"Remove Senator Baucus from health care reform, move it out of the Senate Finance Committee"

[Better Believe It]

Max Baucus Should Not Be Deciding Health Care for America
The “Senator for K Street” is Putting Campaign Donor Profits Ahead of the Basic Needs of the People
by Kevin Zeese
31 May 2009


Senator Max Baucus and the Senate Finance Committee are too corrupted by corporate health industry profiteers donations to give America the health care policy it needs.

Health care is 15% of the U.S. gross domestic product. U.S. health care expenditures, which have been rising rapidly for several years, surpassed $2.4 trillion in 2007, more than three times the $714 billion spent in 1990. The cost of health care is projected to reach $4.4 trillion by 2018. There is a lot of room for corporate profiteering in the increasing cost of health care. The millions the health care industry has invested in Baucus and the Senate Finance Committee could therefore turn out to be very profitable.

It is evident that any bill that comes out of the Senate Finance Committee will be a pro-industry bill that will ensure trillions in profits for the health insurance industry, HMOs and the pharmaceutical industry.

Baucus has held two hearings so far and has refused to allow advocates for the most popular reform—a single payer national health policy—to even testify. Single payer "improved Medicare for all" is favored by more than 60% of Americans as well as majorities of doctors, nurses and economists. It is the most cost-effective and efficient way to provide health care to all Americans from cradle to grave.

Why aren’t single payer advocates allowed to testify before Baucus’ committee? Follow the money. Campaign donations explain why, and demonstrate that the Senate Finance Committee should not be in charge of health care. Senator Reid should remove the health care reform bill from Baucus and start all over before the Health Committee in the Senate.

It is time to remove Baucus from the leadership of health care reform. It is time to move the critically important priority of reforming America’s health care system from the Finance Committee and put it before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. At least their mission is health care, not money.

Please read the complete article at:

http://baltimorechronicle.com/2009/053109Zeese.shtml

[L. Coyote]

1. Sen. Max Baucus, Top Contributors, opensecrets.org

Sen. Max Baucus, Top Contributors, opensecrets.org

2008:
Pharmaceuticals/Health = $852,813
Health Professionals = $851,141
Insurance = $784,185
Lobbyists = $470,774
Hospitals/Nursing Homes = $466,826
Health Services/HMOs = $465,750

Top Contributors, opensecrets.org /politicians/summary
Out of State = 90 percent
NY = $845,542
DC-MD-VA-WV = $757,634
LA LA = $267,500
SAN FRAN = $227,400
CHICAGO = $162,000
59601 (HELENA, MT) = $49,106
90210 = $44,100

[kid a]

4. Those stats...

I'm forwarding them to the Billings Gazette and posting a thread over there about where his loyalties are.
I'd like to take him on in MT, but with that kind of money coming in from everywhere BUT Montana, it would be close to impossible.

[L. Coyote]

6. 2014 is when he may run again.

[FreakinDJ]

2. The Guy needs an UnEmployment check

[SpartanDem]

3. The good news is this already happening

the health care committee is taking up it's version of the bill this week

[Hieronymus]

5. Schumer signed on to not exclude pre-existing conditions... screw Chuck.

[CTyankee]

7. what did schumer say was his rationale for this?

i can't understand why he would do this. it was part of obama's health care plan during the campaign. schumer is a dem, this was our dem prez candidate's plan? what happened?

[bornskeptic]

8. Does that apply to Howard Dean too? He supports Schumer's plan,

whatever it is.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/29/dean-offers-support-for-s_n_209129.html

I've seen the claim that Schumer supports allowing insurers to discriminate on the basis of pre-existing conditions several places on DU, but no links. I find it hard to believe that any Democratic Senator holds this position, since even the insurance industry proposal would not allow such discrimination.

We are proposing to combine guarantee-issue coverage with an enforceable individual health
insurance requirement and premium assistance to make coverage affordable, while eliminating
preexisting condition exclusions and eliminating rating based on health status in the individual
market.

http://finance.senate.gov/Karen%20Ignagni.pdf

[kenfrequed]

9. As much

Of a fan I am of Dr Dean I would say Yes. If he is signing onto this corporate welfare boondoggle and give away to the inusrance companies to play these games while taking public money, then he needs to sit down.