Rockefeller: "The Insurance Industry... Is Running Certain People In This Markup" (VIDEO)

Reacting to an amendment proposed by Sen. Jon Cornyn (R-Texas) during the Senate Finance Committee's markup of health care reform legislation on Thursday, committee member Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) called his colleague a pawn of the health insurance industry.

"This is a very, very important amendment and it's a very, very bad amendment," said Rockefeller. "If there's anything which is clear, it's that the insurance industry is not running this markup, but is running certain people in this markup."

On Wednesday, committee member Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) unintentionally made the same point about himself when he begged for "at least 72 hours for the people that the providers have hired to keep up with all of the legislation that we pass around here, and the regulations that we pass around here, to say, 'Hey, wait a minute. Have you considered this?'"

Cornyn, for his part, took umbrage.

"With all due respect, senator, I don't know what amendment you're referring to," he said.

Check out Rockefeller's remarks:

A Cornyn spokesman told the Huffington Post that the amendment under discussion "would deem any individual enrolled in any health plan governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act to have met the personal responsibility requirement" -- even if the plan doesn't meet proposed requirements.

"Sen. Cornyn's amendment simply clarifies that the nearly 90% of Americans who are happy with that insurance won't be required to change it," the spokesman wrote in an email.

Rockefeller said: "What you have done through your amendment, Senator Cornyn, is to take the very clear fact that those who are self-insured through their companies, that the insurance companies would be grandfathered from ever accepting any of the disciplines which we are putting on the rest of the non-self-insured population...What you're saying is almost half of all Americans, because of the grandfathering, will not get the restraints on the caps, the rescissions and all of those things which are standard fare for what we think over here."

Comments

[Bronxdude]

The average American refuses to accept that the Republican Nation is at war with the working-class, which is why republicans support the status quo and vehemently oppose healthcare reform, public education, government oversight, minimum wage hikes, worker rights, access to higher education, middleclass tax relief, and, in general, any legislation that would jeopardize the continuation of a credit-dependent, employer exploited, unhealthy, downtrodden, politically marginalized, underpaid, debt-laden, undereducated and permanent class of laborers. Similar to exploited sharecroppers, it’s in the best interest of republicans to keep the working-class hopeless, oppressed, misinformed and undereducated. Republicans staunchly supported the Wall Street bailout to protect their own assets, but opposed the automobile industry bailout, which employs thousands of middleclass Americans. The republican aristocracy opposes any kind of governmental oversight that will interfere with their pursuit of exploitive capitalism, which is why they want to abolish the Departments of Agriculture, Transportation, Interior, Education and The Food and Drug Administration. Anything that protects the worker must go. Just like feudal lords, the Republican Nation requires a formidable army to protect their financial interests, which is why they defend unrestrained military spending. The Iraq War will cost $2.6 trillion over 10 years, while health insurance for every American for the same time period would cost $1 trillion. Republican fear mongers want to keep America angrily divided by class and race. Universal health insurance would provide hope and elevate the standard of living for working-class Americans, something republicans vehemently oppose.

[Bronxdude]

The healthcare insurance monopoly thriving in Georgia represents a textbook example of what happens when competition is ruthlessly eliminated. Republican Senator John Kyl believes that the 1st Amendment grants him the right to tell lies about reform. In Georgia, scheming UnitedHealthcare executives conspired with corrupt republican politicians to eliminate BC/BS as a competitor, narrowing the slate of choices for state employees to two – Cigna and UnitedHealthcare. Georgia state employees have no due process patient protection rights, a negotiated constraint that gives UnitedHealthcare and Cigna carte blanche to deny claims, institute exorbitant copays, set outrageous deductibles, cancel coverage, dictate treatment and pick who lives. There is no real choice in Georgia, just monopolistic and morally corrupt Cigna and UnitedHealthcare – the real death panels. In the 12 months following Cigna and UnitedHealthcare hijacking the Georgia employee health benefit plan, premiums have increased by 88%, while worker wages have increased a meager 2%; as a result, when compared to the second quarter of 2008, 2009 profits for UnitedHealthcare increased by a whopping 155%. In Georgia, insurers like UnitedHealthcare deny 1-of-every-4 treatment recommendations prescribed by physicians; nationally, UnitedHealthcare and Cigna deny 45,000 physician directed treatment and diagnostic recommendations everyday with horrific conclusion, i.e., people die. The public option will force real competition and put a stop to the monopolistic stranglehold enjoyed by UnitedHealthcare and Cigna. Every 12 minutes, an American dies because they lack health insurance.

[SaneBull]

Yay stocks surging on Wall Street. Lets forget about high unemployment, wall street greed & corruption, and heath care reform. Happy days are here again for the rich, while everyone else goes though the same $h1t everyday.

good articles; http://www.iamned.com

Ppl have no money, no heath care, no home, no job, no sanity.

[DailyFed]

Wall street reform, universal healthcare/reform, Guantanomo closure, Iraq/Afghanistan pull out-not a single one of these objectives have been met by the Obama administration. Worse, there there's no evidence any progress is being made.

good articles; http://www.iamned.com

If obama loses to the teab@ggrs it will be his fault
,

[ignorantwillyharper]

Hey, if I'm running for dog catcher I'll promise you, they'll be no dog on the street and no cat in a tree. Then I go sit down, get a cup of coffee and wait until the next election. Then I'll promise you the same thing, by then you'll have forgotten, I promised the same thing four years ago.

In the mean time, I've got perks you wouldn't believe...and the beat goes on!

[gallimaufry03]

I really, really like Jay Rockefeller -- every time he opens his mouth, out comes common sense and decency.

I wonder if he'd consider the presidency at some point.

[Javida]

Since Rockefeller has known and lived great wealth throughout his life, like the Kennedy's, he's not intoxicated w/ it and can see clearly about the priority to serve the people and self desire to acquire power and great wealth via politics. For this reason, which makes him politically unique, I'd like to follow him more closely as a presidential contender.

[Javida]

omiission in caps

Since Rockefeller has known and lived great wealth throughout his life, like the Kennedy's, he's not intoxicated w/ it and can see clearly about the priority to serve the people and NOT self desire to acquire power and great wealth via politics. For this reason, which makes him politically unique, I'd like to follow him more closely as a presidential contender.

[GreenN10]

Goldman and Bank of Amerika run the markets along with Geithner, and beagle boy Ben. There is no free markets, only welfare capitalism and socialism for capitalism.

good articles: http://www.iamned.com

[19iowa62]

I have been receiving unsolicited e-mails from Cornyn. When I hit the unsubscribe link it always says the server is busy. Something crooked happened that I got on this mailing list, but I expect nothing less from Cornyn and his cronies. The man makes me wretch.

[ignorantwillyharper]

Less some this up in short...Cornyn is in the hands of lobbyist and is a crook.

[HurryUp1212009]

PLEASE READ THIS:

If you were offered access to whatever health plan you wanted for a single payment of $100, would you make that payment? If your answer is "Yes", then please do the following:

Join me in e-mailing MoveOn.org and tell them to organize a $100 million fundraiser that would offer ANY SENATOR WHO VOTES FOR COMPLETE CHOICE IN HEALTH CARE A CASHIERS CHECK FOR $1,000,000. OR, IF LESS THAN 100 SENATORS VOTE IN FAVOR, THE ONES THAT DO WILL GET THEIR PROPORTIONATE SHARE OF THE $100 MILLION FUND!

If 1 million people donate $100 apiece, there's MoveOn's $100 million fund!

Folks, this is the way the private insurance companies are buying Senators like Baucus. We can do the same thing in reverse! If it means that much to you - and it should - join me TODAY!

[gallimaufry03]

Man, as much as I want a public option, there's just no way I could subscribe to this concept.

I VOTE! That's what I do to make my voice heard. I contribute to charities and campaigns that I think deserve my litte bit of extra funding.

But I refuse, point blank, to be party to buying any vote for anything, even if it's as worth a cause as could be thought up.

The simple fact of the matter is this ... it's bribery like this that is causing our national, moral, ethical dilemma in DC.

When the highest bidder wins the vote, we're all sunk. What we need ... rather than this approach ... is campaign finance reform so that NO ONE can BUY VOTES.

Sorry ... I know we probably fundamentally agree on what we need in this country ... but I respectfully disagree with this approach on ethical grounds. Peace.

[vietveter]

gallimaufry03

You are correct.

Term limits and finance reform are our only legal American tools for change

Make OUR VOTE COUNT for a change.

[Bronxdude]

People who vote decide nothing; those who count the votes decide everything.

[ReedYoung]

STOP RIGHT THERE, CORNYN! ~two minutes mark, he claims that employers "provide" health coverage, which is a lie. All that they "provide" is collective bargaining, and package-dealing arrangements, boilerplate contracts really, between any of their employees, and selected health "insurance" corporations. If those arrangements do not meet federal standards, Cornyn would rob employees of the OPTION of a public plan, by grandfathering in an exemption to the federal standards: no refusal for pre-existing conditions, and no rescissions for patients when we seek to make use of our "insurance" policies. Cornyn's amendment would allow corporations to fall short of those standards for all existing package deals between health "insurance" corporations and "employers" without giving workers a better option, if they currently have the good fortune of being employed at a company with any arrangements at all for health care. Lying ssssnake!

[Mother77]

Get rid of lobbyists and make our representatives read their own bills!

[vietveter]

A MEN

[Mahi Joe]

Taking BRIBES by lobbyists for corporations by those politicians who sit on committees supposedly working on behalf of their constituents is disgraceful. There is more honesty in these Nigerian Princes asking for money than there is in our politicians. I guess our Politicians are the BEST MONEY CAN BUY. So sad we have turned to bribery to run our nation. How can we advocate democracy to anyone when we have one of the most corrupt politicians in the world?

[DestinationsUnknown]

9-25-09

South Carolina Rep Wilson on the House Floor stating Benjamin Netanyahu the leader of the Free World!

R-SC Wilson stating on the House Floor that Benjamin Netanyahu is the LEADER of the FREE WORLD!

[Dustee]

And SPalin can see Russia from her house.

[Emerald1943]

There is supposed to be a vote on the Public Option in the finance committee today, according to Sen. Chuck Shumer. Anybody got any info? It's not on C-SPAN and so far, nothing on CNN.

[BrickSykes]

I am sincerely proud of Jay Rockefeller's statement of the obvious. The Truth is more like about a third of the Democratic Congressional membership together with at Least two-thirds of the RepugniKons. I do believe, however, that they ALL sense the general mood of the Country and these traitorous turncoats feel them breathing down their necks.

Their days are over! Just a matter of time before America will be restored to the Founder's ideals, and they know it!

Brick

[Alabama John]

Why is it that our self-absorbed majority march to the polls with a child-like smile on their face, never knowing that it's "selection not election" that their participating in?

It's called thought control, the brainwash that a Public Option is perfection in healthcare reform.

For the intent of all those capitalist politicians is never regulate capitalist medicine. So we get a Public Option without regulation, so same old politicians get reelected, so what if five years down the road we discover butcher medicine is corrupt as ever?

That's capitalism, the illusion that we all deserve to be rich.

[swift goat pet for truth]

No. Single Payer is the best alternative for healthcare reform.
And there are many ways to do single payer.

Public option is just a poor, poltically acceptable substitute.

And what we have now is NOT capitalism. It is Crony Capitalism. Corporatism.

[rsaillant1]

Let's just keep in mind that what needs reforming IS NOT our healthcare
sysytem....what needs reforminmg is our Insurance Industry and Pharma.