Where in the World is Kathleen Sebelius?
Right now, the House and the Senate are about to engage in an epic battle on whether to include the public option in health-care reform or not. Or at least, we hope it's epic and that the House Democrats don't lie down on this.
Rep. Donna Edwards was on our show and told us that in her opinion the House will not agree to a bill without the public option. She said, "I think that there is absolutely a strong sentiment in the House of Representatives, frankly, that we will not get a bill through there if we don't have a strong robust public option."
Great. At least someone's fighting for real health-care reform. I know one other guy who's been doing his fair share of the heavy lifting -- Howard Dean. He's been on nearly every show (including ours) explaining what the public option is and why it makes sense. He's been an absolutely fantastic advocate for what appears to the Obama administration proposal. So, the question is -- why is he all alone out there?
I've seen a great variety of Republicans all over TV trying to bury the public option in an avalanche of lies. They continue to say, without a hint of irony, that the public option will be an inefficient government run bureaucracy and that it's so good that the private insurance doesn't have a chance to compete with it. Which one is it, boys?
So, where are the Democrats? Where is the Obama administration? Where is Kathleen Sebelius? Why isn't she on every cable show pushing for the Obama plan at the critical time when the public has to be won over? Why aren't there dozens of people from the administration blanketing TV to make their case?
Miraculously, a new NBC/WSJ poll indicates that 76% of the population is already in favor of the public option. Either people must love this idea or Howard Dean is the best one-man fighter we've ever seen (maybe both). But, of course, some Senate Democrats have already given up on the idea. Yeah, why would you support something that only 76% of the country is in favor of? Better to side with your Republican buddies in the Senate in the name of bipartisanship.
In reality, of course, this has nothing to do with bipartisanship. This has to do with the fact that a lot of the Democratic senators are also bought off by the private insurance companies. They don't give a damn how many Americans support it or how much sense it makes, they want to keep their lobbyist checks rolling in.
Now, the only way to fight against that is to have a president who is willing to unleash everything he's got to put enough pressure on these guys to do the right thing. Otherwise, of course, the lobbyists are going to win. This is the time. Send in the heavy hitters.
Don't get me wrong, I love that we don't have Tom Daschle as the Secretary of HHS at this point, given what we know about him now. What an unbelievable sell out that guy is. It would have been a disaster to have his spearheading the health-care initiative. So, I'm thrilled to have Sebelius instead, by comparison (although Dean clearly seems like he would have been the better option, as we said at the time). But she has to prove herself now. If she believes in the health-care reform she presumably helped to craft, then she has to fight for it.
Over the next couple of weeks, we should get to the point where we are sick of seeing Kathleen Sebelius on TV. Here is how the conversation between you and your TV should go, "Okay, okay, I got it. The public option is just a choice that the consumers would have. It would be cheaper and cover everybody. And if people don't like it, they could just stay with their own private insurance. There's no way to argue with it. I got it already, Kathleen!"
I guess 76% of the population supporting it isn't good enough for some of the Senate Democrats, so the Obama administration has to push that number higher until the Democratic senators cry uncle.
This is the test of whether Obama will actually fight for things he says he cares about, or if we will have four long years of capitulations disguised as smart, bipartisan compromises. Will it be politics as usual or will we get the real change we voted for?
Maybe we should go out and have rallies wearing green to get the results we voted for. If the Obama administration doesn't start fighting for real change, then maybe we have to start asking -- Where is My Vote?
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Where is Dr. Howard Dean? He is the only advocate for Americans. I would vote for him if he ever ran for Pres. again. He should be head of the HHS. Too bad if Rahm does not like him....I do, and that is all that matters. He would do a great job in health care and fight the Industrial Medical Complex, which is bleeding Americans dry.
power brokers like rahm emmanuel never like independent-minded people on their team, and howard dean is certainly one of those. someone on these pages made a good point that they'll rush to save unhealthy banks but not move forward for unhealthy people.
I've been waiting for universal health care in America since 1948. It doesn't surprise me that the opponents are pulling out every dirty trick from their immense store of dirty tricks to stop universal health care in the USA.
Kathleen Sebelius has gone underground because she knows single payer is the right plan and she is not allowed to say it. Hope she is able to recover the pieces from the train wreck coming out of Congress.
The Medicare system is the best tool we will ever have for building a single payer health care. If we destroy it with this public option plan, it will be years before we ever have a real health care reform. That is what the health insurance is paying our politicians for. The cheapest way to go is with single payer for everyone. The only ones that will lose is the insurance companies which will have to restructure the way they do business, and the Republicans because they did not do it first.
Wrong. I will lose because I will lose the healthcare that I now currently have for a sub-standard one. Do you honestly think the Government is in a positiont to run ANYTHING better than the privite sectore. Just look at the mess both Medicare and Social Security are in. How about we fix those first. And can't you just see the government dipping into the "Ins prem's" for a little needed cash elsewhere. Come on people, Obama's plan would only insure but 18 mil more people at the cost of everyone elses healthcare. Or, worse yet, the company I currently work for and many otheres, could simply just say we are not offering healthcare to our employees anymore, get the Obama care. The Obama Admin knows full well that this is the most probable outcome and so then they would get their long awaited National Healthcare. Just another step toward.....
A responsible conservative voice is necessary in our politics. It would function as a modifying force that would work to assure that change happens in an orderly, safe manner. Too bad what we have instead is this over the top, cliche spouting, know nothingness as exemplified above. The government "can't do anything right". This is just a sad little statement, based on fear, and is not only wrong, but an impediment to the proper functioning of our public services, because of its self fulfilling nature. Should private interests run the Army? How about the other armed services? How about the Department of Agriculture? Anyone for a little fecal matter in their food? Do you like driving on pavement? Or perhaps you'd prefer a dirt path? Nasa? National Center for Disease Control? Anyone for plane crashes? Let's get rid of the FAA! People spout talking points without a thought, don't they? Personally, I listen to both sides, and if I hear something I like, I support it. Unfortunately, some of us only listen to the propaganda. See above for an example.
The debate is not about health CARE, it is about how health care is PAID for.
Your health care providers will still be there. Your access will be freer, since they will be able to provide any service they deem necessary, with no insurance company second guessing their decisions. You won't get the bill directly and what used to be premiums paid by someone (you, your employer, your union) will now be taxes collected from every one.
What will be missing will be the outstretched hand of an insurance company, collecting as many premiums as possible and using 30%+ of them to keep from paying claims. The single payer, the Government, has no mandate to make profits or to deny health care to anyone.
Everyone needs health care, no one needs health insurance.
Isn't reverse psychology great? The Republicans say they are against the public option is so great the insurance company will not be able to compete against it ...gotta love it. The only way the insurance company could not compete is with single payer. The public option is what the insurance company wants because that would take the burden off and give them even more profits. Where else are the people with pre existing conditions, the poor, the ones that can't afford private insurance going to go when it is manditory for everyone to be insured. What is going to happen to Medicare when it is loaded with the sick, elderly, and poor people? We will just have to keep paying into Medicare more and more because it isn't going to be able to hold up under the weight. The Republicans will look like a better party because the Democrats are the ones that ends up breaking the back of Medicare. The republicans come out with a co op plan that is so blantant that you instantly know it is to push more profits to the insurance companies, raises taxes and really doesn't change anything, good plan to take the pressure off the republicans. Take single payer off the table by all parties, a plan that would threaten the insurance companies. Offer up two plans both of which benefits the insurance companies and choose the public plan a few yrs later the Medicare system will go down in total failure.
Mandatory insurance for all, was part of the idea in Massachusetts, that led to the Mass Health system. The way Mass Health works, is that if you're a Mass Health patient, the doctors continually lie to you and rip you off, so they don't have to float you any treatments or tests.
I have a crippling back problem: it's called ankylosing spondylitis. To get it diagnosed, when the pain started interfering with work, I signed up for Mass Health...
...it took me almost five years to find a doctor willing to send me to a rheumatologist or run x-rays. It was literally like being trapped in a Kafka novel... eventually, I married someone, who could afford better insurance - but insuring and treating me, has literally bankrupted her (us, I guess - now, thanks to the general negligence of medical professionals in Massachusetts, I may never work regularly again).
The moral of my story? Don't let them convince you to take one step further, in the direction of universal mandatory insurance. The poor in California and Massachusetts now, are suffering invisible health care holocausts.
I understand why Congress is waffling on the public option and totally agree with Cenk it's because they're being paid off. These are crooks we elected to represent us, whose health care we all pay for, BTW.... Yet 75% of Americans want (at the very least) a public option, so what has Obama got to lose by standing up for us and getting in their faces? He isn't worried about campaign financing, so why doesn't he act like our advocate, instead of standing on the sidelines and hoping Congress and the GOP will do the right thing for once. Fat chance. We get this, why doesn't the Prez?
Sebelius and Dean are great advocates and I appreciate their efforts, but the American voters have handed three quarters majority support to Obama on a plate. It's time he stood up and started acting like we F'n matter.
As a member of congress HST , who later became our president , introduced a biil for health care for the public and was all but placed before a firing squad . LBJ did get Medicare through and RR called it "socialism" . When a problem arises we always look for some one to blame for causing the problem or not fixing the problem . Astute people that have some knowledge of our constitution know that we have three EQUAL branches of government and if the congress branch decides after receiving a fat check from their friend the lobbyist that public wishes are dead meat and no other branch has the authority to do anything about it . Many of us have our reason for pointing a blame finger at the new president and in some cases he can look in the mirror and see why but if these remarks are to create a diversion then you have the right to do so . But if you really want a pubilc health care program as 76% of us do please aim your remarks in the same direction . At the people that make the laws and control the funding .
Don't talk Lobbistist!! Obama told great lies when he was campaining about no lobbyists in his administration. Look at his record so far. Ha Ha. He just tells you people one thing and then does another. You are blind to this as you want so badly for him to be your Allmighty. He just had to have 2 fundraisers in Washington because the lobbyists could not attend the first one. What a getaround that was. Open your eyes. Do not let the Government get ahold of our Healthcare. The public option is just the start of Nationalized Healthcare. What employer will continue to pay for prem's for its employees if they know that there is a "Public" option out there. Unless the government decides to punish those that drop their coverage for their employees, which would have to be the next step. I can just see it now, if an employer wants to fire a bad employee, the government would mandate that employer continue to pay for the health ins of the fired employee. This has happened in other countries, and as a consequence, there are a bunch of do nothings getting paid because the employer cannot afford to fire them and hire someone else. This is all a very slippery slop the Country is headed down.
The public option is just a choice that the consumers would have. It would be cheaper and cover everybody. And if people don't like it, they could just stay with their own private insurance.
Good words
Why would it be cheaper? We've been promised that the "public option" won't turn into single payer which means everyone can't sign up for it and we've been promised that the "public option" would "compete on a level playing field" which means it can't cost that much less than the private insurance.
The "public option" is a con job to talk people out of single payer. It keeps all the current prolbems and puts a new paint job on it.
You are absolutely right. If we compromise on a public plan we break the back of Medicare. Exactly what the republicans think they want.
It's cheaper for three reasons:
1 no multimillion dollar executive compensation packages. At the major insurance companies, as many as one of every six dollars paid in premiums goes for executive compensation (15%)
2 no marketing expenses. A significant fraction of insurance company expenses goes to paying the agents who sell the insurance, or the teams who put the package together for offering to employers (say 10%): and
3 no team of claim reviewers, rejecting claims and adding a cost burden to the whole medical care system. Medicare admin expenses are less than 3%, compared to 30% for the health insurance industry as a whole (net 27%)
Looks like the public option would be about 52% cheaper on day one. And there's nothing that would stop an employer from paying his employees fees under the public plan. So where's the problem?
76% for a public option, just like Medicare....If it is good enough for those over 65, it is good enough for the rest of us..
The private companies have never competed or we would have seen lower prices for the last 30 years...and they would have demonstrated that they are clearly better than Medicare..and they haven't.... WE CANNOT AFFORD to leave this industry in PRIVATE MARKET FREE MARKET oligarchs who have caused our healthcare in this country to go from #1 to #37....
First - stop watching television.
Second - read something,
THIS HAS BEEN A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT!
SOS.
Say anything to get elected, and do nothing once you have been.
The "reality" of our "corporate owned" politicians!
The "reality" of our "progressive" politicians!
I'm beginning to think the Obama administration isn't all that interested in the healthcare issue.
That became clear when they took Single Payer "off the table". That turned "health care reform" into a preemptive strike on the enemies of the health insurance industry.
That's because most people are happy with their insurance. They do not want single payer just to cover 45 mil or so uninsured. Why would we. You cannot throw the baby out with the bathwater. You all speak as though 76% of americans want National Healthcare and that is a crock.
What would make more sense - especially in these economic times - is to have a march on all city, county, township halls on the same day by all supporters. Pick a day and I will be there. I am laid-off and no way I can make a trip to DC.
I'm too sick to help...
"At least someone's fighting for real health-care reform."
Really? Who? Where? Certainly the number of people fighting for real health care reform in Congress is extremely low. I'd say one. Senator Bernie Sanders. He alone is fighting for Universal Single Payer Health Insurance run by the Government! Everyone else is "fighting" for corporate welfare at the expense of American lives and dollars we can ill afford.
If you're interested in REAL HEALTH CARE REFORM then please see Senator Sander's petition here:
http://sanders.senate.gov/petitions/index.cfm?uid=7fd59f2e-88e1-477a-8eaf-762a5b050809
Dennis Kucinich also supports health care reform.
There is a single-payer bill in Congress. If we could only get 218 Democrats out of 257 to sponsor it, it would pass.
It may not get past the Senate, but the Senate should be forced to at least debate it so the American people can hear them defend the insurance and pharmaceutical industries.
Corporate "owned" politicians will NEVER vote "against" their Corporate MASTERS, NEVER!
We MUST pass "Public" Campaign Finance Reform & Term Limits!
TO TAKE BACK "OUR" COUNTRY WE MUST TAKE THE MONEY OUT OF POLITICS!
Washington is the worlds most successful & profitable "brothel"!
Outlaw congressional corporate prostitution - NOW!
Well, finally something we can agree on. Term limits should be passed. We have far to many pol's that have been in office for more that 20 years. The problem is that people say they want term limits, but not for their guy or gal. They just want the other guy or gal outta there. Time to be honest and say they all go.
I can only imagine that she's not advocating because someone decided she's not very articulate about the topic.
I wondered the same. Why didn't we appoint Dean?
AnnfromCA I usually disagree with you on a lot of issues and I know you're not a big fan of President Obama but I do agree wit u on this 100%!
Also, Dean has already shown he's not afraid to fight.
He'd be willing take on the insurance and pharmaceutical companies if necessary.
He wouldn't throw away his political capital on this ineffective and pointless "new politics".
As if compromising with conservatives ever helped brings us Social Security and Medicare.
"Why didn't we appoint Dean?"
...Rahm.
The animosity between these two is well-documented.
No drama Obama cannot handle these 2 strong personalities..
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