Baucus Plan: One Trillion Dollars Plus Zero Republican Votes Plus Zero Public Option

The title of this post says it all. The Baucus Senate bill forces almost everybody buy ever expensive health insurance and provides no real market forces to place prices under control. Max Baucus has gutted health reform yet brings zero Republican votes to the table and zero savings to American taxpayers.

The Baucus bill is a monument to one the most mismanaged legislative efforts in decades. If Senate chairmanships were awarded based on performance and not doled out for surviving a previous generation Baucus would be fired.

The Baucus bill brings nothing to the table and we should all be singing the song of the great Billy Preston:

Nothing from nothing leaves nothing
You gotta have something
If you wanna be with me

I'm not trying to be your hero
Cause that zero is too cold for me
I'm not trying to be your highness
Cause that minus is too low for me

Nothing from nothing leaves nothing
And I'm not stuffing, believe you me

Don't you remember

I told you I'm a soldier in the war on poverty

Mario Solis-Marich can be heard on Am760 in Denver and at www.GotoMario.com Monday through Friday from 4 PM to 7 PM MT.

Follow Mario Solis-Marich on Twitter: www.twitter.com/marioradio

Comments

[Newsguy]

We ought to ask Baucus one more thing:

How do you sleep at night having taken $3 million in bribes from the insurance industry so far in order to screw up health care reform for every American, and at the same time enrich the insurance companies even more.

In case anyone needs proof that the insurance companies are greedy leeches on the back of the health care industry (apart from the fact that their CEOs take home millions annually), the industry is spending $1.5 million A DAY lobbying and bribing members of Congress, trying to ensure it will get a bill that benefits them and leaves us out in the cold. They have to money to do that because they are greedy leeches.

And Baucus' bill is just the ticket. For them, it is money well spent. They'll reap billions with a vast pool of new customers forced to buy their product at the prices they set.. Or else.

Such a deal.

[MeganTahoma]

I completely agree with this article. I can't see benefits. I honestly don't believe in the public option (which will give financial opportunity to employers who may cut insurance benefits for employees to keep a chunk of change in their pockets). But older people being charged significantly more than younger counterparts, required coverage, and better coverage for those who are self-employed, I cannot fully agree with. There is no way I can support this.

[TrekBear]

We all should, nay must, write to Sen. Baucus and ask him three things: 1) how will co-ops build economies of scale to get the best rates for their members. 2) If co-ops can't get economies of scale, how will they introduce effective competition into the health insurance market? 3) How will you address these issues in your legislation?

[Cosatjockomo]

As I said months ago - the democrats want you to think they are trying to do health care reform for the public's benefit, but they have no desire to actually achieve that stated goal. They just want the political credit for being "health care reformers" without actually changing anything substantially. The dems always lie about what they are going to do, and successfully get people to believe that's what they stand for even tho they never put their money where their mouth is. The republicans tell the truth about what they're going to do, they just lie about what the outcome will be. Wolf in Sheep's Clothing/Wolf.

[bigfro]

The problem is the republicans are worse.

[HeatherTahoma]

This isn't just true about health care reform. That's the way alot of politics are these days. While there are some politicians who really do care about the way America is headed, alot of them want the credit for saving the nation with the minimun amount of change. All the smoke and mirrors of the press cover up the true purposes and fine print of what's really going on.

[indy100]

You said it. Nothin from nothing leaves nothin!!

[mom2luke]

I wish Wendell Potter would get as much media time as Joe Wilson in healthcare debate. After going to a free healthcare fair and becoming so upset seeing people lined up and examined like cattle, he quit his job with insurance co. Cigna and joined the other side...exposing Health Insurance's systematic, unethical, immoral denial of care to even the "insured" being more concerned with reporting cost savings to Wall St. than healthcare to those whose premiums they collect...and the "fake" insurance they sell with high deductibles, long waiting periods, denials for virtually all claims. If you missed it, go back to 9/15/09 huffpost and spread his msg of the truth of how our system works for insurance industry...they are more concerned w/ profits than your health...it's what they get rewarded for...i just put it on my facebook page:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/15/wendell-potter-public-opt_n_287733.html

[Janelynne]

The Unted States is the only industrailized nation that tortures it own citizens with healthcare. All other wealthy nations and some not so wealthy ones provide universal health care with no caps, no rescision, no pre- existing, no profit for sharholders. Our country is having a unique struggle that asks which is more important: the people's health or the industry's profit.

If the fire department worked this way, it would not put out the fire if there were no smoke detectors; it wouldn't put out the fire if they didn't get golden parachutes, and they wouldn't save the people who were on the second floor.

BALK-US has created a valentine to insurance companies that insure profits as far as the eye can see, but doesn't insure health. This country needs a government option where competition will oppose the greed of for-profit instead of for-health. Which is more important, the people's health or the industry's profit? What kind of country are we?

[PeterNY]

Interesting analogy. Back in the eighteen hundreds, home owners and building owners on the East Coast purchased fire insurance and were given fire marks, which were signs that they posted on their frontage. The signs were little more than an insurance company's logo, but they indicated to the fire departments that they would earn a little something extra if they extinguished the fire promptly. If simultaneous fires happened (not an uncommon occurrence in those days of kerosene lamps), the fire department almost always chose to put out the fire in the insured home before moving on to the uninsured home—regardless of the fire's location or the potential magnitude of lives to be lost. These practices became outlawed in the progressive era. Moral of the story - we elected a progressive president. When are we going to have a second progressive era?

[tweedledeedumb]

When do the Dems. realize the Repubs aren't coming along so they can go to hell. When they criticize ask them for their ideas. When none are offered you don't give in and then ask again!! These guys should take some bargaining classes...assuming they actually want reform...which I think is the real question. I just quit giving money to the ACLU because they are defending corporate money in politics.

[PeterNY]

What is that old saying?

LIPSTICK ON A PIG!

[poaster]

This was like bringing home a report card from school and little Johnny got all F's on it. This process has been a colossal waste of time.

[arktig]

It's all a game. They know what they're doing - stretch the process and if they can't sell you out until 2010, they'll make sure the republicans get enough seats and together they will sell you out - while blaming each other.

[WalidMaaytah]

Just what exactly our wise senator took into consideration with this waste-of-time plan, other than submitting any thing, as long as it doesn't upset the industry's generous contributors to his campaign coffers. With Zero Republicans supporting this bill, why did, this supposed Democratic senator, come forth with such a joke of a bill, that fixes nothing that needs to be fixed, and to add insult to injury, it still gets Zero Republican support. I'm not upset with the Republicans, beside the loathing them part. I'm much more angry with these so-called Democrats, who acted worse than the Republicans. At least you know where you stand with the Republicans, but with these phony, pseudo-Democrats, you have no idea where they stand on anything. That's what you get when Dems get elected in conservative areas where they have to act more Republican than Democratic to get elected again.

Honestly, if I were Obama, I'd dump this whole idea, and if America doesn't want real healthcare reform, which is for their own benefit and good, then to hell with it, and let them bask and thank the Republicans for this situation - and let the damn chips fall where they may!!!!!!

[moesyzlac]

I am in the construction industry. It is overrun by illegals, driving wages down. I now work in a food processing plant, same thing. I really wish they would stop taking my jobs away from me for less money, but since they are human and only trying to make a better life for themselves, I think they should be entitled to health care for them and thier children, in any country, even this one. One caveat though, is that I should also be eligible for that same health care. And unless the Democrats, starting with the big O grow a pair, none of us, illegal or not, will have it.

[capitaldysfunction]

Legislation that doesn't address the main issues (cost and cost containment) only brings ridicule from the "I told you so!" Republicans in the next election. Clearly the Baucus bill does not look at what families are going to face when they see the price tag, and the price increases, of the Private Health Insurance Baucus Bill. Take a quick stroll through a new car dealership to get an idea of the sticker shock people are going to face when they visit the available insurance plans. Without a Medicare For All public option plan to counter this price gouging, Democrats are going to be left holding an untenable and unaffordable health care bill to defend in the next election. With Medicare premiums running about a hundred dollars a month, and private insurers charging hundreds monthly for their plans, some of the uninformed tea baggers might want to take a second look at the government public option.

[PhilipTaylor]

Summary of Baucus Bill: Time to IGNORE SENATE FINANCE COMMITTEE!

$TRILLIONS IN PROFITS TO INSURERS WITH 30 MILLION MORE V1CT1MS!
Higher Costs for Middle-Class!

1. Insurers can charge older people 5 X more for insurance than younger people
2. NO Public Option- instead 50 state Bureaucrac­ies/Cooper­atives
3. Requires most people to purchase insurance coverage or pay fine starting in 2013
4. 13% of Income or $700/month for a family making $65,000 taken from PAYCHECK
5. Steep fines for NOT having Insurance of $3,800/family or $950/individual
6. Insurance to only 29 million Americans or 94% instead of ALL AMERICANS!
7. $Trillions MORE to Insurers and a SAD $6 Billion/Yr fee on health insurers.
8. Co-ops share data systems but can't pool negotiations to get better pricing
9. Places Medicaid limits on patients' yearly health care costs - Why?
10. Plan cost offset by $507 Billion cuts to gov. health programs+$349 Billion Tax/Fees
11. People insured through large employers lose some benefits to pay for Plan cost
12. Full costs of their health benefits will be reported on employees' W-2 tax forms
13. Prohibiting insurers charging more to people with more serious health problems
14. Exchange for consumers top shop & compare insurance plans
15. Tax on high-end plans plus fees charged to insurance&medical device Cos
16. Insurance more affordable to self-employed people plus small companies,
17. Lets cuts in Medicare payments to doctors start in one year saving $100 billion

[apduncan1]

The bill was written a while ago. Baucus just played cards with the other nincompoops and presented this piece of crap.

Thanks a lot Montana! Is this the best you can send to Washington, DC?

[arktig]

the other 4 bills aren't better. It's a party strategy. Obama's on board. Watch his speech.

[RegDame]

The other problem in this mess is that Baucus and his raucous caucus chewed up critical months of time! He is a total sellout. With Democrats like him, who needs Republicans? The Repubs are laughing all the way to their banks as well, in addition to the payoff Baucus got from the insurance bigboys. This may well be sunk for the year; revival of any good ideas will be mighty tough sledding. I hope Pelosi can rouse the House, and then get some push into the inevitable conference committee. I know six senators who had better not be named to that committee, including snow-job Snowe.