UPDATE: Dem Senator Denies Bloomberg Story

UPDATE: Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) denied the Bloomberg story, saying Rahm Emanuel never said President Obama was open to giving up the public option. A spokesman said:

Conrad says Emanuel was speaking in reference to the need to overhaul the health care system as a whole -- to forge compromise and get a bill to the president's desk. It was in no way a comment on the president's willingness to do away with a public option.

* * * * *

According to a report in Bloomberg, President Obama is open to compromising on health care reform by eliminating the public option from his plan.

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel met last night at the U.S. Capitol with Senate Democrats and told them Obama is "open to alternatives" to a new government insurance program in order to get legislation overhauling the health-care system to his desk, said Senator Kent Conrad of North Dakota.

"His message was, it's critical that you do this," Conrad said.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus of Montana said Emanuel urged the senators to seek Republican support and didn't discourage them from pursuing the use of non-profit cooperatives, an idea Conrad has proposed.

Obama has been vocal in his support for a public option, but has declined to commit to opposing a bill that doesn't include it. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has said that the co-op compromise "doesn't come close to satisfying anyone who wants a public plan." Conrad negotiated with Schumer to bring the compromise closer to a public plan, but later said that it was still not a "pure public option."

On Wednesday, Paul Krugman wrote that Obama "messes up on health care, big time" in his news conference a day earlier by "signaling, right at this crucial moment, that he's willing to give away the public plan."

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Comments

[njgal4obama]

Which type of health care system we adopt addresses only part of the problem. Americans should focus on preventative health. So much of the disease which taxes our health care system is entirely preventabl­e...Obesit­y, diabetes, heart disease, etc.

Compare the size of a kitchen chair from 1920 to a modern one. The difference is startling! If you placed a dinner plate from 1920 and a dinner plate from 2009 next to each other, you would find the modern version about 2" in diameter bigger. Order a restaurant dinner with an entre, potato and side dish, and it what arrives is a plate the size of a turkey platter, piled high with food. What Americans tend to eat most of today is processed and fried and washed down with soda and sugary fruit flavored drinks. And while diets have become more fat and calorie laden, lifestyles have become more sedentary.

We keep hearing about health-care, like it's something that someone else is supposed to take care of for us, and we're supposed to just debate the benefits of private vs. public. It begins with each individual making healthy choices. My grandfather used to say, "There are two kinds of people in this world...the kind that eat to live, and the kind that live to eat." Health care will become more affordable for the rest of us when the "Live to eat" crowd stops overburdening the system with disease brought on by CHOOSING to live an unhealthy lifestyle.

[BadHaBritt]

Of course you are right but BOTH sides go hand in hand.
Not all bodies function like a perfect machine.

[njgal4obama]

Of course. I'm not referring to people whose bodies don't fuction as well as others. I'm talking about people who routinely choose to eat donuts and bacon for breakfast, big mac and fries for lunch and pizza for dinner. I'm talking about people who when confronted with simple choices...about what to eat, whether to walk or drive short distances, whether to engage in active or passive recreation, whether to START smoking or not...will always, always, always choose the unhealthy option. They require revolving door medical treatment that is entirely avoidable, and entirely unnecessary. And my young healthy grown children will foot the bill.

I don't have a problem with being my brother's keeper when it comes to taking care of people stricken with unavoidable medical issues. I do have a problem with having my pockets picked so the people who choose to overindulge in food and alcohol, choose to START smoking, etc. can get revolving door medical care. That's just not fair.

[rxvette]

The key to U.S. healthcare reform is the number 300,000,000. Read this for more info:

http://rxvette.blogspot.com/2009/06/biggest-key-to-health-care-reform-in-us.html

[igotthis]

Thanks! What you argue makes perfect sense.

[BadHaBritt]

It is becoming very clear that the ONLY option left to get a single payer health system is for the citizens to organize mass protests.

Unfortunately this is the only democratic voice we have.

[BadHaBritt]

We managed to send a man to the moon and back within a ten year program and yet , according to Obama, we are INCAPABLE of implementing a single payer health care system even though it is partially in place.

All of the other advanced countries in the world can provide public health coverage but can't put a man on the moon. Obama is definitely no Kennedy. Very sad.

This country needs to learn how to mobilize the enormous power of the ordinary citizen. Writing to the corrupt politicians is not it, nor is the ballot box. This is a one party political system operating under two names.

ENOUGH!

[jmpurser]

We aint that country no more. That country won WWII. This country just spent a generation unable to face the horrors of paying our own bills so we stole our economy from our kids.

Long way to fall in one generation.

[ChelseaC]

Obama uses the excuse that we can't go to single payer because it would "disrupt" our system.
Oh yeah? The Brits went to single payer straight after WW2-- war torn and in shambles---but we can't?
Here's what doctors from PNHP have to say about Obama and the "disruption" excuse:

http:www.pnhp.org/blog/

Obama running for the seante in 2003, admits single payer saves $ and is the way to go:
see the video at the bottom of the page:
http://www.pnhp.org/change/

sign this petition
http://sanders.senate.gov

call Obama on the White House comment line.
Tell him you don't buy his excuse and that you know he was a single payer advocate running for the senate.
202-456-1111
202-456-1414

Enough is enough!

[BadHaBritt]

Thankyou,

[ChelseaC]

oppps--correct link:
http://www.pnhp.org/blog/

See what doctors from PNHP have to say about single payer being a disruption.

[igotthis]

ENOUGH with blindness! Kennedy was “no Kennedy” when he launched the ill-conceived Bay of Pigs Invasion. President Kennedy was not perfect and neither is President Obama. So stop getting it twisted.

“This country needs to learn how to mobilize the enormous power of the ordinary citizen” to push forward the only new healthcare policy plan that stands a chance of passage, which is the president’s public option, healthcare plan.

Furthermore, it does not take the intelligence “to send a man to the moon” to understand that this country is not ready for a single-payer system. Get real, people! Support the health reform plan that Republicans and health insurance companies hate and are waging a multi-million dollar war to destroy. Take your cue from them. Support what they want to destroy, which is President Obama’s public option, healthcare reform plan. Let’s March on Washington for the President’s plan!

[unite4change]

Exactly. Americans can't seem to comprehend what they hear or to think logically. No wonder pundits can tell you anything and you believe it. When President Obama is talking about any subject, please start listening. Do not let someone interpret what Obama said for you.

I know it hard for some of you to be analytical but try. Stop listening to the fear mongers, America has been down that road some many times and nothing changes.

[lysistrata]

His motto was: YES WE CAN.

What happened to it? He has all the majority he needs, if they don't perform it will less in 2010.

[igotthis]

His motto is still "YES WE CAN," with the emphasis on “WE,” for no U.S. president is a king; no president has absolute power. A president must contend with a multiplicity of powerful interests and forces that support, oppose, or ignore his policies by influencing the Congress to do likewise. When a president, like President Obama, actively pursues visionary change, those powerful forces and interests really begin to exert their influences on policies one way or another. If the president’s party does not support him or her completely, then visionary change cannot happen.

Thus, President Obama’s “YES WE CAN” is more than a motto. It’s a powerful political strategy to counteract Congressional resistance to and rejection of visionary policies that the people (the “WE”) believe are best. The question is whether the president has formulated sure-fire tactics to pursue such a strategy. Will he powerfully use us (“WE”)?

[WUNDERBAR]

WHAT WE HAVE IS A GOVERNMENT OF THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE AND FOR THE PEOPLE: AGAINST THE BEST INTERESTS OF THE PEOPLE!!!

[jmpurser]

I like: Government of the people by the corporations for the rich.

[Lilith33]

LOL! what country do you live in?

[ChelseaC]

During ABC's Nightline on health care, they played anti-Canada medicine fearmongering ads--pathetic.
One person asked about single payer--she said it would save us so much money and other industrialized countries have this. Obama responded that we are employee based and to change to single payer would be too "disruptive" and people would not be able to choose their doctors anymore.
This is BS!!!!
see http://www.pnhp.org/blog/

[jmpurser]

We're also used to having the most expensive health care in the world while losing out to the 3rd world in terms of results.

I hope President Obama isn't going to preserve those traditions as well as the rest of our mistakes.

Single Payer: We don't have a tradition of doing the smart thing but wouldn't this be a great time to START?

[mad as heck]

This is making me mad. The current system is unaffordable. Employer based healthcare help to kill off manufacturing in this country, by making us noncompetitive. It isn't secure, only good as long as you have a job. The out of pocket costs are too high, and the premium is much too high. It leaves too many people uninsured. This is a system that needs to be disrupted! And where is it written that you would have no choice of doctor under single payer? Come on, Mr. President, don't wimp out on us. No half-measures or sops to the name of reform. No co-ops. Even a public option is only tolerable because it gets the single payer foot in the door, and could allay some of the fears.

[Lorianne]

Why? No one is proposing a plan anything like Canada's.

[JDM73]

Sorry, but I don't trust Obama and I don't trust Rahm Emanuel. Bear in mind that Obama has expressed his liking for the co-op "compromise". These men would sell us out in a hot minute and their groupies in the mainstream media would lovingly, adoringly call it "pragmatic centrism"--as they do every time Obama makes a bad decision.

[Tommygun264]

So what do you suggest? Doing nothing?

[lysistrata]

If it is not real reform with single payer, than do nothing is ok since doing some windowdressing is equal to do nothing. Just a waste of time.

[Easyrollins]

yea so far he's manage to do pretty much enough to have the rethug sending in the trolls in force. I wonder did you trust Bush, or did it take you eight long years to figure him out, and less that 6 to know everything about Obama.

[unite4change]

That your problem. You apparently are not accustom to being told the truth and thus, can't be trusted yourself.

[ChelseaC]

Did anyone see the joke health care show on ABC tonight?

[Angelic11]

...and we're supposed to say...er uh...tell us, right? ok?....

[unite4change]

ChelseaC, I saw it and it was informative to me. Maybe if you didn't have a closed mind already, you could have learned something. Or maybe you are just limited in your comprehension.

[Angelic11]

we're the majority but...."we just don't have the votes"

[Angelic11]

not a repub...just not a blind sheep either

[Angelic11]

he is only going to be as good a prez as we demand...do go for the dumb stuff!

[fifty8]

US taxpayers who are watching 73 % of every tax dollar going to military expenditures (54%) and interest payments (19+ %)? (It forces one to wonder from where funds are going to derive for universal public health care, future Social Security payments, Medicare, Medicaid, public education and other assorted programs.

[Peabodies]

Reagan, and later, the neocons with their machinations, looted the U.S. treasury so that FDR's legacy would be erased, and the union movement destroyed. They are close to succeeding. Why this country spends on defense, each year, more than the rest of the world, combined, is a sign of national derangement. Responsible are the elected officials for making it happen, and we, the people, for tolerating it.

But on health care, we have the numbers on our side. Take away the difference with, say, half of what the private "insurers" charge for administrative costs, and we make out like bandits on Medicare-like administrative costs which are one tenth of what the private "insurers" charge us.

[fifty8]

Total Credit Market Debt for the US stood at $49 trillion as of February 2009, which was a record 350% of US GDP. And these figures don’t include the forthcoming budget deficits or the massive level of unfunded liabilities in the US, which some put as high as another $49 trillion. Adding unfunded liabilities to total credit market debt puts the debt to GDP ratio at a staggering 700% of GDP.

Not only is the current ratio of 350% the highest on record but it far surpasses the peak of 300% that was reached in 1929. In the aftermath of the Great Depression total credit market debt declined over the following two decades to reach a low of 130% in the mid-1950s.

Some quick calculations show that based on a modest savings rate of 4% and real GDP growth of 3% pa, zero interest payments and the assumption that no more debt is created (which is unlikely given the Federal Government’s proclivity to spend), it would take until about the year 2026 to get back to a more sustainable debt to GDP ratio of say 150%. At a savings rate of 8% pa then you could get to the same level by about 2022.

When one includes unfunded liabilities, based on the above criteria it would take until 2030 just to get back to the current historically high rate of 350%.

http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article11485.html

[jaslyn]

I thought he was very clear at his press conference. Why do people insist on reading more into his words?? He wants a public option, and urges private insurance to improve their services and costs if they're worried that people choose it over them. It's about time.

[vanmungo]

And just what do you think this public option entails? Have you thought about the details, or are you just beguiled by the words "public option."

It's about time you and other blind supporters of this policy opened your eyes--you need to look at the details, and you'll see what a sham and a scam this is. Only Medicare FOR ALL will remedy what ails this sick, sick health-care system in the United States.

For more information on the only real health-care reform--single payer--and how to achieve it, please see the following Web sites:

www.singlepayeraction.org
http://www.healthcare-now.org
www.pnhp.org
http://www­.1payer.ne­t/
http://www.guaranteedhealthcare.org/

[unite4change]

Vanmungo, you need to be proactive. There's more than one way to skin a cat.

[ChelseaC]

Yeah, there's no name to this "public option" why doesn't he say expansion of MEDICARE?
I wish I could say I trust Obama as I paid money to him, supported him and voted for him.
I feel sick that I gave money to someone who got ALL THAT MONEY from the insurance companies. I thought the lions share of the donations came from the American people?

I saw the ABC show tonight. It was VERY discouraging regarding public option it was skewed to be afraid of government health care--I will watch the special on Nightline to see if single payer or public option is discussed in a positive light, part one was just fluff no real answers.
No one from PNHP were invited. The only good solid proposal that was discussed was student loan forgiveness for doctors going into primary practice--that is a good idea--no doubt, but the rest was BS.
It was very *AMA oriented* IMHO.

[Lorianne]

What exactly IS the 'public' option?

[ChelseaC]

Lorianne,
I don't know. I wish I could tell you. But I do know this from watching the health care--I mean health insurance special tonight on ABC.
The mystery "public option" will be one of the choices in the "health care exchange" a.k.a co op.
But.....the "public option" will come with a "firewall" so if you're employer already offers you a "good" program you can't dump that good program for the "public option". Therefore, the "public option" won't be available to everyone because of the "firewall."
The "firewall" is created so the "public option" won't drive the for profit parasites out of business.
Oh, and for profits will be subsidized too, so your tax dollars would continue to feed the cockroaches.
Sounds great doesn't it? NOT.

[vanmungo]

Here's a summary of the top 20 recipients of legalized bribes from the HMOs and Big Pharma for the 2008 election cycle (notice that Obama leaves McCain in the dust!)--read it and weep if you've been gulled into believing that ANY mainstream Democrat is proposing ANY real reform--including this "public option" sham that will apply a thin cosmetic veneer to a broken system and leave the HMO greedheads in charge:

Obama, Barack (D) $19,578,158
McCain, John (R) $7,418,423
Clinton, Hillary (D-NY) $6,630,985
McConnell, Mitch (R-KY) $1,354,535
Baucus, Max (D-MT) $1,161,175
Cornyn, John (R-TX) $961,719
Coleman, Norm (R-MN) $898,328
Paul, Ron (R-TX) $874,444
Pallone, Frank Jr (D-NJ) $845,445
Rangel, Charles B (D-NY) $827,549
Specter, Arlen (R-PA) $718,398
Chambliss, Saxby (R-GA) $713,709
Smith, Gordon H (R-OR) $713,013
Roberts, Pat (R-KS) $676,949
Harkin, Tom (D-IA) $673,048
Collins, Susan M (R-ME) $659,019
Dingell, John D (D-MI) $573,736
Udall, Mark (D-CO) $560,115
Landrieu, Mary L (D-LA) $556,918
Price, Tom (R-GA) $529,851

To find out how to fight for the only REAL reform--nonprofit, single-payer Medicare for all--see the following:

www.pnhp.org
www.singlepayeraction.org

[Chaimirija]

they gave him 19 million?

[vanmungo]

Sure did--the entire executive and legislative branch is asubsidiary of the HMOs and Big Pharma.

See:
http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/recips.php?ind=H&cycle=2008&recipdetail=A&mem=Y&sortorder=U

The for-profit health-care system in this country is bleeding the economy white with its enormous 30 percent overhead, caused by (1) the redundant billing bureaucracies needed by the insurers, hospitals, and doctors to keep track of billing from 1,300 different payers; (2) profiteering that siphons off hundreds of billions each hear to stockholders and overpaid CEOs (the average HMO CEO makes $14 million). Not ONE PENNY of this hundreds of billions wasted on billing and profiteering goes to providing health care. The Dems' announced public option plan does not make a dent in this mess.

In the nonprofit, single-payer variants in all the other industrialized countries of the world, overhead averages about 3 to 5 percent, their per capita health-care costs are HALF those of the United States while covering all citizens, with better life expectancy and lower infant-mortality rates.

Senator Tom Harkin said, "I used to sell insurance. The basic rule is the larger the pool the less expensive the health care. Today we have 1,300 separate pools - separate health care plans - and that is why health care is so expensive; 700 pools would be more efficient and less expensive, and one pool would be the least expensive. That's why single payer is the answer."

www.pnhp.org
www.singlepayeraction.org

[Angelic11]

you can post this...and I can't even say...make him accountable...etc?

[ChelseaC]

vanmungo,
hi.
where did you get the list?
if true, this explains a lot.
so sad.

[vanmungo]

See:
http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/recips.php?ind=H&cycle=2008&recipdetail=A&mem=Y&sortorder=U

[biabouman41]

The President needs to come out clearly and re-establish a competitive public health care option. He fumbled the ball at the rose garden press conference earlier this week and that gave Iowa's grassley the temerity to immediately draw a right wing line in the sand. He needs to recapture his positions, after all he has 76% support of the public on this issue.