Senate HELP Committee Releases Health Reform Bill

Washington Post:

This is it.This is what health reform looks like. Embedded in that link is actual legislative language. More than 600 pages of it, in fact. It's the preliminary first draft of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pension Committee's bill (there are still some holes that will be filled in Friday or Monday). It's the work of Chris Dodd, but more properly understood, the product of his mentor, Ted Kennedy (and his staff), who has been grinding away at this issue for decades.

Read the whole story: Washington Post

Comments

[betterus]

Attention: repost from "must read". How Pharma and Insurance Intend to Kill the Public Option, And What Obama and the Rest of Us Must Do, by Robert Reich, former Labor Secretary under Clinton.

http://robertreich.blogspot.com/2009/06/public-option-smokescreens-and-what-you.html

When there is no leader, the voice of the truth must be heard.

Please repost and make this go viral...

[FogBelter]

I'm afraid without a Comprehensive Universal Single Payer Health Care Plan included this HELP plan is doing little more than arguing for the benefit of the failed For Profit Health Care System. In a word, the plan is Anachronistic and out of step with the realities of the 21st Century.

You might as well be arguing to Detroit that the future of the American Automobile Industry is the horse and buggy.

We could be on the CUSP of a better American Health Care future, but not if we stay rooted in the For Profit past

[jmpurser]

Very well said.

Single payer health insurance run by the government and providing universal coverage was the ONLY solution on the table. Everything else is either nothing or makes the problem worse. We have apparently decided to go with a plan to siphon off the sick and poor into a "public option" that will make the expenses of the system public while the rest of the nation is driven onto the shoals of the private insurers so the profits will be private.

We're pouring gas on the fire under our feet.

As Bush and Iraq destroyed the GOP so Obama and Health Care are about to destroy the Democratic party.

[HyperInfluential]

Why do we need 600 pages of legislation to deal with our health care? Let's just copy whatever Canada and England are doing!

Opponents can't keep up the lie that those people are unhappy with their medical care much longer, now that everyone has Facebook friends and whatnot all over the world. We can just ask our friends, how is the medical care there? And they just kind of look surprised and go, "Well, it's fine. I use it when I need to." They don't even think about it, it's just always there.

I can't tell you how many times I've had talks with friends, trying to figure out home remedies for things you know a doctor could cure in five minutes with a prescription, because nobody has the money for the doctor visit, let alone the pharmacy. That's barbaric, and not worthy of this nation.

[jmpurser]

You need 600 pages because we're NOT going to deal with any of the problems. We're just going to subsidize the industry creating the problems so they can make a bigger profit without actually fixing anything. It takes a lot of spin to make that NOT look like you're betraying Americans.

[HyperInfluential]

Exactly. If this were a good plan it wouldn't be that long. How many pages does it take to say "Everybody gets to go to the doctor whenever they need to, and we pay for it with tax money, like all the rest of our allies."

[iver]

I agree with Sen. Sanders, "We must end the private insurance company domination of health care in our country and move toward a publicly-funded, single-payer Medicare for All approach."

Too many people are going bankrupt because of medical costs. Too many are not covered include two of our three grown children. Too much money is going to administer the current wasteful, ineffective system. Too many in Congress and Senate are influenced by campaign contributions from insurance and drug companies.

We need comprehensive reform, not half-baked compromise which maintains the status quo.

[HyperInfluential]

Exactly! You should not be able to "charge all the market will bear" for something that people have to either buy, or suffer and die. It's not like you can just choose not to have a heart attack or get hit by a car, if you don't want to buy this health care "product."

[jmpurser]

This "plan" from the "liberal lion" Kennedy and "they guy who sold us out on banking reform" Dodd privatizes the costs of health care through a "public option" for the poor and sick while privatizing profits through driving healthy citizens to the private health insurers.

We're pouring gas on the fire under our feet.

[NoOneSpecial]

THERE IS NO PUBLIC OPTION IN THIS PLAN.

It MIGHT get put back in by the Dems.

But let's be clear: no public option would be a monumental failure.

Forcing people to buy coverage from for-profit insurance companies is NOT reform!

[kcinci]

This bill is a huge increase and expansion of the substandard care through Medicaid. Medicaid causes much of the ER usage because most providers won't see Medicaid patients. Medicaid typically have to use clinics where waiting lists for appointments are weeks or months forcing patients to the ER. According to the draft published so far anyone or family will not be eligible for the public plan offering "Right Choices" if they are within 150% of the poverty line for individual or family they would go on Medicaid. This still leaves this country's most vulnerable even more so.

[fairtaxplease]

ishobo I'm a Fan of ishobo I'm a fan of this user permalink
Counterpoint -
http://www.factcheck.org/taxes/unspinning_the_fairtax.html
===================

ok ishobo i have done it before and will do it again off the top of my head. first of all that article, the chart they claim as the fair tax peoples own chart, isnt. the chart used is from a totally different system. even the chart from the treasury department has the poor paying a less of a percent than they do now.

what this article fails to take into full account is increased wages, lower product prices and overall economic growth, three very important factors that fact check seems to dismiss out of hand even though they admit there will be increased wages. oh yeah and you get to keep pretty much your whole check, another fact they seem to downplay.

fact checks assesment is one from a class warfare perspective of who pays what percent but completely ignore the fact that everyone comes away with greater purchasing power. their critique only looks at what percent people would pay (which they got wrong) but its the wrong way to look at it anyway.

[fairtaxplease]

oh yes, another false assumption by fact check: they say its 30% and not 23% but it is 23% inclusive, the income tax is calculated as inclusive also so you have to look at both the same. doubt you will understand this since fact check doesnt understand it either.

[ishobo]

They understand it just fine. It is you that have a problem grasping.

[ishobo]

Americans for Fair Taxation rejects the Treasury Department analysis, objecting that Treasury considers only the income tax. By leaving out payroll taxes (which are actually regressive) Treasury’s chart makes the FairTax look worse by comparison. We found that including all the taxes that the FairTax would replace (income, payroll, corporate and estate taxes), those earning less than $24,156 per year would benefit. AFT’s Burton agreed that those earning more than $200,000 would see their share of the overall tax burden decrease, admitting that “probably those earning between $40[thousand] and $100,000” would see their percentage of the tax burden rise.

Oops. They actually admit that the rich would pay less and the middle class pays more.

The tax would would have to be paid by governments too, state and federal. States will likely raise their taxes to cover their additional costs.

Is the plan revenue or spending neutral? Do you know the difference? To be revenue neutral, the rate would have to be 35-40%.

[fairtaxplease]

wrong again ishobo the middle class would not pay more, they would pay more of a percent. very slightly more. again, you choose to look at it from a clas warfare perspective of percentages. everyone in the middle class comes away with greater purchasing power and thats the bottom line.

who cares what percent people pay if they have greater purchasing power?

[ishobo]

There are problems related to the rebate promised as well. To ensure the Fair Tax rebate is paid, the Federal government would have to increase spending by an additional $600 billion every year. The basis for the rebate is not the cost of living itself, but the poverty level income.

Since you do not like the Annenberg Public Policy Center, how about the Wall Street Journal?

http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110010523

I could go on and on about this scam, but you are like a 9/11 Truther.

[fairtaxplease]

no ishobo they dont have to spend extra because they save money on the fact there arent millions of returns to process. keep spinning dude.

fact check also says that it cant be revenue neutral but leave out the fact that the tax base is broadened since every consumer wether they are on the books or not contributes.

[fairtaxplease]

the wsk article you use is an op-ed piece, its one guys opinion.

[demrepub]

Our government is acting like a drunk sailor (apologies to all sailors) who just got a payday loan.

[RepublicansRejected]

Coinyer101

"the bill is not the same as you enjoy, and it should not be passed. The majority of Americans want single-payer like you enjoy."

================

I beg to differ, but as williamg pointed out, there hasn't been a single poll conducted showing that the majority of Americans support single payer.

However, there have been polls conducted showing that the majority of Americans support a public option, which is what President Obama and Dr. Howard Dean are pushing for.

Why do many progressive Dems make f00ls of themselves? This is why Democrats end up losing, we mindlessly attack each other and end up not standing up to the real culprits, the Republicans.

[HyperInfluential]

Just give us what the allies have! Tweak out any bugs, but basically do what they do. They've done it for decades and not gone bankrupt, and their people are all happy and far above us on all the "polls" that count: the measurements of population health and infant mortality! Our people are sick, and impoverished because of this system of treating health care like a product, as if we are not all compelled to buy it through random accidents of fate! It's not fair to treat something like a regular product if you CAN'T choose to not buy it without dying or suffering pain.

[jlabonty]

It was reported last night on MSNBC that 70%-80% of American do want single payor. Hate to break your bubble.

[RepublicansRejected]

Wow just going through the thread, I've never seen so many progressive Dems act like utter f00ls.

Suddenly the public option is a sham, Obama is in the pockets of greedy insurance companies, Howard Dean doesn't know what he is talking about, and Ted Kennedy is suddenly a conservative DLC shill!

If this public option truly is a sham, then why are the insurance companies fighting tooth and nail to ensure it never becomes a reality?

Believe me, I'm all for single payer, but it needs to be introduced in steps because currently not all Americans want to give up their current healthcare plans... hence why it makes sense for President Obama to support the choice of keeping your current plan or opting into single payer, and Dr. Howard Dean agrees.

[cornagainstsorcery]

Agreed. Activists need to get behind the public plan now. People should still, clearly, talk about single payer and push the public option into as progressive a form as we can get it. The health care systems progressives admire most, they were generally assembled over time and in stages and they are still not perfect.

[lornejl]

In a public option you can keep whatever insurance you already have, it's a CHOICE.

[slithers]

It's a choice for whom? Do doctors get to choose not to accept government covered patients?

My doctor doesn't accept HMO's because they tell him what procedures he can use. The government wants to do the same.

If I have health insurance do I get the choice not to pay taxes towards government medical care?

If the government becomes a health insurance provider, which it's trying to do, it will take over the industry. Advancements in medicine will thwarted. Anyone who has good or great coverage will probably have to switch to government "care" because of the added taxes. They'll be paying for health insurance twice. So instead of great or good coverage we'll all have adequate coverage determined by politician.

[HyperInfluential]

Why would people have to give up their private plans just because there's a public option? Wouldn't there still be a market for fancypants insurance for people who want to get Botox and tooth bleaching and all like that? Don't we do more voluntary medical procedures than any other nation?

There's plenty of market share there for the insurance companies to survive on, though of course nothing like the glorious feast they've enjoyed all these years, eagerly sucking down the entire life savings of families the moment one member gets sick, even putting them under decades-long debt obligations, for the lifesaving medicine they got!

[KQuark]

Ditto I said the same thing earlier.

[FormerRepublican]

There must be a public program option to keep the greedy private health insurance companies honest. As an independent business owner I had coverage with a for-profit program specializing in independent business owners. After having a problem collecting on a claim, I found the company spend more on litigation costs against its policy holders, than it did on paying claims! The fine print (2pt type) on my policy said that if the policy holder had any symptom (like a headache) during the five years prior to a claim (for like a brain tumor), the company would consider it a pre-condition, and not be eligible for payment. I then switched to a big, regional for-profit health insurance company and
saw my monthly family coverage premium go up from $650 per month to $1,480 per month.

[HyperInfluential]

Hey, if you don't like it you're free to suffer horribly and die. The Invisible Hand of the Market wins again!

[lechatnoir]

They'll try anything to get you to forget it's NOT single-payer.

[obamanomics]

He isn't selling it that way, but after he taxes the bejeebus out of private healthcare plans while offering massive government incentives to take the government funded insurance what do you think is going to happen to the private health care coverage in the country.

[HyperInfluential]

But there could be all kinds of loopholes in something this long and complex, and our insurance companies are expert loophole wrigglers. Let's just nationalize them right now before they can make trouble, lol.

[lornejl]

Pure right wing pr opaganda.....

rattler99 I'm a Fan of rattler99 I'm a fan of this user permalink

at least you have a doctor - a large percentage of 'victims' in Canada do not have access to a family doctor

[lornejl]

Pure right wing propaganda.....

rattler99 I'm a Fan of rattler99 I'm a fan of this user permalink

at least you have a doctor - a large percentage of 'victims' in Canada do not have access to a family doctor