Obama's Health Reform Waterloo

[billyoc]

The Obama administration and the Congressional Democrats are finally hitting the inevitable wall that was bound to confront them because of the president's congenital inability to be a bold leader, and because of the party's toxic decades-old decision to betray its working class New Deal base in favor of wholesale corporate whoredom.

The wall is health care reform, which both Barack Obama and the Democratic Party had hoped would be the ticket for them to ride to victory in the 2010 Congressional elections and the 2012 presidential election.

But you cannot achieve the twin goals of reducing health care costs and providing access to health care to 50 million uninsured people, while leaving the profit centers of the current system--doctors, hospitals and the health insurance industry--in charge and in a position to continue to reap profits.

Watching President Obama address the American Medical Association was a cringe-inducing experience as he assured the assembled doctors he was not going to expand Medicare payments "broadly" to cover all patients, or end the current "piece-work reimbursement" system that has so enriched physicians, or as he told them that savings would "not come off your backs." It was particularly cringe-inducing when he told the AMA that he knew that making money was not why its members were in the profession, saying, "That is not why you became doctors. That is not why you put in all those hours in the Anatomy Suite or the O.R. That is not what brings you back to a patient's bedside to check in or makes you call a loved one to say it'll be fine. You did not enter this profession to be bean-counters and paper-pushers. You entered this profession to be healers--and that's what our health care system should let you be."

...

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/06/21-1

[lunatica]

1. Every doctor I've talked to is for Single Payer

But then, the doctors I talk to work for Kaiser Permanente who sure aren't making them rich and actually send out a questionnaire to all patients after their doctor visits asking them if they're satisfied with the doctor's care. But they sure have to fill out a mountain of paperwork in every single patient. I just had a pre-surgery physical in which I was seen and tested and questioned by 4 different people. Each one filled out three to five forms while talking to me.

[sisters6]

2. I thought there was a paperwork reduction Act that

was suspose to cut down dramatically on the paper--and save trees? But I really have not kept up on the outcome.

[AllentownJake]

3. party's toxic decades-old decision to betray its working class New Deal base in favor of wholesale c

They made a smart decision.

Where was that base going to go...the republicans...oh wait they did during Reagan.

[TomCADem]

4. Totally False - President Obama Is Pushing Healthcare Against Advice Of HIs Advisers

Early on, the pressure inside the White House was for President Obama to focus his resources on fixing the economy, rather than healthcare. The fear was that with the economic downturn, the stimulus, and the wars, the U.S. auto industry, this was not the ideal environment to push for a revamped healthcare system. The article is totally backward in that the smart political move would have been to duck the healthcare issue, blame the economy, and focus on lower hanging fruit.

My personal take is that President Obama may be letting his emotions about the death of his mother and grandmother to cancer cloud his political judgment in pushing healthcare.

[emsimon33]

8. Can't fix the economy if we don't fix healthcare--very simple

However, the fix that Obama and the Democrats want that will keep their wealthy corporate donors rich and getting richer and will NOT fix anything but only make it worse.

Obama may harbor some frustration over what his mother experienced with her health insurance company, but what is driving him is loyalty to making the rich get ever richer at the expense of the many.

[TomCADem]

9. Remember The "Obama Is Doing Too Much" Talking Point - Is President Obama Politically Stupid?

This talking point was based on the notion that President Obama was making a grave political error by trying to pass too many initiatives in his first few months of office. This resulted in stories showing that the healthcare push was coming from President Obama himself against the advice of some of his advisors who favoring a more gradual approach.

Now, if "what is driving him is loyalty to making the rich get ever richer at the expense of the many," then President Obama is not that smart, because he clearly missed the out card offered by the economy. As noted during debates about the doing too much talking point, President Obama could have easily ditched healthcare reform based on the economic crisis, and the insurance companies would have loved him as based on his desire to make "the rich get ever richer at the expense of the many."

So, accepting your premise that President Obama wants to make "the rich get ever richer at the expense of the many," then he is acting in an idiotic manner. Wouldn't you agree? Why get the left excited by pushing a public option when President Obama secretly wants to make "the rich get ever richer at the expense of the many"?"

A better approach to make "the rich get ever richer at the expense of the many" is to delay healthcare reform due to the economic crisis, and no one would have really second guessed him, and he would not have had to deal with the flack about trying to do to much.

What do you think? If President Obama wanted to make "the rich get ever richer at the expense of the many," don't you think President Obama would have been better served to delay the whole idea of health reform based on the crisis?

If President Obama is just a corporate whore, then he is a stupid one.

[ProSense]

5. Good grief.

:rofl:

[babylonsister]

6. Lindorff is best when he's angry. He was great when he had

a valid target, now, not so much. But bravo for his efforts. Except he doesn't have a pov. He's writing what will get the most bang for the buck.

Fuck him.

[cliffordu]

7. I completely agree. We are screwn. Again.

I don't know what to do about any of this. I REALLY thought we had something here with the numbers in congress and Prez Obama.....


The cowards in the Democratic party all need to be primaried. Or some fucking thing. I'm all out of ideas.

I'm also very, very, tired of the status quo.

Thinking expatriation again.