Tom Daschle: Public Option Killed By 'Understanding' Between Legislators, Hospitals, Insurers

Wonk Room:

In his book, Daschle reveals that after the Senate Finance Committee and the White House convinced hospitals to to accept $155 billion in payment reductions over ten years on July 8, the hospitals and Democrats operated under two "working assumptions." "One was that the Senate would aim for health coverage of at least 94 percent of Americans," Daschle writes. "The other was that it would contain no public health plan," which would have reimbursed hospitals at a lower rate than private insurers.

Read the whole story: Wonk Room

Comments

[Vernie31]

11:01 AM on 10/06/2010

Tom your very complicated and convoluted relationship with the Insurance industry did not BREED strong confidence in your Leadership in moving any part of this BILL forward. YOU would have done the PRESIDENT and his supporters as well as Americans by being an HONEST BROKER and refusing the position.

But to bolster your future political STOCK which s is currently Below zero, You threw all of us under the BUS by stepping in and confusing the subject matter even more with your duplicitous actions. Then being forced to resign due to the many questions raised by your relationships. I doubt very seriously that was not the only Torpedo to the public option. By the way...Thank you FOR NOTHING!

[RasputinsLiver]

10:56 AM on 10/06/2010

Ha! Jake Jarmel!

Uhoh...just saw somebody go by with the same glasses, Jake!

[TremoluxMan]

10:28 AM on 10/06/2010

You can wrap this dead fish up in whatever pretty paper and ribbons you want, Tom, but there's no way to kill the stink.

[playnotwork]

10:24 AM on 10/06/2010

You mean instead of doing what was best for the American people, our government catered to special interest groups?

I am flabbergasted at this revelation.

[uglygnome]

09:12 AM on 10/06/2010

The public option was killed by Tom Daschle, health insurance lobbyist extraordinaire http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/25/how-tom-daschle-lobbies-i_n_367634.html

never trust a man wearing Sally Jesse Raphael glasses

[halconnoche]

09:55 AM on 10/06/2010

Seriously, who told him those glasses looked good.

[Craig 212]

10:31 AM on 10/06/2010

David Letterman.

[RandVictims]

08:55 AM on 10/06/2010

Yawwwnnn!!

duh

[Miles J. Zaremski]

08:22 AM on 10/06/2010

The few snippets revealed here from Daschle's new book surely indicate that to keep the "stakeholders" in health care at the table, the American public and its goal of having health care affordable for all went down the drain. And, as we see now, and certainly will continue to see in the future, the cost for health care keeps skyrocketing. It thus remains a "pipe dream" that health care be a right for all Americans, as it is viewed by nations overseas. Concomitantly, what is sad in a very real way is that Obama backed health care for all, yet gave up on wanting to create real competition to the private sector in order to keep them in the "game". It is a good bet that how the administration played its hand on health care "reform", at least according to what Daschle says in his book, will play out at the polls come the mid-term elections next month.

[SEQUOIABISON]

08:15 AM on 10/06/2010

Revisionist History.

Daschle fails to mention; that on the way to creating a Healthcare System that included a Public Option, the president ran into a few obstacles; Blue-Dog Senators taking huge bribes (donations) from the healthcare providers.

To fault the president for not being able to get a public option through congress because he really sided with the hospitals and made some backroom deal with them is totally misleading disingenuous nonsense.

Obama in an open letter to Ted Kennedy and max Baucus:

“I strongly believe that Americans should have the choice of a public health insurance option operating alongside private plans. This will give them a better range of choices, make the health care market more competitive, and keep insurance companies honest.” June 2009.
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/obamaforamerica/gGGGpK

“Obama Supports Public Option In Speech”
"I continue to believe that a public option within that basket of insurance choices will help," Mr. Obama said July, 2009

If Obama is in the pocket of the healthcare industry, why are they sending their donations to the republicans?

“At the height of the intense partisan debate that erupted in August of 2009 over health care reform, the partnership between Democrats and the industry broke down.

That turning point also marks the point at which the industry began consistently donating more to Republicans than Democrats, Politico reports. In the two years prior to that point, Democrats had reportedly received the bulk of the industry's donations.”

[TheBaffler]

09:15 AM on 10/06/2010

Thanks for the revisionist history.

[Drjimmy72296]

02:51 PM on 10/06/2010

He could have passed it through reconciliation and the conservatives wouldn't have been an issue.

Whether he could have gotten 60 votes we'll never know. He didn't try because he cut a crooked deal and the goal was legislation that the hospital, insurance and PhARMA people could live with.

The President has a lot of power when he throws his full weight behind something. He didn't lift a finger on health care. Didn't twist any arms. Didn't threaten any conservative Democrats the way he does with liberals who don't want to vote to fund his Pakistani drone war.

Instead, he went out and campaigned for people like Lincoln who killed the public option.

He may be better than the alternative, but he's still a liar and a fraud.

[UpNorthGuyWI]

07:39 AM on 10/06/2010

Dashle is very similar to Al Gore. Pretend liberal who is all about making millions on some issue that they are trying to FORCE on the American people. A big fraud.

[jwredd]

08:53 AM on 10/06/2010

Forcing healthcare on the American people? That's mean and fraudulent.....

[Suzanne525]

09:24 AM on 10/06/2010

Debatable whether their agendas are all about personal wealth, but each and every day, I would choose forcing heathcare for all and preserving the planet over what the Repubs force on us for personal gain.

Chainey & Boosh funneled billions to their pals with the wars. Surely some of that comes back to them.

So, kil_ling and bom_bing for profit or healthcare for all for profit? Which do you choose?

[MaybeMilo]

07:31 AM on 10/06/2010

Ack!

Horrible frames.

[UpNorthGuyWI]

07:40 AM on 10/06/2010

Actually perfect for him. He looks like a wimpy liberal girly man.

[edwcorey]

10:12 AM on 10/06/2010

There is nothing more wimpy than a conservative. Conservatives fear progress, open thoughts, homosexuals, minorities, a world without biblical injunctions, the future, immigrants, science, knowledge, peace, sex, truth, justice, equal opportunity, and a host of other policies that make life better for society and the individual. They fear bucking their party line, even when they know it's wrong, hypocritical or unethical.

[MNmommy]

07:28 AM on 10/06/2010

This isn't "news" to anyone is it?

We knew this.

Anyway, those of us that had removed our rose colored glasses.

[bassfishingchief]

04:20 AM on 10/06/2010

Treason: 1. betrayal of country: a violation of the allegiance owed by somebody to his or her own country, e.g. by aiding an enemy.
2. treachery: betrayal or disloyalty
3. act of betrayal: an act of betrayal or disloyalty

I think this sums it up.

[realitybase]

02:40 AM on 10/06/2010

I'm seeing red.

[ahjuci]

02:34 AM on 10/06/2010

The big American sellout continues....

[ncmom54]

02:30 AM on 10/06/2010

"A half-truth is the most cowardly of lies."
Mark Twain