Orszag: Republicans Trying To Kill Health Care Reform Through Delay

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President Obama's Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Peter Orszag, accused Senate Republicans on Sunday of trying to kill health care reform by dragging out the legislative process.

Appearing on CNN's State of the Union, Orszag labeled the attempts to push back the health care reform timeline as a "typical Washington bureaucratic game of if you don't have a better alternative just delay in hopes that that kills something."

"We want to get this done by August and we think we can," he added. "There are those that are advocating delay just as a desperation move to try and kill this."

Orszag stressed that not everyone calling for delay had sinister motives. The moderate Democrats in the Senate and Blue Dog Democrats in the House, he said, were "actively participating in the debate and that is great." This past week, Sens. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) Mary Landrieu (La.) and Ron Wyden (Ore.), along with Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman (Conn.) and Maine Republican Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins signed a letter asking to slow down the health care reform debate.

Nevertheless, from Orszag's CNN appearance, it seemed clear that the administration thinks pushing back the health care timeline amounts to a death sentence for reform. On Sunday, the OMB Director repeated that the White House's goal was to have legislation passed through both the House and the Senate by the time both chambers break for August recess.

"It's still the goal," he said. "We think we can make that. We are working towards that."

He added that the White House had been in discussion over the weekend with many of the recalcitrant House Democrats and Senate Finance Committee members to hammer out some sort of agreement.

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Comments

[adey]

The serious flaw in all of the fnancial models is accepting that the current medical costs are not obscenely inflated.

The insurance companies and the hospitals have been playing a very expensive game of "f*ckyou" and we are the ones who are paying. The insurers tell the hospitals that they will only pay x% of a charge, so the hospitals jack up the price so that the x% that is paid is what they originally wanted. In the mean time, the jacked up prices are what have put healthcare out of the reach of anyone who is NOT insured.

The real savings would be in getting the charges back into a reasonable range. There is no reason for (as I have seen posted here) a c0l0noscopy to cost 1200 at one place, 2500 at another and 5k at yet another. This is where the pure greed shows. It has been, for far too long, about pillaging the public for private profit.

[D-V-H]

That is why some people's proposal to subsidize the buying of private insurance will only raise the prices more.
Only when there is a plan that has a large group and is able to negotiate prices, will we see lower health care prices.

[adey]

And THAT is what the obstacle is. The greedybastards are not done ki//ing the american people for profit.

[Viper]

What you said was true 20 years ago.

All the rates paid by insurance companies to providers including Hospitals are now specific rates for a CPT code, irrespective of wht the Hopsital bills ( normal and customary). The rates Insurance companies pay are now almost entirely based as a percenatge of medicare rates...

1/3 of the Hopsiatls in the U.S. are losing money.

80% of hospitals in the U.S. are either government owned or not for profit as a side note... so much of our healthcare delivery system is not Capitalistic... and never has been...

The only part that is capitalistic totally is ... The Insurance companies... who need to go!


Regards

[Chaimirija]

You got it

[MataHari007]

MataHari007
http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/has_obamas_birth_certificate_been_disclosed.html
------------------
LockeBeliever
That is not a birth certificate...do pe
-------------------

You're insane!

[EspritDeVoltaire]

Oui

[rich misty]

Yup. It's a cult.

[LockeBeliever]

Really??? There are literally thousands of instances on record in Hawaii where a cerificate of live birth was issued to establish citizenshi­p...despit­e the fact that they were born out side on the state or anywhere else in the US

Is this person cazy??http://countusout.wordpress.com/2008/11/25/original-birth-certificate-on-file-hawaii-certificate-of-live-birth-but-born-in-south-korea-to-korean-nationals/

...here's key part

"What Fukino’s press release says is they have Obama’s “original birth certificate on record in accordance with state policies and procedures.” It says nothing about him being born in Hawaii.

If my daughter was running for President, they could say the exact same thing. My daughter was adopted in Hawaii, her original birth certificate is on file and she has a Hawaii Certificate of Live Birth – but she was born in South Korea to Korean nationals."

[LockeBeliever]

Really??? There are literally thousands of instances on record in Hawaii where a certificate of live birth was issued to establish citizenshi­p...despit­e the fact that they were born out side on the state or anywhere else in the US

Is this person cr azy??http://countusout.wordpress.com/2008/11/25/original-birth-certificate-on-file-hawaii-certificate-of-live-birth-but-born-in-south-korea-to-korean-nationals/

...here's key part

"What Fukino"s press release says is they have Obama"s "original birth certificate on record in accordance with state policies and procedures." It says nothing about him being born in Hawaii.

If my daughter was running for President, they could say the exact same thing. My daughter was adopted in Hawaii, her original birth certificate is on file and she has a Hawaii Certificate of Live Birth " but she was born in South Korea to Korean nationals."

[rich misty]

Really.

[FGDinVA]

Oh gawd. Who invited the Birther?

[IntelligentDesign]

There are certain things in life that will never make sense--the Republican campaign to bring down the president is one of them.

[MizTraci]

I have my own opinions on why they want to see him fail, but I will keep them to myself in order to avoid an onslau ght of criticism...

[HeIsTheOne]

I got your back. Go ahead if you wish. THere are many on here that will have your back.

[ladynaga]

You mean because he's black thingy?

[We-Are-The-Ones]

The President is BBBBBBLLLL­LLLLLLAAAA­AAAAACCCCC­CCCCCKKK and well liked. Of course they want to bring him down.

They have no solutions or ideas of their own. Destruction is what they do.

[MizTraci]

Fanned. and love love love you!

[IntelligentDesign]

That black thing really ranckles their core belief system--poor things try so hard to make it appear to be about the issues--it's really quite embarrassing.

[fairtaxplease]

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

Actually they won't.

That's another shiny ball the right-wing talking heads love to hold up for their easily-distracted lemmings.

Taxes rates in Canada are roughly the same as America's, and yet the portion of taxes per year that get allocated to health care for an average family of 4 work out to $1000.

For the entire year.

How much are insurance premiums a month in the US?
==========­==========­=

most everything costs more in Canaduh!

[theMightyT]

except health care.

don't have an answer, eh?

What a surprise.

[twogunmojo]

where are you going to get the money to pay for 200,000,000 million people to go to the doctor every week or two....and if you make healthcare a right how will you deny them the right to go every week....

[Betrayed]

Obama picked the wrong battle,

And doesn't stand a chance.

Deal with it, followers.

[Strega]

excellent post - well though out, succinct, yet m0r0nic! congrats

[kevenseven]

Pithy yet pointless! You gotta respect that! Or not.

[We-Are-The-Ones]

Ha.

Excellent.

[Chaimirija]

For the most part, Liberals are thinkers, NOT dittoheads

[We-Are-The-Ones]

Yawn.

He's won the battles so far. I imagine he will keep on winning.

Know why? People power.

[PhilipTaylor]

Its NOT over till its OVER!

Its NOT over till the Robust Lady Sings!

PUBLIC OPTION or SINGLE-PAYER or face NO RE-ELECTION!

[swift goat pet for truth]

That includes a whole lot of Reps and Sentators, too, I hope.

Unfortunate that so many on BOTH SIDES are just BOUGHT.

[ladynaga]

Did Miss Cleo lent you her crystal ball

[PhilipTaylor]

Is the CBO as owned by CORPORATE INTERESTS as CONGRESS is?

Two projects for the CBO:

1. Compare cost of a public option with cost of single-payer

2. Compare cost of public and single-payer with cost of doing nothing

We need the Upper Cost (DO NOTHING) and Lower (SINGLE-PAYER) Benchmarks to make NON-POLITICAL Decisions:

Upper: DO-NOTHING

Middle: Strong Public Option

Lower: Single-Payer

Some Plans like the Baucus Plan will cost MORE than DOING NOTHING!

It does not take a genius to figure out that SINGLE-PAYER is OPTIMAL!

[D-V-H]

All people are born alike - except Republicans and Democrats.
Groucho Marx

[ladynaga]

Dems are from Earth, repubs are from Uranus

[D-V-H]

I knew I should have flushed.

[anandakos]

continuation of my post below:

The part of the health care argument that I believe everyone of good will -- right or left -- can agree on is that we don't want the illness of a member to destroy a family's finances. To have a spouse with an expensive and deadly disease is a double loss, because for far too many people the bills associated with the treatment cause the loss of home and even job. If the patient does succumb, the survivor is left not only emotionally bereft but bankrupt.

Since cancer and Alzheimer's are the two primary causes of such expensive wasting illnesses, and neither has been shown to have much correspondence to lifestyle other than exposure to toxic chemicals in the work environment, it is the height of cruelty and insane to have a policy that exposes the families of citizens with these random and probably genetically primed illnesses to financial ruin.

Thus the low-premium but mandatory catastrophic coverage. This removes the primary negative incentive for private insurers to deny coverage; since they're essentially just providing pre-paid doctor visits they're not on the hook for chemotherapy and transplants. Without those incentives to off-load people, they would react in the usual capitalist way: they'd adopt the policy that "the customer is always right".

Yes, they'd still get in fights with hypochondriacs wanting to visit the doctor twice a week, but most people DON'T want to visit the doctor at all if they can avoid it.

[rich misty]

Republicans only make up half the things they say... Conservatives pull the other half out of hot air.

[SaviourMachine]

Hot air? Really? I was thinking of a place a lot darker and restricted.

[ladynaga]

And waaaaaaaay warmer

[RJII]

a lot of GOP hot odorous air comes from a dark restricted place. can't you smell it?

[GringoLingo]

Impossible, Hot Air is an NPR show.

[ErnestineBass]

Ummm...no, it's not Hot, it'sFresh...unlike you.

[LiberalDemIda]

Hot air? I was thinking some place else. ;-)

[fallout4U]

Libs can't even reach out to memebers of their own party, let alone the (R's) on the other side of the isle. This thing has a snowball's chance in h@ll of passing.

[rich misty]

Now you understand why we don't even need a single Republican in the entire government:

Dems ran the government from Hoover until Nixon with only one exception: Ike. Ike was career military, not a career politician. Hoover and Nixon are current vernacular.

Balanced government is a myth. It is a lie told by Republicans to trick Americans into voting them into office.

The Democratic tent is so big, they balance internally. Democrats never vote in lockstep like Republicans do. If they did, 60 Senate votes would mean every bill would breeze thru, and that is simply not the case. It never will be. There is room on the left for a vibrant and robust green progressive party giving the push-pull needed to turn the country left.

Conservatism has gone completely over the cliff on the right. It's not even a matter of pushing them off, it's a matter of stopping the remainder from following along.

[SaviourMachine]

Thank you, Negative Nancy.

[RepublicansRejected]

And your plan is to delay and stall, delay and stall, delay and stall:

"The Dems don't have enough votes"
"Their plan is a government takeover"
"It will cost too much"
"Everybody's taxes will go up"
"We need more time to read this bill, why ru.$h it?"

Nothing but pr0paganda and excuses from your side.

[We-Are-The-Ones]

Oh, Dems are reaching out. Lots of discussions and lobbying going on. I am sure you saw the threads regarding such discussions.

PS: There is no hell.

[FGDinVA]

"PS: There is no hell."

Thanks for that - "hall" didn't make any sense to me.

[Chaimirija]

be afraid

[kevenseven]

KrugnacThe­Magnificen­t really stumbles:

So you don't have a problem with the fact that France covers their ENTIRE POPULATION, including their seniors, for LESS than our government spends to cover ONLY seniors, disabled, and veterans?

Posted 09:33 PM on 07/19/2009

----------­----------­----------­----------­----------­----------­----------

You really are a d0pe.

Obviously it costs more per user to cover a selected set consisting of high users than an entire population.

Obviously coverage for elderly, disabled and war vets is going to be more expensive per user than coverage for an entire nation of 65 million, of all ages and experience.

Sheese. And you were blathering on about how we don't sound as if we know what we are talking about?

[KrugnacTheMagnificent]

It's per capita.

http://media.economist.com/images/20090627/CBB677.gif

We spend more on behalf of every resident just for Medicare, Medicaid, and the VA than other countries spend for universal insurance.

[kevenseven]

I don't think that is what the graph says.

[KQuark]

Really and mandatory coverage at that when profitcare can drop you at any time.

[KrugnacTheMagnificent]

France's government covers EVERYONE for less than our government covers just 20% of the population.
Same for Canada, Japan, Germany, Sweden, Britain, etc, etc, etc.

Dem solution? Reform government health care? No, that would be to rational.

Instead, they go on a crusade to blame private insurance for all our woes.

-facepalm-

[We-Are-The-Ones]

How about both?

[KrugnacTheMagnificent]

Sounds good to me. But if we're going to do it one by one, there is no reason on earth to start with the private system. It's not thr.ea.te.ni.ng to wreck the government budget within 10 years.

[theMightyT]

private insurance is too expensive.

Private insurance drives up the cost of health care.

What's so hard to understand?

For-profit health care "coverage" is a scam.

But please, continue to defend their right to s.c.r.e.w you over.

[KrugnacTheMagnificent]

Does private insurance drive up the cost of Medicare? How about the cost of the VA?

Do tell.

[theMightyT]

fairtaxplease I'm a Fan of fairtaxplease I'm a fan of this user permalink
and your taxes will go up alot.

========

Actually they won't.

That's another shiny ball the right-wing talking heads love to hold up for their easily-distracted lemmings.

Taxes rates in Canada are roughly the same as America's, and yet the portion of taxes per year that get allocated to health care for an average family of 4 work out to $1000.

For the entire year.

How much are insurance premiums a month in the US?

[Chaimirija]

True about the tax rates

[ErnestineBass]

Read, please.

http://www.health.gov.bc.ca/msp/infoben/premium.html

What are YOU paying for your health insurance premiums, Chaimirija?

[KQuark]

BCBS is going up 30% on their individual rates next year. If taxes were raised that much even on 1.2% of the population they would declare Civil War II.

[Viper]

Average cost for healthcare for a family of 4 is 15K per year.... will double in 8 years to 30K.

All other countries healthcare is remaining at the same percentage of GDP (8-9%) while ours has been doubling every 12 years (now 19%). Given the drop in our GDP since we make nothing and lose business to coutries with government healthcare...... well the rate of increase is INCREASING...

Regards

[RepublicansRejected]

I love how the tr0lls here whine about the Dems having 60 Senators and not ramming it through while at the same time trying to oppose the Democratic plan saying it's a government takeover of healthcare, it will cost too much, and everybody's taxes will go up.

You can't write material this good, it's why Letterman's, Colbert's, Stewart's and Maher's ratings are skyrocketing.

[EspritDeVoltaire]

It's a classic pr0pag@nda technique. The enemy is always too weak and too strong at the same time.

[LockeBeliever]

whining about it?? ...nah, baby nah...we're laughing about it

[HeIsTheOne]

Repubs think the dems are weak because we don't operate like they have and continue to do.

"Ramm it through" doesn't work for people who wish to think things through.

Repubs see that as a weakness.

Repubs are sad.

[Chaimirija]

government takeover of healthcare: NOT
it will cost too much: NOT
and everybody's taxes will go up: NOT

[Betrayed]

Limousine Liberals.

Can't Stand Them.

[moonwatcher]

I think Congress should not have health care then is any better than the average citizen. It is interesting that Europe and Canada can take care of every citizen but the United States cannot. Can someone explain why?

[GringoLingo]

I think that people who work harder and make more money should have to support those who choose not to work and not just those who suffer hardships.

[HeIsTheOne]

Listen twisted sister, don't go there. You are inserting sentimental strategies (like a good GOPr) into a tax revenue based system.

TIme to repeal the shrub's tax cuts for the wealthy, and I have not one iota of sympathy for those who still eat well, have excellent medical care and a roof over their heads while my fellow citizens are suffering.

[fallout4U]

You are on target.

[HeIsTheOne]

With his bent arrow.

And you are right behind him.