Key Senator Rolls Out Sweeping Universal Health Care Plan

Washington Post:

Two of the Senate's most influential leaders are working separately behind the scenes on legislation that would dramatically alter the way Americans get health care, hoping their early efforts -- including the release today of a position paper -- will push President-elect Barack Obama to move rapidly on the issue and spare the incoming administration some of the missteps that killed Bill Clinton's health reform initiative in 1994.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) is unveiling a 104-page blueprint today that serves as the opening move in a fierce competition in the Senate to frame the debate. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), who is battling a life-threatening brain cancer, has directed aides over the past several months to convene negotiating sessions with a diverse group of stakeholders, including physicians, patient advocates, small-business owners and insurers. He intends to have legislation drafted by Inauguration Day.

Read the whole story: Washington Post

Comments

[JeanV]

Universal Single Payer healthcare is the only system that will provide care for all. Why does not Congress and the Senate realize that this is what Americans want and are ready for? The trick will be to free up enough NIH and NSF money to help fund new research into the pharma and biotech programs so that new drugs and procedures do not go undiscovered.

[vippy]

Seems like most of the new drugs are nuisance drugs and over time had so many bad side
effects that they are always in the paper or some lawyer is trying to get money for damages
done. Why don't the drug companies go with something that is actually beneficial, after all
the bad diet most people have needs something to keep them healthy, ergo less drugs.

[leeman79]

Hey, it's a start. At least we're having intelligent dialogue again.

[LemonMeringue]

No taxing our employer-provided benefits.

Single-payer universal health care with no insurance companies. It is the only solution.

Nader and Kucinich understand this.

[justobserve]

The ignorance of universal health care scares people off but how can we accept a first world country like America with 47 million people uninsured? That is one in six people! The argument of SOCIALIZED MEDICINE IS EASILY DEBUNKED. Now, we have a group of people who pay just a bit for their health care and most of the cost are paid by their company, so in fact, the society have to pay for it in the price of goods they buy. The health costs for a few are spread to others who couldn't even afford their own. You pay $1,000 for health care, included in the car price, that the car company had to pay for their employees. Is that SOCIALIZED? YES. This example is repeated many times over everything you buy but people just don't see it! The simplest way is LOWER THE AGE LIMIT OF MEDICARE. Single-payer health care also cut off a big chunk for administrative costs and government-led take the profit out. Health insurance companies should go. The costs will certain go down dramatically after taking out two most costly parts: admin and profit. Someone mentioned a very IMPORTANT point that we should pay for health care as a TAX and NO OUT-OF-POCKET costs. Canadian system is a good model. The hard thing about insurance is that even if you have it, you are not sure what you still have to pay. That is the reason that I don't "buy" insurance.

[CanuckDemocrat]

I am Canadian. We have universal health care here (by law). It is far from being a perfect system, but health care is a human RIGHT, not a privilege for the wealthy. The United States is the richest and most powerful nation on earth, yet 1 in 6 people go without health care because they cannot afford it. That is a crime against humanity. Period. Profit should not EVER be part of the health care equation, otherwise you get exactly what you have now in the US.

If you put universal health care to a nationwide referendum, who here doubts that it would pass by a huge majority? I laugh whenever I hear the argument against "socialized" medicine. Do we drive on roads paid for by taxes? Do we get electricity from grids subsidized by taxes? Do we get drinking water from plants run with tax money? The answer is obvious, and conveniently forgotten by the right wing who now use it as their favorite scare tactic.

[timberdoodle]

It is more than obscene that a country as large and rich as the U.S. doesn't provide it's citizens with free Universal Health care to the point it can almost be considered barbaric. It just boils down to the fact univesal health care gives everyone a chance to live as long and as healthy as possible and the government has participated in making this happen on behalf of their citizens.

[hilary916]

Unfortunately, there's a lot of people in this country who still think that access to health care is a privilege and not a human right.

[BlueZoo]

Yes and those people are our Congress!

[huffyfan2]

Look, if we lived in a "PERFECT SOCIETY" noone would get sick. But the that's just not the way it is. The money is gonna have to come from somewhere.

There are NO freebies in life.

That's the fact "Jack"

[Grunty1]

Some things are worth paying for (health care)
Some things are not (Bush's war of the year)

[LemonMeringue]

Do you understand how much of our health care costs are because insurance companies exist as profitmaking entities?

[LDS50]

Should we let our citizens die if they cannot afford healthcare? If you have cancer and your benefits run out, do we stop your treatment? We pay billions of dollars into a healthcare system where over 30% goes to corporate profit of insurers and adds nothing to the quality of care. Take those middlemen out of the equation and there would be plenty of money to cover everyone.

[gallstones]

Everyone who pays taxes is paying for it already anyway. It's just that the only ones benfiting are convicts in prisons, the disabled--even the abled disabled, and federal employees--like congressmen.

[scjk67]

in a way it was bill clinton fault for waiting to long on that health care reform till after the house and senate was controlled by the GOP in 1994 that which the right-wingers killed the health care bill

[sparafucilli]

Any plan that treats emergency care as an item on a grocery shelf is bound to fail. Please stop with the comsumerization of something that an advanced "society" must develop and provide to it's citizens as a matter of course if it is to be judged a society, yet alone an advanced one, at all. Scotty, please beam Bones up. We need him urgently.

[23000Days]

Good news, bad news!

It's good to see a debate on universal health care begin, it's long overdue.

It's bad to try and create a system based on insurance, since it costs twice as much per-capita as national single payer plans all over the world.

Get the insurance companies out of the plan!

[SunshineDaydream]

yeah, my excitement dwindled when i read the rest of the article.

[PATina]

I agree. I have nothing against profits in general... but they will always trump health in a for profit health insurance system... and that's just wrong.

Without having to worry about profit... health care will be better and cheaper.

[frappe]

I agree. The fundamental reason why the current health care system is a disaster is specifically because of the insurance companies. I wish we would just break with the past and go with a single payer, universal program modeled after either the Canadian or European programs. Let's cut to the chase and drop the BS.

[Egalitare]

It's difficult to simply write the current Insurance players out of the game, but perhaps this economic downturn is the opportunity to do just that.

I sincerely hope we end up with something that gets us CLOSER to Single Payer.

[hollybork]

I agree with you 100%. In weighing the cost benefits of a single payer versus a semi free market insurance based medical system, the extra dollars need to go to cover more people for more things, not to the administrative overhead, paper pushing, and profit of the insurers. More money for more healthcare means an end to health insurance as we know it.

[canucklivinginUSA]

I moved from Canada and one of the biggest thing I miss is universal health care. Not have health insurance right now is frightening. I have to be very careful as to not get sick or get involve in something major, because I have no coverage. I simply don't understand such a huge country like the US can't have a proper health care system that will insure everyone. Boggles my mind

[SunshineDaydream]

i cannot breathe at night until the hubby and kids are home at night, bc we are without coverage as well. it is not a comfortable way to live, knowing that one accident could ruin everything we've worked so hard to achieve. and to think this is a common story in america is just plain sad.

[BlueZoo]

One accident is all it takes and this is what ensues: Husband in accident. Husband loses job. You cannot pay mortgage. You lose your home. Than what? It definitely happens to everyday people and to have no health coverage on top of all the other woes is too much to bear for many. This is a reality!

[Zeje]

I sympathize. I have medicare and my husband has to wait 22 more months before he qualifies. He just has to stay healthy for 22 more months.

[MizLiz]

You can thank the American Medical Association and their lobbyists for that one. As well as the Big Insurance and Pharma lobbyists. Would you expect a pig to turn away from the trough?

[frappe]

Boggles my mind, too. It's inexcusable. It's time for a CHANGE. Let's go single payer, universal. Anything else will ultimately fail. The bottom line: Put the public's health care needs above the needs of private insurers to make a profit.

[SunshineDaydream]

how about this one, viking:

Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do.
Benjamin Franklin

[quiviran]

The misfortunes of citizens as a source of profit must leave the fabric of America.

The legislation is a one-line amendment to Medicare - the age of eligibility is birth.

Maybe two lines: cost of medications to citizens $10.00 per prescription, maximum $30.00 per month.

No co-pays, deductibles, premiums or other cost shifting games (for a healthy person, the administrative overhead associated with the paperwork never pays for itself, for a sick person, give them a break and let them focus on getting well).

Every citizen gets a bio-metric Medicare ID card, which also serves as voter registration.

[hollybork]

I agree with your sentiments but I cannot agree with your broad aphorism that "misfortunes" shouldn't be a basis of profit. Think about it. Shouldn't the guy who fixed your busted up car make a profit? Shouldn't the shoeman who puts a new heel on a broken shoe make a profit? Shouldn't the person who delivers groceries to your door for the supermarket when you are sick make a profit? I do not think profit is evil anymore than I believe it is possible for human beings to live in the world without bad luck, bad decisions, illness or death. Every person should be able to develop their natural skills to a level necessary to make them of use to others, and there is nothing evil or unfortunate about using those skills to produce profit. Profit motivates work.

[Zeje]

I don't mind if my doctor makes money. But my cancer has made a lot of non-medical people a lot of money --

[canucklivinginUSA]

You will be surprised on how many business people are for a comprehensive health care system similar to what President Obama has been speaking about. They are just afraid that it won't be feasible in the atmosphere we are in. Read this week BusinessWeek to get a good sense of what businesses want, especially in terms of Health and Tech

[MizLiz]

Businesses want a lot of things -- not always to our benefit.

[VikingQuest]

When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.

-Benjamin Franklin

[Grunty1]

You mean like Cheney giving Halliburton billions of dollars?

[VikingQuest]

David Walker says you can't afford entitlements . . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OS2fI2p9iVs