Right off the bat, I want to be clear: I support health care reform. I share all of the goals laid out by the president in his June 2 letter. I believe that every American should have high-quality, affordable health care. And I believe that reforming health care should be Congress's top priority.
Let me repeat that: health care reform should be Congress's top priority. We are not here to slow it down. That's the Senate's job. So don't believe the phony talking points that are being circulated that we're trying to "slow down the process." The process is already creaking under its own weight and we haven't even seen full bill text yet. Don't take my word for it; just read your own publications.
On the contrary, we are trying to ensure that reform actually happens. We are here because we see health care reform bogging down in the Senate, and we worry that the chance to achieve this great victory for the American people is slipping out of reach.
Here's why what's happening in the Senate worries me so much. If reform gets bogged down, it will have to go through the Senate's reconciliation process. This is not good news for supporters of health care reform. In fact, it's awful news.
Reconciliation is just what the trillion dollars of vested interests who want to kill health care reform are hoping for. That's because they know something that few people in Washington have figured out: the Senate's very restrictive reconciliation rules will prevent a true health care reform bill from passing.
Has anyone here actually looked at the reconciliation process and the Byrd rule? Every committee would have to report a bill that reduced the deficit by $1 billion in five years. It would have to be deficit-neutral each year after that. It couldn't include "extraneous" material -- like all the vitally important changes to our health care delivery system. Or, if we couldn't find the savings, our grand health care reform achievement would have to sunset.
In short, health care reform under reconciliation wouldn't be health care reform at all. It would be a deficit reduction bill relating to health care. Or a reform package with an expiration date.
And hey, you know me, I think deficit reduction is great. But this is about passing a robust health care reform bill. One that provides every American with low-cost, high-quality health insurance. One that focuses on prevention. One that keeps people healthy. One that gives them choices. One that modernizes our delivery system. And one that lowers cost. After all, the out-of-control cost of health care is bankrupting the American people.
Something major happened yesterday. Democrats and Republicans, working together, unveiled a bipartisan comprehensive health care reform plan. Tom Daschle, Bob Dole and Howard Baker did what Congress is failing to do. They met all of President Obama's goals, and they fully financed their proposal.
And the White House released a statement praising this bipartisan leadership. In the House of Representatives, meanwhile, we are explicitly told not to work with Republicans.
Now, my personal belief is that Congress could begin marking up the bipartisan Wyden-Bennett Healthy Americans Act right away. Smart commentators like Jonathan Cohn at The New Republic and Ezra Klein at the Washington Post have praised this bill. It's progressive, it's bipartisan and it's deficit-neutral.
All I know is that health care reform is on life support because the Senate can't figure out how to pay for it. Jon Cohn and Ezra Klein are worried. I'm worried. And I'm speaking out today because I've been through a failed health care reform process before. We can't afford to repeat those mistakes this year. Let's follow President Obama's lead and work together to finally provide health care to every American. And let's do it right now.
Remember this year is the 40th anniversary of when Medicare came into existence, what better way to celebrate than to do the right and civilized thing to extend it to everyone. Let's not play with people's lives anymore for the sake of greed.
Everything worthwhile in this country was accomplished with a progressive agenda.
Finance it by individuals paying in based on income, and TAX every fast food item, every food beverage with high fructose corn syrup and every alchohol bottle and glass ONE PENNY. This is not going to bankrupt any business or individual if you increase something from 1.99 to 2.00 or a bottle of vodka from 19.99 to 20.00 and anyone who says different is an uneducated idi ot. New Yorkers are paying 9-10 dollars a pack for cigarettes. It hasn't bankrupted them and it hasnt bankrupted the tobacco companies. Why can we tack on multiple dollars in taxes on cigarettes which kill, but not one penney on fatty and sugary foods and alchohol, which also kill or do great damage to health?
We need to repeal the bush tax cuts and tax these things and not be afraid of the rethuglicans. They will never support a tax increase, but if we get the american people behind a 1penney tax, they will see that it will benefit them and support it.
Tax now, public option now!!! And if a public option does not get passed, I want every senator and congressman and their staff to lose my taxpayer funded health care, since I can't afford any for myself.
One additional series of suggestions.... end the Iraq invasion that's costing us $720 milion a day. There's your health plan, Representative Cooper! And since the big banks would rather repay the TARP money than trim their executive compensation, let them! We can use that money on Main Street!
we need health care, not health insurance.
I pay for insurance out of pocket, a lot...
Too bad the health care it provides is very limited in scope and treatment modality, comes with a high gate fee and does not cover my entire bodys health.
I suppose I could shop around for a better deal...
WRONG!
I have a pre-existing condition and can not get coverage elsewhere.
The co-pays and deductables are astronomical and I can not afford to cover my whole family properly.
Pay more taxes ? I would be more then happy to send the absurd amount of money I am sending to the insurance company to an entity that would actually give me some health care.
I dont need health insurance I NEED HEALTH CARE.
The insurance I have is not providing that service in a reasonable fashion. I have no choices and I have been waiting for 2 years for an important piece of work to be done.
You and your peers are standing in the way of my family getting health care and that is unacceptable.
We really need SINGLE PAYER health care but if that is impossible a ROBUST PUBLIC OPTION will serve. Co-ops or 7 year triggers is patently unacceptable, we are talking about peoples lives here after all...
Please reconsider what you are doing because you seem to be intent on making an already untenatable situation much worse.
You want to find the money to pay for this?
1) Just so we're all on the same page, effective immediately, everyone in the house and senate can foot the bill for their own healthcare insurance; that should help a little.
2) GET PRACTICAL I: WARS cost money--stop fighting, bring'em home. Yeah there are problems with terrorism, but there has always been problems with terrorism. We're tired of fighting and we're tired of footing the bill for it--so just stop.
3) GET PRACTICAL II: Everyone in the House and senate can take a PAY CUT; just another drop in the bucket, I know, but every little bit helps.
4) Legalize marijuana & hemp farming: legalize it and tax it, and you will find significant revenue.
5) RAISE TAXES: yes, we know, that means the end of the world...NOT! A relatively small tax would generate a significant amount of supplimental revenue.
You people on the hill JUST DON'T GET IT: we know what you are all about. We know that the only thing that really matters to you is the crony capitalistic bribery you endulge in with the healthcare industry has greased your palm so that real healthcare reform will slip right between your fingers.
Get back to the hill and get busy, or get out of the way.
You really don't get it! WE DON'T WANT THE BILL YOU ARE SUPPORTING. We want health care reform- which means a public option.
And don't lecture me about "the perfect being the enemy of the good." This is NO GOOD. The "perfect" is SINGLE PAYER - the minimum is a public option.
So if reconciliation kills this bill, great. I'd rather you guys passed NOTHING, and then you won't be able to pat yourselves on the back for passing "historic" health legislation that no one wants.
I understand that Congress is far too afraid of the idea of single payor to actually attempt it. That's fine, I understand that the health care lobby has a lot of influence. What I don't understand is why anyone gives a rat's ass what the Republicans and so-called moderate Democrats want on this issue. It's really quite simple, they don't want it to pass if it means actually changing the status quo.
The other industrialized democracies have some form of universal health care, i.e. Canada, the UK, Europe, Scandinavia, etc. They spend less than we do and achieve better outcomes in terms of life expectancy, infant mortality and other measures of public health. If you are afraid of "socialism," then I guess we'd better start terminating all of those socialist interstate highways, police and fire departments, national parks, military units, water treatment districts, schools, the Veterans Administration healthcare system, etc.
In addition, for every horror story about some apocryphal patient in Canada or the UK who had to wait a year for elective surgery, we can probably list at least ten or twenty Americans who went bankrupt because of medical bills even though they had insurance. Remember this when the obstructionist talking points start getting too thick.
No, sir. No you don't. You serve interests other than those of your constituents. Shame on you.
Grow a pair and start representing the people!