Now that the public option is dead in the House, how can we bring it back to life?

[derby378]

Barring a miracle, the best way to start is by replacing compromise Democrats with the real thing - and replacing a few Republicans as well.

Down here in TX-32, Pete Sessions is facing a challenge from at least two Democrats, including Grier Raggio. It is my understanding that he favors a single-payer system. If we can replace Sessions with Raggio, that's one stepping stone right there:

http://www.raggioforcongress.com/

Any other candidates out there to replace the compromisers in the House? Let's collect them all in this thread.

[Ozymanithrax]

1. Where did you get that?

What I have seen is that a public option based on medicare did not make it, but there is still a public option in the house bill.

[tridim]

3. Straight from the ass.

Beware the lies on DU today, they're everywhere.

[derby378]

5. Then set me straight

Can my wife and I enroll in this public option or not? We're both employed full-time, but our insurance sucks - we can't even choose our own doctors anymore.

[tridim]

6. You said the PO is dead in the House.

It is not. Period.

[derby378]

7. If we can't enroll in it, then it is not "public"

We'll have to find another name for it.

[Ozymanithrax]

9. But you can enroll.

Read the bill: http://docs.house.gov/rules/health/111_ahcaa.pdf

Coverd in section 411.

But even if you could not enroll, it is a nonprivate government funded system which fits the definiton of public option.

[harkadog]

14. Fits your definition.

[RaleighNCDUer]

15. A public option that is restricted to a specific demographic is neither public nor an option.

I have decent insurance, as a state employee. If I cannot abandon that decent insurance to go onto the public option (not saying I would want to) it is not a public option.

How much worse is it for someone who has employer based insurance which SUCKS, and who could get better coverage at less cost with the public option, but CANNOT because it is not an option?

[joeycola]

18. a weak one-at best-has taken the place of strong, robust one. So, yes

to me it is dead.

[GreenPartyVoter]

19. It's dead to me too. Man, I can't wait to see what happens by the time a

bill gets to Obama. There will be nothing, absolutely nothing, worthwhile in it and yet people will be huzzahing over the amazing and brave healthcare "reform" that's being enacted. x(

[mvd]

21. Is there a provision that the PO will be expanded in a few years?

Or is the PO permanently limited to those who don't have employer-based insurance and have a low income? I'm still not clear on who exactly the PO covers.

[joeycola]

23. Year One is considered 2013, Year 2 is 2014...those eligible......

its from heritage but I have not seen the terms year1, 2 before. But makes sense since it does not even start till 2013!!


http://blog.heritage.org/2009/10/29/the-new-house-health-bill-latest-version-of-the-public-plan/

..............The New Bill. The merged House bill, as specified in section 302 above, makes individuals and employers with 25 employees or fewer eligible for the exchange in year one (2013), in year two (2014) individuals and employers with 50 employees or fewer become eligible, in year three (2015) employers with at least 100 employees become eligible but starting that year, the Commissioner permitted from this year forward to expand employer participation as appropriate, “with the goal of allowing all employers access to the Exchange.” In effect, the merged bill makes larger sized employers explicitly eligible and still turns over authority to the health choices commissioner to further open it up. The goal has been, and still is, clearly to open the exchange and the public plan to everyone.

[mvd]

25. Thannks; sounds like the later you get, the more open it is

:hi:

[joeycola]

28. But I do believe there is a limit on the number that can enroll even 10 years

down the line.

[derby378]

4. You cannot enroll in the option unless you are currently unemployed...

...or if your employer doesn't offer health insurance.

Someone on another thread has suggested that there may be a way around this, but we're still trying to chase that rabbit down.

[CTLawGuy]

27. in other words

if you don't have health insurance that is provided by your employer you can join the public option. Sounds reasonable to me. I mean the point is to cover people who DON'T have insurance, right?

[joeycola]

30. Enrollment is also detemined by income.

[derby378]

32. The point is to cover people whose insurance plans put them at risk

"Public" means just that - public. For the people.

[joeycola]

29. And it is also income related.

[Ozymanithrax]

2. Sorry, Duplicate

[kenny blankenship]

8. Just hang on. The system is in crisis and its demise is not far off.

All this will be revisited in 8-10 yrs. Healthcare Insurance reform regimentation will buy the racketeers maybe ten years more of subsidies and protection money, but it can't stop the collapse.

[GreenPartyVoter]

20. Hurray. Let's hope no one dies between now and 10 years from now, and that

the Dems have some sort of massive super-majority of progressives on the Hill and another liberal in the White House, because otherwise short of getting out the pitchforks, torches, and guillotines I don't see how we are going to get _real_ healthcare reform accomplished.

(Sorry. I don't mean to bite your head off. :pals: I just feel wicked bummed about the state of things right now. :cry:)

[kenny blankenship]

22. Lots of people will die in the meantime. Some people on this board certainly will have died.

I harbor no illusions about that - I KNOW I could very easily be one of those who won't live to see that day. But what can we do? Obviously help isn't going to come from the current bunch of thieves and shit merchants. They are buying time for a system a racket that should be repudiated, ripped out and replaced. They'll make their coin for their services no doubt, but the patch won't hold. (And I don't think they even care that it won't) Healthcare costs double every ten years. That's the part they won't touch. In another ten years insurance will be priced beyond the grasp of a majority of working Americans. Already millions are reduced to buying an insurance "product" that is hollowed out to ineffectuality for the sake of the insurer's profits. That's a "system" whose days are numbered. So we lose our "chance" today, but tomorrow they'll lose the whole game. They can't reform themselves, and they also can't allow outside forces to help them into rehab. It's a terminal condition: in time they will be destroyed, and they will have been destroyed by their own greed.

[GreenPartyVoter]

24. I hope they are crushed to death under their own weight.

[lamp_shade]

10. What? Did I miss something?

[joeycola]

11. Congressman Wiener needs your help on his single payer Medicare For All amendment.

For now. Lets start here.........

Forum Name General Discussion: Presidential
Topic subject Congressman Wiener needs your help on his single payer Medicare For All amendment.
Topic URL http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8715792#8715792
8715792, Congressman Wiener needs your help on his single payer Medicare For All amendment.
Posted by joeycola on Mon Oct-26-09 04:27 AM


Do it. Thanks.

Dear xxxxx

Congressman Wiener needs your help on his single payer Medicare For All amendment. I just got back from a conference in Boston where Rep. Wiener asked for help on two things:

First, and urgently, he wants people to contact Speaker Pelosi and ask her to keep her promise to allow a floor amendment and floor debate on a single payer amendment to the House bill. Although the Speaker promised such a floor amendment in July , there is a strong likelihood that she will back down on that promise in the very near future unless she gets a flood of emails, faxes or calls. So let's flood Nancy Pelosi's office with faxes like we did once before.

http://www.1payer.net/faxapp/senders/add/cid:40

Remarkably, Speaker Pelosi said in Democratic Caucus "If it were up to me, we would have single payer." Let's remind Nancy Pelosi with a flood of faxes: it IS up to her because she is the Speaker.

Second, Rep. Wiener asked that we flood our Congresspersons with calls and push them to support the single payer Medicare For All amendment. About 100 other Congressmen are solidly behind it now and even blue dogs are wavering, so Wiener thinks a push on Congress will help a great deal. You can send a fax supporting the Wiener single payer Medicare For All amendment right now. Just click here.

You can send a FREE fax to Pelosi very simply and easily.

Here is the link to the fax.

It simply asks Pelosi to keep her promise for a floor debate in the House. The Pelosi fax linked above is very important. You can also call her office at

202-225-4965.

Don't let her back down on her promise of a single payer floor debate in the House.

[fascisthunter]

12. calling attention to your post....

thanks for the info.

[joeycola]

17. :-)

[derby378]

16. Good one, thanks!

:hi:

[OHdem10]

13. Since they are uprooting the Medicare Advantage People, will those

were enrolled in Medicare Advantage be able to enroll in PO?

[joeycola]

26. Not if you are on Medicare (as far as I can tell).

[sofa king]

31. There are many ways to bring it back to life.

Off the top of my head, here are some ways to force a transition to single-payer:

* Favorable language can be inserted into either the House or Senate versions of the bill as a floor amendment;

* The bill can be substantially revised in conference, where the House and Senate bills are justified before the engrossed bill is published;

* Republicans can be locked out of the conference committee hearings, as the GOP did to the Dems in 2003, and a completely new bill can be agreed upon without GOP interference;

* An even dirtier trick is to simply publish a different engrossed bill which nobody approved; this also was done by the GOP in 2003-2007; it was thought to be a major constitutional violation, but in practice few noticed and fewer cared;

* An unfavorable bill can be passed, then amended with language later inserted into any other bill; typically this is done in appropriations bills, and this year the Labor/HHS/Education appropriations bill will be one of the last to be completed;

* A new bill amending the public law can be introduced and passed in the second session of the 111th Congress, starting in January, or at any time next year; all of the tricks mentioned above can be applied to that bill, too;

* An amendment can be further greased by revising committee assignments so that no committee or subcommittee which votes on the amendment has enough Republicans or shills on the committee to oppose it; floor votes can be extended to delegates from U.S. territories represented in the House to pad that end;

* A real filibuster can be played out in the Senate, rather than the pretend-filibusters now preferred; that filibuster can be run out straight through the holidays, if necessary; in practice, Republican Senators are absent from the Senate far more often than Democrats are, and none of them want to be publicly fingered as the guy who killed health care reform, as they would be in a filibuster;

* Broad language giving authority to the President to craft his own version of single-payer can be inserted, taking the decision away from Congress entirely.

All of those maneuvers have been pulled off successfully in the past, and there is no reason why they can't be repeated.