Health Care

FDL Action Health Care Update: Monday (12/7/09)

Here are the FDL Action health care reform highlights for Monday, December 7.

1. Marta Evry asks that you consider joining a “One Voice for Choice” phone bank or starting one of your own. As Evry says, “It’s easy, it’s fun, and best of all, it works.”

2. Jane Hamsher says sarcastically that there’s “[n]othing like having Joe Lieberman running the country.” Except maybe John McCain or George W. Bush running the country?

3. Jon Walker argues that “the new ‘alternative’ to the public option” is “nothing at all even like a public option.” Instead, “It is an OPM run exchange for current, private, non-profit insurance companies.” Great stuff, huh?

4. Jon Walker warns that “Sen. Debbie Stabenow is prepared to kill the public option to make Joe Lieberman and Blanche Lincoln happy.” As I always say, anything to make Joe Lieberman and Blanche Lincoln happy! (snark)

5. Jon Walker says that Sen. Ben Nelson’s anti-abortion amendment “is as close to the Stupak language as possible…it would have an incredibly long reach, and could make abortion coverage extremely rare in this country.” This must be stopped, hence the efforts of “One Voice for Choice”.

6. Jon Walker reports that “Senate Democrats are considering a possible early Medicare buy in for older Americans.” Walker believes this proposal on its own could have merit, but “without more concrete details about exactly what the proposal is, I will not really know if it has value.”

7. David Dayen believes it’s possible there might not be a conference committee for health care reform, “with the House expected to accept whatever the Senate passes.” Dayen believes this is ominous, particularly when one considers “the recent history of the credit card bill.”

8. Finally, Jon Walker agrees with the health insurance industry that if “the Senate bill ends up like I fear: no public option, no serious regulation on insurance, no real medical loss ratio, very low insurance standards, and an individual mandate the private insurance companies will have truly won.” Let’s make sure that doesn’t happen.