David Sirota: Senate Health Care Bill Is A 'Handout To The Health Industry'

USA Today:

The Senate health care bill betrays the promise of fundamental "change" Democrats made during the 2008 election. It cloaks a handout to the health industry in the veneer of "reform."

Though it includes some positive subsidies and regulatory tweaks, the bill creates few mechanisms to halt premium increases, bust insurance monopolies and end price discrimination -- and it includes no public insurance option.

Read the whole story: USA Today

Comments

[Black Knight]

12:59 AM on 12/27/2009

At this point it's better to pass it just because if it's defeated, Republicans will be embolded and they'll be even more brasin in their obstructionism. Plus the ADHD and memory herpes of the American people will vote the Democrats out of office diminishing their majorities and making it harder to get a progressive agenda through congress. Worst Case Senario is a repeat of 1994 and hello hundreds of hostile investigations into the Obama Administration just like with Clinon.

It's a crappy bill, but it's a stop gap measure to placate the public in hoping we can secure the next election so we don't have to appease the Republican wing of the Democratic party which is what ruined this health care bill. Currently, 5 Republican seats are at strong risk (Alaska, South Dakota, Kentucky, Louisiana and Florida) While Colorado is on the edge for the democrats. While things may change, if we're able to pick up 3 or 4 seats, (And taking into account Lieberman's inevitable defection to the Republican Party)

Nullify that small right wing group in the Democratic Party, we can amend the health care bill before it's implemented to have a public option.

I'm kinda thinking that's Obama's gambit at the moment if we can still believe he's a chessmaster looking 5 moves ahead.

[iqfinsvcs]

08:39 PM on 12/26/2009

Just another seeming left-wing tea bagger who makes no sense whatsoever and who seems only interested in ginning up the left so that his posts could generate strong responses/comments.

This serves no useful purpose as it only helps to keep us divided. This is not the end of the world and we will live to fight another day. Lieberman and Nelson ain't voting for anything other than what's already on the table! Now let's move on to something more constructive, such as jobs, education, energy and financial reform. Enough already!

[iqfinsvcs]

08:51 PM on 12/26/2009

From OFA: But let's talk about what's really at stake for America. The Senate health reform bill will:

-- Extend coverage to 31 million Americans, the largest expansion of coverage since the creation of Medicare.

-- Ensure that you can choose your own doctor.

-- Finally stop insurance companies from denying coverage due to a pre-existing condition.

-- Make sure you will never be charged exorbitant premiums on the basis of your age, health, or gender.

-- Guarantee you will never lose your coverage just because you get sick or injured.

-- Protect you from outrageous out-of-pocket expenditures by establishing lifetime and annual limits.

-- Allow young people to stay on their parents' coverage until they're 26 years old.

-- Create health insurance exchanges, or "one-stop shops" for individuals purchasing insurance, where insurance companies are forced to compete for new customers.

-- Lower premiums for families, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office -- especially for struggling folks who will receive subsidies.

-- Help small businesses provide health care coverage to their employees with tax credits and by allowing them to purchase coverage through the exchanges.

-- Improve and strengthen Medicare by eliminating waste and fraud (without cutting basic benefits), beginning to close the Medicare Part D donut hole, and extending the life of the Medicare trust fund.

-- Create jobs by reining in costs -- fostering competition, reducing waste and inefficiency, and starting to reward doctors and hospitals for quality, not quantity, of care.

-- Cut the deficit by

[jadeba]

08:20 PM on 12/26/2009

What in the world makes anyone think anything different would happen if, and that's a very big if, the senate tried again with a new bill? Hello, the elections in 2010 will probably make it harder to get anything we want. I don't understand this thinking. After working on health care reform for a year - going through that thankless, painful job, no way the Senate does this again. Will the repubs suddenly realize they work for the people and a few break from their party's agenda to destroy the president? Will the Blue Dogs suddenly veer left? It doesn't make any sense to me.

[PoliticiansRspineless]

10:10 PM on 12/25/2009

Let the bill pass.....you can make tons of $$ investing in HC.....The bill is horrible but who cares if you can make a ton of $$...

[mama4obama]

10:05 PM on 12/25/2009

Easy to say start over when you are not a person with a pre existing condition that this bill will help. Easy to say when you are not one of the 31 million that this bill will cover thus moving us to 94% of Americans being covered. Easy to say start over when you are not a family that has had a family member die due to lack of insurance. While this bill does not have everything in it that I would like , it does have reforms in it and the notion we should start over because only the idea of a public option is true reform is ludicrous.

[Carol Snow]

10:40 PM on 12/25/2009

I'm definitely a Fan of mama4obama ! Thank you mama! You continue to inspire me!

[jmpurser]

11:16 AM on 12/26/2009

No, it's not "easy to say" when you're talking about admitting defeat for a 60 year goal. It's not "easy to say" when you and a lot of the people you know might be helped.

If you think any of this was "easy" then you haven't been paying attention.

[hellboundtrain]

03:56 AM on 12/25/2009

"We must coddle to the good people that write us our checks! Anybody would understand this."

Signed,
The Brave Legislators (Who Have Worked Diligently) That Have These Health Care Cos.and PHARMAS Back

[bsmithslo]

02:27 AM on 12/25/2009

When I go to the grocery store I buy quality food at an affordable price. This doesn't occur because the government provides food to people who can't afford quality food and it doesn't not happen with the lack of government cheese on the shelf. It happens because a regulated food industry that competes for profits in an open market wants my business. The profit motive has the effect of keeping quality up and prices down. Competition does this. There is no need for the government to provide an option if there is fairness in compitition in the marketplace.

[jmpurser]

11:17 AM on 12/26/2009

Actually, it does occur directly because of government "interference". Your ignorance on the topic doesn't change that one iota.

[iqfinsvcs]

08:43 PM on 12/26/2009

For people who are hungry and desperate any and all food is quality food.

[mooklyn]

10:57 PM on 12/24/2009

Folks, this may not be as bad as you think. It does not matter who enrolls you in the program and does the paperwork, it matters what the costs are and what will be covered.

I am self employed and my child is on state funded program administrated by a private insurer. I have to say the enrollment process was far better than my experience with medicaid and social services the previous year. Right now I pay a modest premium (one that I can afford). If that could be the case for millions of Americans, that maybe it isn't be so bad. I don't mind, with conditions, the idea of private insurers handling the administrative responsibilities with federally funded care as long as I have decent coverage at a good price. You must admit they do have a good incentive to administrate effectively since they have to compete- once you are enrolled, it is the federal guidelines that determine your coverage, not the shareholders of the managing insurer. I do not know the reasons, but where I am, social services is mismanaged and very disorganized. That could be by design of cynical politicians who deliberately underfund, or mediocre government employees with no incentive to perform, or both.

[jmpurser]

10:03 PM on 12/24/2009

As long as your for a "public option" you're against health care reform. Real reform means health care isn't "optional". You get it just because you're a citizen.

Quit buying into the scam. Support real reform.

[SmolderingRuin]

02:24 AM on 12/24/2009

As Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., recounted, the White House says "everything can be compromised except our ultimate goal of getting something done."

I love a man with principles.

[Philclock]

08:51 PM on 12/23/2009

What's your problem?

This health care monstrosity turns the health care industry into a regulated utility, close enough to a "government option" to keep most die-hard central planners happy, and takes it far out of the realm of an open or free market.

Real "reform" would open it up to patients driving the industry, instead of Big Insurance and Big Government third party reimbursers with their back-room payments and rationing of health care away from the patient. A good model would be Singapore, with its reliance on patients buying health care themselves through their Health Savings Accounts:

http://stossel.blogs.foxbusiness.com/2009/12/23/the-singapore-alternative/

[aonemandog]

03:44 PM on 12/23/2009

Not a surprise to anyone who is not too lazy to read. The American people are getting screwed again and our government picked the perfect season to do it. Most Americans get so wrapped up in Christmas that they don't pay much attention to anything else. So the DEMs push this stinker through in the wee hours of the morning. Well, my fellow americans, enjoy your new x-boxes, gucci's, watches and other Christmas baubles because soon, you will have to hock them to pay your MANDATORY insurance premiums to the very companies this bill was supposed to bring under control. Thanks Barack, Harry, Mary, Ben and all the others who put themselves and money ahead of the American people. Your day will come.

[rougebaisers]

03:43 PM on 12/23/2009

When grade school age children can pick this bill apart and label it nothing more than more for the very powers that have created the mess we are all in with our troubled and broken health care system...it is indeed time to stop coming to the cameras until you get it right. Of course that means no lobbyists, and no bribes and all the other stuff that makes Washington such a scary place to behold.

[pasko]

03:35 PM on 12/23/2009

If we're stuck with being mandated to buy from insurance companies, maybe the Repub idea of making insurance portable across state lines wasn't so bad...at least that would open up competition...just astounds me that these politicians insist on passing something that the public overwhelmingly abhors.

[lvdragonlady]

03:11 PM on 12/23/2009

The American people hear so much rhetoric about jobs, housing, health care, it is hard to muddle through it to find out what is truth and what is fiction. It is no wonder some dems are now 'supposedly" mad at OUR president and 'supposedly' not going to back him in 2012.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if, just for 1 day EVERYONE had to tell the truth?