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

[Crissy Patters]

Once the bill makes it to the PO's desk, I want a public plan option included. One that will be meaningful and truly reform our health care system. I could care less about a bipartisan bill , the dems turning their back on the lobbyist, it is time for those who work for us to serve us, period.

I'm glad the WH cleared up the post from this morning. I thought they would after they were bombarded with calls and emails about the blog.

We need to remain as forceful on our represenat­ives/senat­ors with letting them know, we will not settle for a bill without a public option.

[veracity]

Look, this is very simple: Rahm Emanuel "earned" $18 million in just 2.5 years, helping Chicago "Investement Bank" WassersteinPerella close "merger & acquisition" aka "Levereged Buyout" deals.
http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/07/rahm-emanuel-former-investment-banker/

Those Millions came out of the pockets & wallets of workers & consumers at PECO Energy in Pennsylvania (taken over by CommonwealthEdison) & in other "deals" where Emanuel almost certainly used his insider-DC top-tier political clout.
(Emanuel had been a top advisor in the Clinton White House... he left in 1998 just before the Impeachment, probably shoehorned into that Chicago "Investment Banker" job by the then very powerful Treasury Secretary, Robert Rubin... FORMER GOLDMAN-SACHS CHAIRMAN Rubin.)

Emanuel cares NO MORE for AMERICANS DENIED HEALTH CARE COVERAGE (or DENIED CLAIMS when they come down with major illnesses) than he cares for the families who had to pay higher utility bills when CommonwealthEdison took over Peco.

Sadly, Emanuel FOLLOWS PRECISELY in the FOOTSTEPS of JOE LIEBERMAN, NORM COLEMAN, & ARLEN SPECTER - all three STARTED THEIR POLITICAL CAREERS as VERY LIBERAL "Democrats", but once they amassed some name recognition & power, they SWITCHED to the Pro-Wars, AUTHORITARIAN, TAX-CUTS FOR RICH & CORPORATE LICENSE-to-STEAL REPUBLICAN Party.

Democratic voters WANTING GENIUINE HEALTH CARE "reform" simply MUST KNOW, that RAHM EMANUEL IS NOT YOUR ALLY in this fight, he is JUST LIKE JOE LIEBERMAN in 2000, DOING NOTHING to count the votes that had been ROBBED & TRASHED by the GOP disenfranc­hisement/J­im Crow gang.

[vanmungo]

Nearly all members of the House and Senate—BOTH major parties—are paid employees of the HMOs and Big Pharma, through the legalized bribery of campaign contributions. In the 2008 election cycle alone, Democrats slopped up $90 million in health-sector cash compared to the Republicans’ 72 million. (See http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.php?ind=H)

Those numbers explain why, despite the strenuous daily rehearsal of “differences” over the details of a public plan, pols of both parties agree on a much more fundamental matter: keeping the health-care system in the death grip of the profiteering HMOs. And let’s be clear—the public option plan being proposed would not make a dent in the dysfunctional cost bloating and coverage gaps bred by the profit-driven system.

The numbers also explain why BOTH parties have conspired to push aside the only reform with a PROVEN track record of cost control, universal coverage, and quality health outcomes in the rest of the industrialized world: nonprofit single payer MEDICARE FOR ALL.

If you aren't demanding that, you're demanding nothing. Here's how to get active to demand MEDICARE FOR ALL--no public option shams, no more fake reforms that keep the blood-sucking HMOs in control:

http://www.healthcare-now.org
www.pnhp.org
www.singlepayeraction.org

[Lorianne]

well stated

[Bardmess]

What happened to silent vigils and dignified marches to show popular support? I'm not talking about tea parties. Those were silly and made the participants look like fools, but it is possible to demonstrate for what we believe in. 1964 Civil Rights Act didn't happen without it.

[Angelic11]

riddle me this? seriously,

what has Obama done for the people....just one thing please...or more if you can ...for the "people"....since he's been in.,,

please, I'm trying to hold on to 'yes, we can.

[robbrian]

He has given you hopelessness. He has given you small CHANGE, he has given you smooth bloviation, and he has promised more of the same. Stop whinning. You are indeed among those of us heading into the abyss of eternal debt slavery for which we will never be grateful.

[Tommygun264]

Whereas the pubs come out straight and tell us to go die. Do you really think we would be in a better position under McSame/Palin? Get real.

[cheisdead]

BO the doggie is kinda cute.

[Easyrollins]

Trolls are infesting this blog

[Crissy Patters]

He signed the following bills and his stimulas and bailout have been beneficial to many.
1. Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act
2. Chips-insurance for children
3. His stimulus bill, has increased the number of months me and millions will receive unemployment insurance.
4. My COBRA payment is less then half of what it would have been without the stiumulus he passed.
5. Several of my co-workers were able to save their homes from foreclosure due to the bailout.
6. I have an appt. next with my banker about lowering my interest rates
7. He used calm and logic with the rescue of the captian from the pirates.

Most importanly, he changed tthe mood of the country( Oct-Feb) from one of dismal and dire to one of hope. Nothing, he has done and will do, will come close to the huge accomplishment.

[Easyrollins]

What did your boy BUSH do for the eight years in was in office, riddle yourself that

[gobarackgo]

Conrad was on Ed Schultz' radio show today all but saying that the public option should be off the table. I have a feeling he got a call from the White House that convinced him otherwise.

[mad as heck]

Time to write to the White House again, toughen them up. Did anyone hear Sen. Conrad on The Ed Schultz Show today? Frustrating isn't the word. The Dems are trying to stonewall us into believing there's no hope. We can't let that happen.

[jonbw]

All I want is a public plan. I don't care about the rest. It is a success if it has a real public plan I can sign up for. If it does not I will fight like hell to bring the whole thing down.

[vanmungo]

WHY IN THE WORLD do you want the sham, phony pseudo-reform of the "public option."

Allow me to explain why the public option is a cosmetic gesture that will change nothing:

Unlike the nonprofit, single-payer plans in place in the rest of the industrialized world, this "public option" would charge premiums and impose deductibles; unlike them, it could not accept government funding (after the initial infusion), and so would have to be self-sustaining. Moreover, it would likely be saddled with the oldest, sickest, and thus most expensive cohort, and would have to offer higher fees than Medicare--so no cost savings, none of the cost efficiencies of a single risk pool; it would be competing with 1,300 private HMO risk pools, which would aggressively market the youngest, healthiest, and thus cheapest and most profitable cohort.

This is consumer fraud that fails to loosen the HMOs' dysfunctional vice grip on this isystem.

Public-option plans have been tried in several states, and in every case they have failed to reduce costs or increase coverage. The only PROVEN way of accomplishing both goals--based on a half-century's track record in Europe and Canada--is a nonprofit, single-payer approach.

For a detailed analysis of the pitfalls of the public options, please see the following:

http://www.commondreams.org/print/43440

http://www.pnhp.org/facts/singlepayer_faq.php#public-option

[PatrickforO]

No! Please, I urge all of you - to http://stories.barackobama.com/healthcare. Post your own story about our nightmare healthcare system. Search it by city and count the letters in your community. There were 1,000 just in Littleton Colorado where I live. Then...

Write your US Senators and Representatives. Tell them we need a single payer option and put in the link to this website. Be sure to tell them how many letters there are on the site from their constituents and put in the link. If these Senators and Representatives don't get tens of thousands of letters from their constituents, they'll cave in to the insurance industry and the AMA and we will not get healthcare reform!

[Patricia Goodwin]

It would be a waste of time to call my senators. They are Shelby and Sessions. Now tell me how you would like those two to be your senators.

[rigmoten]

The Horrah!

[ChelseaC]

Sign the Sen. Bernie Sanders petition.
http://sanders.senate.gov

[jwritesel]

I suffer from the fate of Shelby and Sessions. So you have my complete understanding on why it would be so useless to doso.

[elfish]

Not necessarily a waste of time. The repub usually only listen to big money interests, but they might listen if they think there is a ground swell in favor of a public option. The public option was dead a couple of weeks ago, but the polling last week showing wide public support revived it. Even the Repubs can feel pressure when it comes from the grass roots and even repubs don't want to be on the wrong side of history. They will look pretty stupid if it passes and the public loves it.

[WinterParkMom]

NO COMPROMISE. S C R E W BIPARTISANSHIP. The public option, funded by affordable premiums based on income, funded by a 1penney sin tax on fast food, beverages/food w/ high fructose corn syrup and bottles and glasses of alchohol. Add a half penney to all local sales tax. These things will not affect normal everyday people who are struggling to survive. Instead of paying 99cents for that junior burger, it's now 1dollar, etc.

Then you stop giving tax breaks to big corporations (like insurance companies) for stupid crap.

That is how you pay for it!!!

[robbrian]

No, no, no, no. You pay for everything needed in the public sector by mandating that the Fed forego charging us, the taxpayer, interest on the money that the Fed creates from thin air.

When ever the Gov. borrows, it borrows from the private banks of the Fed. The Fed then charges the Gov...us..­.interest. The Gov. used to just print debt free money before the Fed came into being. When the Gov printed its own money it was not borrowed money and the Gov. didn't charge itself interest there was no debt and, therefore, no deficit.

Now, when we don't have enough tax revenue to pay for public programs, we have to borrow. The amount that we borrow is added to the deficit. The deficit represents all borrowing because we didn't have enough revenue. When we borrow from the Fed it charges us interest and that amount is added to the deficit.

However, if we printed the currency ourselves , rather than rely on the private Federal Reserve to do so, we could have a debt free society, just like the Pennsylvania colonist had, just like
Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Jackson had, and what this nation had from 1864-1913.

[ntmessage]

Right now, we need to ask all the tough questions. There will be so much mis-information on the subject that we need to stay loyal to the public plan. No matter what kind of rhetoric or rationalization comes our way. Of all the permutations , double speak and twisted end-of-the­-world-bal­oney not to mention slight of hand used car sales tricks that will be spewed all over the media, remember and do not forget, we can only be 100% sure with a public plan option.

[jmpurser]

How can we stay loyal to a "public plan" that doesn't actually exist on paper yet? And how can you be sure with a "public plan option" when no one knows what it will be?

[ntmessage]

Easy. By deduction! We know what we got now and it is criminal. Those that are working for the existing model today will only serve to pervert anything materially different from the status quo. What is only thing that is “new” or represents real “change”? Public Plan! “By Jove!” Watson! I think Ive got it!

Easy to understand for anyone who does not already have a closed mind!

[Coastalthinker2]

I agree. President Obama is trying to change the terminology used. Then, at a later date he can say that we received a "public Option" which may be something like Co-ops. Either he defines "public option" as single payer health insurance or "we the people" will end up with something far less than desired.

[Lorianne]

What is the 'public' plan?

[ntmessage]

Not what we have now.

[Ponderus]

This story was a plant by some health insurance / pharma stooge.

[zerotimes10]

They are telling us they don't have the votes so that will discourage us. Oh guess again my little soon to be out of the Senate Blue Dogs.

[ChelseaC]

Evidently so.
I'm freaking out! lol.

I tried to call the White House comment line today--all lines busy--it was jammed.


Let's go back to pushing for health care reform:
http://sanders.senate.gov

White House comment line:
202-456-1111
202-456-1414

[Crissy Patters]

It backfired because, so far every time anyone has come out with there may/will not be a public option, the person has retracted their comment, even the AMA.

[Marcospinelli]

Nearly 3/4s of Americans support for some form of government­-generated health insurance.

The latest polls show that 72% of Americans want a choice between a government run plan & private one; 57% are even willing to pay more taxes to get it. 72% supported a government­-administe­red insurance plan — something like Medicare for those under 65 — that would compete for customers with private insurers. 20% said they were opposed.

That 72% support figure is everybody. When further broken down, Democrats surveyed in this poll are 87% in favor, 9% against. Among Republicans, it‘s 50% (in favor), 39% (against).

64% said they thought the federal government should guarantee coverage, a figure that has stayed steady all decade. Nearly 60% said they would be willing to pay higher taxes to make sure that all were insured, with 4 in 10 willing to pay as much as $500 more a year.

A plurality, 48%, said they supported a requirement that all Americans have health insurance so long as public subsidies were offered to those who couldn't afford it, versus 38% that said they were opposed.

The poll also shows Americans trust the government more than private insurers. 50% say Washington would do a better job at providing coverage; 59% say government would be better at holding down costs (up from 47% in 2007).

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/21/health/policy/21poll.html

[MESGAIN26]

i knew that story was bogus

[Gmoney1]

me too - the media is nothing but a rumor mill - don't believe it unless you hear with your own ears anymore -

[SMAckley]

There is no reform without a public option. Don't let your Congressman forget it.

[jmpurser]

So, what do you think a public option is? You see, we haven't actually written down a bill that includes a "public option" so why exactly do we have to have one in order to have health care reform?

[Peabodies]

Exactly, jmpurser. How could they "not have the votes" on something that hasn't yet been voted on, or even ... written down? The hypocrisy ...

[ChelseaC]

Exactly, that's why we should fight for the expansion of MEDICARE for all who want it.
This "public option " needs defining--there's no bill no name, that's what makes me very skeptical. Why don't they just expand MEDICARE--hello, why reinvent the wheel? MEDICARE for all who want it, less the part D.

http://sanders.senate.gov