push ahead with public insurance options or single payer health care systems.

The idea is to let states meet federal targets anyway they want to, rather than how the federal government prescribes, by 2013 rather than the current 2017 deadline.

This is one of Obama’s only moves left, and a smart one. It gives progressive reformers in California and elsewhere the ability to move forward on ambitious reform plans that can pass at the ballot box in 24 states but would never get the time of day in Washington.

Facing strong legal challenges to the individual mandate, Obama did the right thing by offering flexibility to states to meet targets for access and benefits in the Affordable Care Act.  He took a page from longtime labor leader Joe Hill: “Don’t Mourn, Organize.” He’s giving those of us who favor a public insurance option to the private insurance market an opportunity to move our states forward. We better take Joe Hill’s advice too and start organizing.

In my book The Progressive’s Guide To Raising Hell, I point out how the initiative process in 24 states and the District of Columbia are the best hope to get the type of health insurance reform that Obama promised in 2008.  Today’s announcement, if Republicans in Congress bite, lets us act on ambitious reform via ballot measure before 2014, the date mandatory insurance is set to take effect.  Game on.

————-

Posted by Jamie Court, author of The Progressive’s Guide to Raising Hell and President of Consumer Watchdog, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to providing an effective voice for taxpayers and consumers in an era when special interests dominate public discourse, government and politics. Visit us on Facebook and Twitter.

Will Black Sheep Blue Shield Bring Down American Health Insurance?

California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones may have just assured Blue Shield its place as the worst health insurance company in America. He's gotten every other health insurance company in California to hold off on rate increases. A black sheep among black sheep is how Blue Shield and its CEO Bruce Bodaken will be remembered if they don't budge from their pledge to raise rates as much as 59 percent on some Californians on March 1.

California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones may have just assured Blue Shield its place as the worst health insurance company in America. He's gotten every other health insurance company in California to hold off on rate increases.

A black sheep among black sheep is how Blue Shield and its CEO Bruce Bodaken will be remembered if they don't budge from their pledge to raise rates as much as 59 percent on some Californians on March 1. The drama playing out in California is being watched on the national stage. With consumers ready to turn their pitchforks on Blue Shield, the recalcitrant insurer could become the unwitting hero of a movement to further regulation and restore the public option to the private market in California and states across America.

When Anthem Blue Cross tried to raise rates as much as 39 percent on Californians last year, the outrage gave President Obama the ammunition to pass federal health reform, even though the bill did nothing to stop rate increases.  Now Blue Shield is giving California reformers the ammo to go to the legislature and the ballot box for proposals that give regulators the power to say no to premium increases and to create a public insurance option in California. What starts here will spread.

Only Blue Shield could make Anthem Blue Cross look like a patriot.

Here's what Insurance Commissioner Jones had to say:

I am pleased that Aetna, Anthem Blue Cross and PacifiCare have agreed to my request that they halt the implementation of their rate increases until the Department of Insurance has adequate time to review their recent rate filings. I am very concerned about the impact premium increases will have on policyholders, so I want to ensure that the Department has adequate time to review these rate filings for compliance with the law. Blue Shield policyholders will not have the benefit of this additional review period to ensure compliance with the law, but I will do what is within my power to determine whether Blue Shield’s proposed rates are in compliance with the law and to enforce that law.

The question for Blue Shield is what does it have to hide? Apparently a lot. 

That's why Consumer Watchdog called last week for disclosure about how much Blue Shield CEO Bruce Bodaken makes, why Blue Shield is keeping 12 times the required amount of surplus, and supporting evidence for its claims that medical costs are going through the roof. Every other health insurance company discloses its CEO's salary. Apparently Blue Shield is a strong believer in its exceptionalism.

Where there is smoke there is usually fire. Blue Shield is becoming the poster child for everything we hate about health insurance companies.  It better rethink it's positions and give its customers a break or it may find that its arrogance will be its downfall.

————————


Posted by Jamie Court, author of The Progressive’s Guide to Raising Hell and President of Consumer Watchdog, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to providing an effective voice for taxpayers and consumers in an era when special interests dominate public discourse, government and politics. Visit us on Facebook and Twitter.

Despite Spending $46 Million, California Rejects PG&E

I’ve been a political campaign junkie for years.  And the frustrating part about this job is that after going to Election Night parties, I have to go home and write about it for readers to view the next morning.  So if a particular race takes the whole night to resolve, I could be up very late.  But I had no problem sticking around the “No on 16” campaign party last night until 1:00 a.m. – monitoring the results with Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, State Senator Mark Leno and our good friends at TURN.  Because last night’s defeat of Prop 16 was one of the most historic victories in California history.  Outspent over 1,000-to-one by a monster utility company, consumer advocates defeated by a 52-47 margin an odious measure that would have cemented PG&E’s monopoly. To call this a David & Goliath victory does not give it justice.  As my friend Robert Cruickshank wrote at Calitics, it’s like “an ant taking down an elephant.”  Oh, and Prop 17 failed too.

PG&E is desperate to stop community choice aggregation – where local governments can purchase energy to offer their constituents a “public option” to the company’s monopoly.  Proposition 16 would have required a two-thirds vote of the electorate before cities can do community choice aggregation, and cynically dubbed it the Taxpayer’s Right to Vote.

Never mind that taxpayers already have the right to vote out their elected officials – if they don’t support community choice aggregation.  Never mind that ratepayers were not given the chance on voting for PG&E as their energy provider.  Public power is not even one of my top “issues,” but I was outraged that PG&E would try something like Prop 16.

PG&E shattered campaign spending records with $46 million to pass Prop 16 – ratepayer money that we give them every month when we pay our energy bills.  The only organized opposition was TURN (the Utility Reform Network), who only raised $90,000.  Bloggers got creative by making “No on 16” videos, and a hilarious Twitter feed.  But the campaign often seemed like a rag-tag army tilting at the windmills.

When I arrived at the “No on 16” party at Otis Lounge around 9:30 p.m., the results were looking bad.  We were down by about three points, but the night was still young.  Having watched statewide campaigns for years, I knew it would ultimately come down to Los Angeles County – so I quickly went online to check how we were doing down there.

Not good.  The early absentees had Prop 16 winning L.A. County by 13 points, far worse than where we were statewide.  If this kept on during the night, it was going to be painful.  The public power entity in Los Angeles had just raised rates, and folks at the party said it may be why Prop 16 was doing so well.  Small comfort for the largest county in the state.

Mark Toney of TURN was saying we should be proud that we held PG&E to such a close margin, after having been outspent nearly 1,000-to-one – but I cringed when I heard that.  We were losing.  Sure, we were doing pretty well in Northern California – where people know and hate PG&E, but we were getting creamed down south.  Where the votes are.

But as the night wore on, some folks pointed out how well we were doing in counties like Fresno, Madera, and Mariposa.  These are conservative places in the Central Valley, but PG&E had alienated these customers with “smart meters.”  I checked how we were doing in San Benito County – which political junkies often say is the bellwether of California state politics.  We were slightly ahead in San Benito County, but only by about 50 votes.

And the L.A. County numbers were trickling in – slowly, but surely.  We were still losing there, but the margin was noticeably trending in our favor.  By now, everyone at the party was huddled around a small number of laptops – while I double-checked the Secretary of State’s website with what individual counties were saying.  Places like San Diego and Orange County were coming in where we were behind, but we were not losing ground.

Pretty soon, our three-point loss became a one-point lead – and there was a palpable sense in the air that we could win it.  I wasn’t convinced yet – scouring the L.A. County numbers to see if this positive trend in our favor was not going to start reversing itself.

When 58% of L.A. County had been counted, we were ahead there.  I got up, and boldly shouted that we had won.  It reminded me of the scene in Milk, when Jim Rivaldo tells Harvey Milk not to worry about the Briggs Initiative.  L.A. County had just come in, and we were going to win.  By now, I was sure that we had slain the Prop 16 dragon.

During that whole time, Proposition 17 – Mercury Insurance’s scam to rip off consumers – had been ahead by a wider margin than Prop 16.  As we were all fixated on the Prop 16 results, it became apparent that Prop 17 results were following similar trends.  By the end of the evening, Prop 17 had likewise had the same fate – it also lost by about five points.

As of 4:00 this morning, Prop 16 is losing 47-53 – with 91.6% of all precincts reporting.  Not only is this a stunning rebuke of PG&E, but it is a strong mandate for public power.  Californians want a choice in the energy marketplace, and are ready for a “public option” that provides them with competitive rates and renewable energy sources.

And PG&E will deserve every share of anger, rebuke and humiliation coming at it.

Paul Hogarth is the Managing Editor of Beyond Chron, San Francisco’s Alternative Online Daily, where this piece was first published.

The State of a Better Union

Last night, President Barack Obama delivered his State of the Union address – my first as a U.S. Congressman. You’ve heard a lot of instant reactions from the Beltway and beyond about the President’s message, but it’s my hope we can take a step back from the minutia and develop a better sense of recent history.

Let’s remember where we were when the President delivered his inaugural address last year. When the President took office, America had just endured the worst year for job loss since 1945. In the last three months of 2008, our country was hemorrhaging an average of 673,000 jobs per month. By the last three months of 2009, that number was reduced to 69,333, a 90% improvement. To be sure, the state of our union needs to be much stronger, but because of the efforts of President Obama and Democrats in Congress, we’ve endured the worst of the Bush recession and we’re creating an economy that once again creates jobs for the middle and working classes.

More over the flip…

The central piece of legislation responsible for our recovery is without question the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). To date, the ARRA stimulus package has infused $154.9 billion into the American economy, saving or creating 640,000 jobs, including 110,000 in California. In the last quarter of 2009, ARRA had added between 1.5 and 3% in real GDP growth to our struggling economy.

In my home state of California, ARRA has brought more than $63 billion in investments and tax incentives to California with billions more on the way, including $9.7 billion for education, $7.9 billion for health and human services, and $5 billion for transportation.

Indeed, we are in the midst of the most significant infrastructure revitalization since the 1950s. There is no better example than the Caldecott Tunnel expansion in my district. It is the single largest ARRA transportation grant in the nation, a $197.5 million allotment that will create 6,000 to 7,000 jobs while easing congestion for travelers between Alameda and Contra Costa counties. With state funds drying up because of systematic budget failures, Bay Area residents have ARRA to thank for this important project.

ARRA was Congress’s most important economic accomplishment last year, but it did not stand alone. Let us not forget, 2009 was the year CHIP health care was expanded to four million low-income children. And for students torn between a college education and looming debt in this economy, Congressman George Miller’s College Cost Reduction and Access Act revolutionized student aid in America, increasing Pell Grant availability by $600 per semester, and substantially lowering future interest rates and monthly payments.

Considering where we started, we’ve made incredible progress in America. But I recognize that we still have a long way to go to get our nation back on track. Unemployment rates are at an unacceptably high level. In my state of California, unemployment hovered at 12.4% last month. We still have a lot of work to do to get people back to work.

In December, the House passed two bills that deserve immediate attention from the Senate. The Jobs for Main Street Act is in many ways a second ARRA, delivering an additional $35 billion for roads and public transit and $20 billion for education, saving or creating 25,000 jobs in education alone. It would recruit 25,000 new young people into AmeriCorps and create work study and summer job employment opportunities for 500,000 young workers struggling to find employment in this tough economy while also extending unemployment insurance. The House also passed the Wall Street Reform and Accountability Act, legislation that would help stop predatory behavior on Wall Street while providing relief for homeowners, renters, and small business owners. If signed into law, these bills will surely strengthen the state of the union in the years to come.

But as we move forward in the fight for job creation and accountability in the financial sector, we still must finish what we started. I joined Congress with a pledge to fight for comprehensive health care reform, and I plan on finishing the job.

Indeed, health reform isn’t just about quality and affordable care; it will also help strengthen our economy if done right. We know that health care costs make up 17% of our economy. If we let the status quo continue, that number will rise to 37% by 2037. And what are we getting for this expense? According to the World Health Organization, the U.S. ranks at the bottom of 19 industrialized nations in the number of preventable deaths from common illnesses.

If we pass health care reform now, three things will almost immediately happen: patients will not be denied coverage due to pre-existing conditions; adult aged children will be given access to their parents insurance until the age of 27; and health care will be portable if you lose or change your job.

I will continue to work with my colleagues to fight hard for the things I care about in health care reform, including a robust public option and generous affordability protections for seniors and the middle class. And let me be clear, I’m not the least bit concerned about using majority rule in the Senate to pass meaningful health care reform. Congress has employed reconciliation in the past to make major policy shifts, including the passage of welfare reform and the Bush tax cuts, and the fact of the matter is this country will find itself in serious trouble if we do not act now. No one Senator should feel entitled to veto power over 17% percent of our economy.

So as we reflect on last night’s State of the Union address, let’s remember how far we’ve come after only one year into President Obama’s term and also remember how far we still must go.

Congressman John Garamendi (D-Walnut Creek) represents California’s 10th Congressional District. He previously served as a Deputy Interior Secretary under President Bill Clinton and was California’s Lieutenant Governor and Insurance Commissioner.

FDL Action Health Care Update: Friday (12/18/09)

Here are the FDL Action health care reform highlights for Friday, December 18.

1. Jon Walker is concerned that Ben Nelson could get his way and gut “the single best remaining piece of reform, Medicaid expansion.” Walker concludes that “If using reconciliation is the only way to protect the Medicaid expansion, the decision to use it should be a no-brainer for every real Democrat.”

2. Jon Walker suggests that “if you are are going to tax ‘Cadillac’ plans, you need to index it to make sure it only ever taxes actual ‘Cadillac’ plans.” To accomplish this goal, Walker suggests “index[ing] the cap to roughly 165% of the average premium on the Federal employer health benefit (FEHB) exchange.”

3. Jane Hamsher points to a new poll indicating that 38% of Americans favor the individual mandate to buy insurance, while 51% oppose it. Hamsher adds, “When it appears in the ads of a Republican challenger who notes that the IRS will act as Aetna’s collection agency, I bet those numbers get dramatically worse.”

4. Jon Walker calls Ben Nelson’s latest idea – to make states “opt in” to health reform – “literally and completely insane.” C’mon, tell us how you really fell about Ben Nelon’s stupid idea, Jon. 🙂

5. Jon Walker writes that “Ezra Klein has a new, strange, and incorrect defense of the individual mandate in the Senate bill.” Walker argues that “[t]he argument that removing the individual mandate would price unemployed people, like the reader, out of the individual market is not true.”

6. Jane Hamsher discusses “the impoverished left/right dialectic that dominates the media coverage of politics, and its inadequacy when it comes to discussing the dynamics of the health care debate.” It’s a fascinating discussion; here’s a sampling. “With unemployment at 10%, the idea that you can pass a bill whose only merit is that ‘liberals hate it’ just because the media will eat it up and print your talking points in the process is so cynical and short-sighted it’s hard to comprehend anyone would pursue it. It reflects a total insensitivity to the rage that is brewing on the popular front, which is manifest in every single poll out there.”  Good stuff.

7. Jon Walker goes after Ezra Klein again, this time for “[doing] the discussion on health reform a big disservice by making false claims about what could, in fact, start a race to the bottom in the insurance market.”

8. Jon Walker argues that the fact there is a “hardship waiver,” as well as restrictions on undocumented immigrants to buy insurance on the new exchange (“even if they were willing to pay full price with no tax credits”) both “undercut arguments for an individual mandate.”

9. Finally, I’ve got a state blog roundup, including lots of discussion about “Liebercare,” “Loserman,” and Jane Hamsher taking “a corporate conman to the woodshed.”  

This was a fascinating, sometimes infuriating, occasionally highly entertaining week in health care reform. Next week promises to be more of the same.  Stay tuned!

FDL Action Health Care Update: Thurday (12/17/09)

Here are the FDL Action health care reform highlights for Thursday, December 17.

1. Jon Walker discusses “The Unholy Trilogy For Insurance Profits: Individual Mandate, Broad Age Rating, And Hardship Exemption.” According to Walker, “Forcing the young to buy coverage with huge government subsidies, but having a way to price the old out of the market, is in fact the health insurance companies’ dream.” Is that the way to keep them from running a 2009 version of “Harry and Louise,” to make their “dream” come true? Hmmmm.

2. Jane Hamsher reports on her MSNBC appearance this morning with Dylan Ratigan, at which time he made her argument for her, that “40 million new customers forced to buy your product with no competition and no regulatory body to oversee it is a pretty sweet deal.” For more, see item #1, above, on the “health insurance companies’ dream.”

3. Jon Walker continues his back-and-forth on whether or not to “kill the bill” with Nate Silver of 538.com. In this installment, Walker accuses Silver of responding to his answers, “but only to a straw man, crib notes version of my answers.” Who knew that dueling, wonky, blogger diaries on the intricate details of health care reform legislation could be so enthralling? 🙂

4. Speaking of exciting, I definitely recommend that you check out the heated exchange between Mary Landrieu and Howard Dean last night on Hardball. Jane Hamsher transcribes it, which is particularly cool given that it’s not easy to transcribe spittle flying around a TV studio. Heh.

5. Jon Walker responds to an article by Jonathan Cohn, which tries to “defend the individual mandate in this bill by claiming the Netherlands also has an individual mandate.” According to Walker, “The problem is the health care system produced by the Senate bill would be nothing at all like the health system in the Netherlands,” and he lays out exactly why that is the case.

6. Jon Walker reports that Ben Nelson “has rejected Harry Reid’s latest compromise on the abortion language,” and that Nelson “is trying to go for the full Stupak amendment.” Walker adds that “[w]e wouldn’t need to be worrying about Ben Nelson’s mountain of demands right now if they would just go with reconciliation.” So true.

7. Jon Walker rebuts one of the “better-sounding arguments for passing the Senate bill”, that “we can fix it later.” The problem with that argument, of course, is that Walker “can’t imagine there being a time anytime soon where the Democrats have more power.” Neither can anyone else, which is why they need to get as much done now as possible, on health care reform and on a whole host of other issues.  But they won’t get those things done if they keep letting John McCain’s Best Friend Forever pull a “Liebercare” on everything. Once again, if this hasn’t been stressed enough, it’s time to go to reconciliation and pass strong, progressive health care reform legislation now, not “later.”

8. Last but not least, do NOT miss Scarecrow’s post on the confrontation between Lanny Davis and Jane Hamsher on the Ed Show this evening. According to Scarecrow, “After just one round with Jane on the Ed Show, Lanny’s credibility was in need of a waaaambulance. He was last seen being wheeled out on Joe Lieberman’s gurney, on the way to the emergency ward.”  Ouch!

FDL Action Health Care Update: Wednesday (12/16/09)

Here are the FDL Action health care reform highlights for Wednesday, December 16. We’ll call this the “Joe must go” edition.

1. Jon Walker writes about the “sad defeat of Dorgan’s drug re-importation amendment, which would have saved American consumers billions on their prescription drugs.”  Walker notes that “[a]llowing Americans to buy cheaper drugs from Canada or Europe was one of Obama’s campaign promise on health care,” and also that this is a “very popular, bipartisan idea that would actually help ‘bend the cost curve’ on our health care spending.” But now, it looks like it’s not going to happen, and that’s extremely unfortunate.

2. Jane Hamsher comments on the story that the White House is “very not pleased…with Dr. Dean speaking out about health care reform and this plan.”  The amazing thing is that the White House isn’t upset with Joe Lieberman for all the bad stuff he’s been doing, but is upset with Howard Dean for saying that we should scrap the current Senate bill, go to reconciliation and get a much stronger bill with public option, Medicare buy-in, etc.  It’s surreal.

3. Jane Hamsher reports on remarks by Sen. Russ Feingold, who said, “This bill appears to be legislation that the president wanted in the first place, so I don’t think focusing it on Lieberman really hits the truth.”

4. Jon Walker demolishes the “great big myth that reconciliation would not work for health care reform.” According to Walker, “That is pure nonsense,” as “reconciliation would still protect the guts of reform.” In addition, “provisions [not related to the budget] will only be removed if they fail to get 60 votes to wave the Byrd rule for those provisions.”  So why aren’t they doing this?

5. Jon Walker argues that the health care “bills could easily be redesigned to increase insurance coverage by roughly 30 million Americans at a fraction of the cost if we drop the massive giveaway to the insurance companies, and the individual mandate.” A new, revamped bill would contain “insurance market reforms,” “the House’s employer mandate and slightly increased small business tax credits,” “Medicaid expansion to 150%-200% FPL,” “Maintaining or expanding CHIP program,” and a “permanent COBRA expansion with subsidies.”  According to Walker, such a bill, “depending on design, should cover close to 30 million more Americans, and for less than a net cost of $500 billion” – “a fraction of the cost to the government (with a bill done through reconciliation), and without enriching the health insurance companies trying to kill real reform.”  Again, why aren’t they doing this?

6. Jon Walker writes that Bernie Sanders isn’t buying “the myth that reconciliation would not work for real health care reform.” Unfortunately, Harry Reid is buying it. Sigh.

7. Michael Whitney comments on “Jello Jay Rockefeller’s rant against Howard Dean on MSNBC this afternoon,” in which he asked, “So what do I do? do I take my football and run home and sulk?” Whitney’s punchline: “No, you’re going to kick it!”  Heh.

8. Jane Hamsher notes that Robert Gibbs never called Joe Lieberman “irrational,” as he essentially did about Howard Dean earlier today.

9. Jon Walker answer Nate Silver’s “20 questions for the ‘bill killers.'”

10. Jon Walker explains “How CBO Director Doug Elmendorf Wrote The Health Care Bill.”  In brief, Elmendorf put together a memo last May which “basically put the absolute limits on what Democrats would even attempt in health care reform.” According to Walker, “There is no real logic to it, he simply decided what he thought was enough regulation to make something part of the budget.” Somehow, given where we are right now, ending today’s health care update with the words “no real logic” seems highly appropriate.

FDL Action Health Care Update: Tuesday (12/15/09)

Here are the FDL Action health care reform highlights for Tuesday, December 15. We’ll call this the “Joe must go” edition.

1. Jane Hamsher writes about the “manufactured outrage of Joe Lieberman” regarding criticism over “money paid to his wife Hadassah by the Susan B. Komen ‘Race for the Cure.'” Hamsher adds that “if Senator Lieberman is ‘deeply offended’ by the suggestion that his wife is a lobbyist, one has to wonder what he did for all those years when she was working for the biggest lobbying firms in Washington DC.”

2. Jon Walker comments angrily on the message from the White House that Democratic Senators should “do anything to pass a bill with the title of “health care reform,” even if that “health care reform…helps almost no one for four years, will not lower drug prices, will not slow down the out-of-control growth of health care costs, will make most Americans health insurance worse, will leave millions uninsured, provide no competition for the insurance companies, and not end medical bankruptcy in this country.”  Getting excited yet?

3. Jane Hamsher says it’s “time to hold progressives in Congress to their promise” to “do what they have repeatedly promised to do – vote against any bill that does not have a public option.” Hamsher urges everyone to “Call progressive members of Congress now and ask them if they intend to deliver on their promise to vote against this bill.”

4. Jon Walker argues that “Without the option of a government-run insurance entity or extremely tight regulations to guarantee everyone has access to quality, cost effective health insurance, an individual mandate is both immoral and bad policy.” Other than that, it totally rocks! (snark)

5. Michael Whitney asks for “help to run a TV ad in Nevada telling Harry Reid to be brave – or lose his seat.”. Specifically, the “ask” is for Reid to use reconciliation, to not allow Joe Lieberman to write the health care bill, and to “restore democracy to the country and the Senate.”

6. Jon Walker points out that “Joe Lieberman has never made a secret about his desire to bring down the public option,” and that “Harry Reid must have known this whole time that he would never get Joe Lieberman’s magical 60th vote on a bill with a public option.” The bottom line is that if “Reid had gone with reconciliation, Joe Lieberman would not be writing the bill as we speak.” So why didn’t he? Did he actually trust Joe Lieberman to do the right thing here? If so, all I can say is “wow, just wow.”

7. Jane Hamsher says she agrees with Howard Dean’s call to kill the Senate health care bill. Hamsher concludes: “If I wanted Joe Lieberman writing a health care bill, I would’ve voted for John McCain. Howard Dean is right. Kill LieberCare.”

8. Jon Walker notes that “While everyone has been fretting about Joe Lieberman, Ben Nelson has remained an equally big hurdle to get 60 votes for cloture.” Believe it or not, even though Nelson “has already played a big role in removing the public option, preventing the bill from ending the anti-trust exemption for health insurance companies, and possibly killing the CLASS long term insurance program,” he also wants abortion language that “will likely end up one of the biggest rollbacks of women’s reproductive rights in a generation.” In short, with Democrats like these, who needs Republicans?

9. Jane Hamsher reports that even though Byron Dorgan “had the votes to pass his drug reimportation amendment, which would have saved the public over $100 billion and the government $19 billion,” it’s not going to happen because…you guessed it, “Joe Lieberman says it can’t be part of LieberCare!”  So here’s the bottom line choice for the White House and Harry Reid: either tell Joe Lieberman to take a hike and go to reconciliation, or pass a watered-down health care “reform” bill without its best, and also most popular, elements. I believe this is what’s known in the vernacular as a “no brainer,” but why does something tell me the great brains in Washington, DC won’t be able to figure it out? On second thought, maybe it’s not their brains as much as it’s their spines, specifically their willingness to stand up to bullies like Joe Lieberman?

FDL Action Health Care Update: Friday (12/11/09)

Here are the FDL Action health care reform highlights for Friday, December 11.

1. Jon Walker says that the “‘Medicare buy-in’ idea might not really be Medicare at all, it might in fact be fake Medicare, one which “would lack almost all the benefits of Medicare.” Walker adds, “A Medicare buy-in program that does not actually allow people to fully buy into real Medicare is a farce.”

2. Jane Hamsher writes that Harry Reid, “who is solely responsible for crafting the bill that he introduced in the Senate, decided that there should be a limit on lifetime benefits.”  Meanwhile, “Reid is also manipulating procedure to keep the Dorgan drug reimportation amendment, which would save both the government and consumers hundreds of millions of dollars, from coming to a vote.” Hamsher wonders why “Reid never uses the powers he has against Joe Lieberman.”  

3. Jon Walker believes that, “For the past few days, Obama and Reid have rather publicly fought against bringing down America’s health care costs.”

4. Jane Hamsher writes a letter to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation, calling on them to “ask Hadassah Lieberman to step down as a ‘Global Ambassador’ for the organization in light of the inherent conflict of interest her continued presence brings.” Hamsher invites everyone to sign a petition urging the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation to do just that.

5. Jon Walker writes that Harry Reid has “quietly gutted one of the most important consumer protections in the bill, the ban on annual limits.”  Walker argues that by adding the “‘unreasonable’ qualifier {Reid} added is a loophole you can drive a school bus through.” Jane Hamsher adds that the Department of Health and Human Services knew about this and even has been “quietly promoting” it for a while now.

6. Jon Walker reports that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has concluded that the “new excise tax on employer-provided health insurance will result in most people getting worse health insurance from their employer, insurance that covers less.”  Walker adds that if “this excise tax is the core of the plan to ‘bend the cost curve,’ it is a failure.”

7. Jon Walker argues that the “reason Reid dropped the annual limit from the Senate bill was to make his bill appear cheaper in the CBO score, and make insurance premiums appear lower.” “Of course,” Walker points out, “eliminating the ban on annual caps makes a mockery of the entire idea of ‘insurance.'”

8. Finally, Jon Walker has highlights of CMS’ analysis of the Senate health care bill. Overall, Walker concludes, “the report is a mixed bag,” with “very slightly higher” national health expenditures in 2019, but on the other hand it “shows a bad bill can still greatly expand insurance coverage without noticeably increasing our national health care spending.” Ergo, Walker concludes, “Imagine what could be done with a good bill that is not full of massive corporate give aways.”

FDL Action Health Care Update: Thursday (12/10/09)

Here are the FDL Action health care reform highlights for Thurssday, December 10.

1. Marta Evry says that Rep. Bart Stupak’s New York Times op-ed is not harmless, as Stupak claims, but “would effectively ban reproductive choice services coverage in the exchanges.” According to Evry, “We  can’t let that happen. We just can’t.” Evry urges that everyone join a “One Voice for Choice” phone bank or start one of your own: “It’s easy, it’s fun, and best of all, you will make a difference.”

2. Jane Hamsher reports that Mike Stark of Stark Reports is “back up on the Hill for FDL, covering Congress.”

3. Jane Hamsher points out that Harry Reid claims he has no time for a House-Senate conference, but that he has time to attend a “$1,000 plus per plate fundraiser” this weekend.  Hamsher encourages people to call likely Nevada Democratic voters and let them know what Reid is up to.

4. Jon Walker says that the Senate health care reform deal is actually “less a health care deal, more an agreement on vague parameters for a possible deal.” As Walker notes, “It is always easier to reach agreement on vague ideas,” but as “with all things in this health care reform effort, it will all come down to details, details, and more details.”

5. Jon Walker believes that nobody should be “shocked when the Democratic base doesn’t turn out in 2010.” Walker asks, “Who would want to support a party” in which “a simple temper tantrum by Joe Lieberman, Blanche Lincoln, or Ben Nelson really cause the other roughly 300 elected Democrats in Washington to abandon every promise they made and every principle they claim to stand for?”

6. Jane Hamsher writes about Nancy Pelosi saying “that a bill without a public option is now possible in the House.”  Raul Grijalva, co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, apparently isn’t going to be one of those votes, as he told Mike Stark that “what the Senate is doing is effectively emasculating an opportunity to have a public option.”

7. Jon Walker reports that Joe Lieberman, “the biggest champion of the health insurance industry in the Senate, will chair the committee that oversees [the OPM-run] ‘alternative’ to the public option.” Can we say “foxes and henhouses?”

8. With signs that the Senate health care bill might just “ping pong” straight past the House of Representatives without a full conference between the two chambers, a frustrated Jon Walker asks, “Why Don’t We Just Go A Step Further And Abolish The House?”

9. Jane Hamsher asks, “what kind of a platform we should ask Medicare for All candidates to agree upon?” Hamsher adds that “[i]f you’d like to volunteer to lead a search committee in your district for a single payer candidate, you can do it here.”

10. Finally, check out Jane Hamsher on the Ed Show as she  invites Progressives to recruit primary challengers for any “Democratic member of Congress [who] decides to support the corporatist agenda and vote for a health care bill that makes the insurance companies say ‘we won.'”