Pelosi: The House Won't 'Force American Families To Negotiate With Insurance Companies'

[t0dd]

Source: TPM

Speaking at her weekly press conference just off the House floor moments ago, Speaker Nancy Pelosi made her most impassioned argument in weeks, for including a public option in comprehensive health care reform legislation, arguing against the idea, favored by some conservative Democrats, of mandating that people buy health insurance, and then throwing them into what she called the "lion's den" of the private insurance industry.

In so doing, Pelosi came closer than any member of the Democratic leadership has thusfar to suggesting that the individual mandate should be conditional on the inclusion of a public option. Pelosi declined to elaborate when pressed by TPMDC on whether Congress would revisit the individual mandate if the public option can't survive the Senate. But her implication was fairly clear.

The House, she said, "will not force America's middle income families to negotiate with insurance companies."

Health care experts agree that health insurance market reforms can not work unless everybody is in the risk pool--and that means a mandate. But privately, many activists and experts believe that a strong individual mandate is also a gift to the insurance industry, and that it should be used as a bargaining chip to secure other robust measures, such as the public option.

Pelosi declined to comment on the uncertainty about the public option in the Senate, but said her goal was to make sure that the House has as much leverage as possible when House and Senate negotiators meet to iron out differences between the bills.

"I want to send our conferees to the table with the most muscle for America's middle class," she said.

This is about going into that room and coming out with the best coverage and the lowest cost for America's working families. I believe that that is best achieved by going to the table with the public option. I believe that the arguments are very convincing, public support is there, and, by the way, the dollars. The robust public option that is being considered in the House saves $110 billion. How can you ignore that?

Pelosi said that House health care leaders will make a decision about whether to endorse a Medicare-like public option in "the next few days." In that time, the House will ask the CBO to evaluate the savings potential of three different public option proposals, and make a final determination based on the results.

Like a number of Democrats in the Senate, Pelosi jumped on the insurance industry's recent anti-reform actions, including a discredited AHIP report the industry propagated to raise unfounded doubts about the impact a health care overhaul will have on insurance premiums.

"Anyone who had any doubts about the need for such an option need only look at the...health insurance industry this week. They put out a report on health insurance reform--specifically addressed to the Senate bill--which has been totally discredited...and then later in the week, in order to change the subject I guess, they launched a more than $1,000,000 TV ad campaign to falsely tell America's seniors that they would be hurt by what happens to Medicare in the health reform bills."

Read more: http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/10/pelosi-comes-out-swinging-for-the-public-option.php?ref=fpa

[Zoeisright]

1. Stick to your guns, Nancy! We need you to be strong about this!

[Krashkopf]

2. Thank you Speaker Pelosi

Make a robust public option NON-negotiable.

If a bill comes out of the conference committee without a public option, the House should KILL IT and start over.

[liskddksil]

3. Pelosi is starting to sound like a leader

Reid.....crickets.

[pundaint]

55. +1

[Theodoregrey]

59. Pelosi should have been VP

Pelosi is actually more popular now that obama is in office

[qanda]

4. I'd rather go without insurance than to be at the mercy of insurance companies

I will NOT be happy with or vote for anyone who forces me to buy private health insurance.

[Iowa]

17. I agree.

We should ALL be able to dump the insurance we have and buy Medicare. And none of this several years down the road bullshit either... There's no reason they couldn't have that up and running in 6 months.

[barbtries]

31. i feel the same way

nt

[Theodoregrey]

60. agreed

the probglem with private health insurance is that it will have the same exact issues as previously

[zoff]

5. Do insurers think they can compete against a PO via a mandate?

1) Any mandate must only take effect when the PO is in play, to make sure the public isn't gouged for a few more years.
2) Better yet, no mandate and implement the PO like, yesterday.
3) PO premiums better be damn cheap and fee-for-service. No HMO crap. No national medical ID.
4) Government better not place an ex-insurance executive in charge of the PO. Kinda like Paulson running the Treasury; another fox in the hen house scenario.

[denem]

6. What has happened to 'off the table' Pelosi?

There seems to be a 'spine too' virus going round.

[Demeter]

7. She Wants a VAT

She thinks she can sneak in the most regressive tax in the world by giving us a nothing-burger of a "public option".

Medicare for all!

[denem]

8. Nonsense. But can you nominate

a few nations that have universal health care, strong welfare, but don't have a VAT or equivalent. Ultimately, how regressive the impact of a tax is what you do with the revenue.

[Demeter]

10. You Know EXACTLY What They Would Do With It

Shoot it up and blow it up in illegal wars and bail out Zombie Banks. Universal Single Payer will never get funded in this country under this or any replacement Congress, regardless of the tax scheme.

[denem]

12. I don't disagree, but VAT is the one tax, if quarantined, that could keep up

with the cost of medical expenses and strong welfare.

I share your pessimism about what Congress would do when it got it's filthy paws on the money,

[JDPriestly]

13. I would support a VAT that did not apply to food products other than certain beverages

It also should not apply to basic housing costs -- rent or mortgage or medical costs or services of any kind (because its purpose should be to level the playing field with regard to taxes on employers located in the U.S. and those located outside the U.S., i.e. so that people buying products made in other countries help pay the costs of the U.S. government when they buy those items just like they would if they bought items made in the U.S.).

Europe has VAT taxes and has had them for years. They encourage homegrown industries because the tax burden with regard to the VAT applies to imported as well as domestically produced items. The VAT is not regressive if it is accompanied by a strongly progressive income tax. Lower and middle income people could be given tax relief in exchange for the VAT. A person earning $30,000 only spends so much money on non-food items.

VAT taxes encourage people to save more.

[denem]

15. VAT does not tax goods for export. Add to that VAT revenue carrying the cost of health care

rather than business, particularly the businesses that export, and it become obvious what a millstone the US Health System is for all, especially manufacturing.

Services? Medical, financial services including mortgages, banking, rent, are generally excluded, as is basic food, but overall, services account for about half of VAT revenue. Keeping those chandeliers clean, the marble shining and the yacht ship shape costs a bit too.

[JDPriestly]

18. Thanks. Are you talking about the European VATs?

[denem]

20. Yes European VATs and the variants I am aware of, the GST , goods and services tax

in Australia and New Zealand operate the same way. The exemption on exports applies everywhere, even between one EU country and another. Imports are taxed. One outstanding feature is that where something is produced for export, like a car, all the input suppliers, like engines makers, steel producers get the VAT refunded in full.

The question that keeps cropping up in my mind, is why after a half a century of experience, can't the United States do it's Health Care better, learning from the short comings of other systems and trying for the best. One of the defects of most systems is to put VAT into general revenue, leaving it subject to budget priorities, read "reform".

VAT is such a money spinner, that putting it into a water tight security fund, could guarantee political free health standards, free that is of 'economies' that could be diverted to other priorities such as electoral bribes. Similarity, iron clad compensation for lower income earners, the unemployed, disabled and fixed incomes might be considered over time, WITH the VAT quarantined.

Taking revenue from an overspending culture of instant gratification, AND putting the income from imports to work for the people has much to recommend it. Yes I am a dreamer, but maybe not the only one.

[JDPriestly]

37. Interesting idea about keeping the health care revenue separate.

That could happen with a public option that included a government Medicare-type plan. It would just be a question of how the administration of the government Medicare-type plan was organized.

[Demeter]

9. Nancy Is Such a Comic

I've been "negotiating with health insurance companies" since I divorced in 1993. I never could qualify for full-time employment with benefits, due to a severely handicapped child. Sometimes I could afford to insure myself and 2 kids, sometimes not. The kids are adults. The disabled one is on full Medicaid since she turned 18. The younger has a crap policy for $105/mo. because she's not able to get work with benefits either in this bustling economy, but has no pre-existing condition. My policy is more like $350/mo. and I have no chronic illness and no surgeries ever, but that doesn't matter, I'm OLD (if 54 can be considered old, and evidently it is). And every year we change insurers, when the policy cost doubles upon renewal. This is what it costs for healthy people to have crappy insurance with massive deductibles.

It's a sick game. I'll probably qualify for Medicare long before this issue is settled satisfactorily. By the way, that's over 20% of my gross income each month.

[Bette Noir]

11. Oddly, while I was reading this post the phone rang.

It was the company that did an MRI on my back last month, the MRI that showed 5 herniated and one ruptured disks. The insurance company, which had already refused to pay for my therapy on the grounds that it was experimental (It's FDA approved, and has an 88% success rate), is now refusing to pay for the MRI, on the suspicion that I might have another health insurer who should pay.

And, under the Baucus plan, I'd be stuck with these vultures, without the option even of going to another, better, insurance company, let alone a Medicare-type plan that I could trust.

Excuse me, while I compose a letter to Senator Feinstein.

[truedelphi]

28. Remember to thank everyone who is on our side.

I seriously doubt that Di Fi cares one whit.

Our household has yet to get a response back from her re: anything we write. She even sent my husband a reply one time on how much she needed campaign funds when he inquired as to the chances of either of us getting a job as a results of the "Upperclass Tax giveaway and Shovel Ready job proposal" known as the "Stimulus Bill" (We are in our fifties and probably cannot physically handle a jack hammer.)

But when I call Maxine Waters office to offer my appreciation, the staff there is delighted. I don't think Maxine gets too many positive strokes (We aren't in her district, but my Congressman is a bit of a DLC centrist.)

And as a fellow back sufferer, I do hope you end up getting the help you need. The back is impossible to deal with - it's one body part that when sending out pain, affects a person should they sit, stand, lie down etc.

[hvn_nbr_2]

14. There's another name for a mandate without a public option:

Grand larceny of the American public, abuse of power, and robbing the poor to enrich the rich.

[mmonk]

47. Yep. An old fashioned stick up.

[JerseygirlCT]

16. I noted the huge marketing expense...

while they whine about costs and how they HAVE to charge exorbitant prices while offering as little coverage as possible...

Somehow, while there's not enough money to pay for the product people have bought, there's plenty for outrageous exec. salaries and monster-sized advertising and lobbying budgets...

[Overseas]

19. Yeah. I guess "Recision" a.k.a. Dropping Coverage

when those damn sick clients try to use it, has given them millions more to work with in making the case that they will take the best care of us all and we should fear those awful public options that Canadians and Europeans like so much.

Or maybe selling the new Dead Peasants' Insurance has provided the great marketing budget.


:crazy:

[Dinger]

21. Wow, What's Happened To Nancy??

She seems a bit different since the days of the giggling murderer.

[denem]

23. S1Me2 - the 'Spine Too' flu. Payola peddlers are working on a vaccine.

[LatteLibertine]

56. Bwhaha!

Great line :)

[rollingrock]

22. Empty rhetoric coming from her

'single payer is off the table' Pelosi

and my favorite Pelosi-ism: 'Bush impeachment is off the table'

[Vidar]

24. I hope she's right.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

25. ...but the Senate will.

:think:

[Shireling]

26. You Go Girl!!!

Show that you are True Blue :kick:

[Politicub]

27. Pelosi has been brillant about health care reform

Say what you will about her, but she was saving her mojo for this cause of a lifetime.

[cal04]

29. Pelosi Joins Fellow Democrats in Tough Talk for Health Insurers

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/15/AR2009101503112.html?hpid=topnews

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi warned insurance companies on Thursday that health-care reform could cost the industry dearly through new fees, fewer regulatory protections and fresh competition from the federal government.

The blunt admonition echoed a round of harsh statements Wednesday from senior Senate Democrats, and came in response to the insurance's lobby's aggressive campaign to block reform legislation from advancing. An internal industry study released earlier this week found that the Senate reform bill would cause premiums to rise sharply, but the report's findings have been widely disputed.

The tactic now appears to have backfired, as Democrats vow to redouble their efforts to crack down on insurer's practices. Health-care negotiators are working behind closed doors to merge different pieces of legislation into separate bills that are expected to reach the House and Senate floors next month.

[DireStrike]

30. She's doing... the right thing?

Sort of? Well this is progress. I guess pressure works.

[SandWalker1984]

32. Insurance companies never negotiate - they just dictate

Without a strong, Medicare-type public option available to ALL Americans, not just 5%, there should absolutely be no mandates to force us to buy private insurance from the very greed driven corporations that have run up their profits while denying care to their customers.

We should not be required to buy insurance from them or pay penalties, and then find ourselves having to take bankruptcy for medical bills later because the insurance companies will only pay 65% of what they consider customary charges, not actual charges for a major medical event.

Why can't Congress just simplify the entire process by giving all of us access to Medicare for say cost + a percentage to cover administration?

People shouldn't have to die so a CEO can have a bigger bonus or nicer corporate jet.

[mdmc]

33. hmmnnn

[xchrom]

34. you could promote and fight for medicare for all -- single payer? nt

[DesertDiamond]

35. Without public option, the idea we can negotiate with the insurance complanies is a JOKE

Exactly what leverage do we have if we are mandated to buy from them?? They would eat us for breakfast!

[Matariki]

36. I wish I could recommend this 100 times over.

We all need to contact our congress critters and demand they support Pelosi on this.

[BluinTX]

38. Yes!!!!

Love me this new and improved Speaker Pelosi. Go Nancy go!
:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[nvme]

39. Pelosi May yet earn my respect

This may be here defining moment as the speaker. The earlier moments have not flattered her. ie. patriot 2, telecom immunity. She can redeem hereself.

[unkachuck]

40. applause, applause!!....n/t

[moondust]

41. It seems pretty obvious.

The public should never be required to buy or subsidize something that serves to pump up the profit margins of private entities as long as there is a way to get the same thing done without the profit excess. In this case that's called a public option.

Good for Nancy!

[defendandprotect]

42. Nancy on the right side . . . . Go, Speaker Pelosi -- !!!!

[Kingofalldems]

43. But but the Blue Dog says the repubs are great and we should

do what they say and go to fundraisers with them and....

[rurallib]

44. I will call and thank her tomorrow

and call Reid again and ask him to lead.

[chadmak09]

45. if everyone is not eligible for public option, then we all lose.

If Insurance is mandated, and everyone is not eligible for the public option, then we have just been sold out to the insurance industry.
If government cant offer an affordable option, then mandating insurance is going to hurt us all.

This is what I see happening..

Health reform bill will pass with a weak public option that only those in poverty will be eligible for.
this will cause most of us to be forced to buy private health insurance from the very companys that are ripping us off, denying us care, and cancelling policy when you get really sick.
everyone will be patting thierselves on the back for getting a public option, but they wont realize that the insurance companys just got stronger and now have more money to lobby against the peoples best interest.

healthcare cost will still be #1 reason for bankruptcy, there will still be thousands people dying because of lack of healthcare, but now they will be taxed by the government for not being able to afford insurance on top of all thier sickness.

for gods sake i hope i am wrong about all this.
lets hope so.

[LiberalLovinLug]

58. you forgot one thing

The Democrats will be blamed for the big mess that will create.

The Republicans will get in promising to 'fix' it and President Palin will immediately de-fund what little public option was available.

Can enough Democrats realize in time that they have to go for broke right now. The only way they will be vindicated is going for, if not a Single Payer bill, then a strong public option that will directly compete with private insurers. This "i voted for it before I voted against it" mamby pamby politics will get them nowhere fast.

Rahm and the Blue Dogs you are backed into a corner. Swallow your pride and do the right thing for America. (We know you know how to swallow)

[valerief]

46. Thanks, Madame Nancy!!!

:applause:

[MannyGoldstein]

48. What?! A Democrat Acting Like A Democrat?!

Fantastic!

[theFrankFactor]

49. Pelosi Can Blow Me...

What, NOW she's all Rambo 'n shit? Stupid bitch was sucking her thumb for the last eight plus years. C'mon man! This WHOLE THING is a fuck job! Lowered expectations... lower, lower, lower, lower...

So, we might get a public option? Holy shit! A Democratic majority in the house, a Democratic majority in the Senate, a Democratic Executive Branch... Hmmm, nah, that'll never cut it. We have to ask Glen Beck who he wants fired, take out stuff that makes the tea baggers cry and bugs Sarah Palin and then run it all by Olympia Snowe, suck the Blue Dog Dick, see how much the insurance companies shove in the "Damocrats" pockets and then see if... oh fuck, you get the idea. Congressional Democrats and Barack Obama... what bad fucking jokes! Bad jokes that kill people. The war, the Patriot Act, what else?

[earcandle]

50. Nancy is waking up the dragon in her, and losing her gullibility, which was rancid.

[veganlush]

51. OK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!..... ....n/t

[New Dawn]

52. Forcing people to buy anything from a private company is fascist economics.

[bleever]

53. It's amazing when the best "framing" of an issue is stating the facts.

It feels like waking up.

[Suji to Seoul]

54. Nan, that growth you feel isn't cancer, it's called a spine.

Embrace it and thank you for beginning to wear your ovaries on the outside!

This is how you lead, Nancy!

[LatteLibertine]

57. I have to give

Speaker Pelosi props on this issue. That is if she doesn't fold or pull a fast one on us.

[BigD_95]

61. WOW!!!!

I never been the biggest fan but Thank you Speaker Pelosi!!!


Im becoming a fan now

[loudsue]

62. A mandate is TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!! How can the U.S. Legislature FORCE me

to buy insurance and SUPPORT the assholes who have been KILLING AMERICANS DAILY while facing NO punishment????

Are these politicians fucking NUTS???

[vaberella]

63. For all the Nancy haters...I hope you're eating crow. I love this woman.

And time and time and time again she's come through, this is just another example. Thanks for the post t0dd.

[Odin2005]

64. Can all the Nancy-bashers STFU now?

GO NANCY!

[Name removed]

65. Deleted message

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