Did Obama snub Dean because Dean would NEVER cave to Zeke Emanuel's plan to PRIVATIZE MEDICARE?

[Faryn Balyncd]

Has anyone else started to feel a slightly sickening feeling regarding the health "summit", and what sort of "reform" may be in the making?





The man rumored as possible "Healthcare Czar" Zeke Emanuel, opposes Single Payer, and proposes a voucher system of mandated insurance which would "phase out" (i.e. PRIVATIZE) Medicare for future retirees.


Supporters of Single Payer Healthcare-for-All have been conspicuously NOT INVITED to the upcoming Health Summit.


A voucher system would transfer the problem of uncontrolled health costs from the federal government to individual Americans, who would be mandated to purchase one of the offered private policies. Not only would younger Americans not have the option to "buy in" to Medicare, but FUTURE RETIREES WOULD NOT HAVE THE OPTION OF MEDICARE. That is correct. Medicare would be PRIVATIZED. Whatever you want to call it, there would be NO PUBLIC OPTION.


Howard Dean has unequivocally stated that any healthcare "reform" will rise and fall on the basis of whether or not the public is allowed to opt in to Medicare. For Howard Dean, the preservation of the public option, which Zeke Emanuel's plan EXCLUDES, is essential:

"If Barack Obama’s bill gets changed to exclude the public entities, it is not health insurance reform…it rises and falls on whether the public is allowed to choose Medicare if they’re under 65 or not. If they are allowed to choose Medicare as an option, this bill will be real health care reform. If they’re not, we will be back fighting about it for another 20 years before somebody tries again."

- Howard Dean


http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2009/02/24/dean-public-option/

When drug companies were allowed to write the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit (and obstruct the re-importation of American made drugs that were sold in Canada at a better price negotiated by the Canadian government), what, besides skyrocketing drug prices, did we get?

When Dick Cheney, Ken Lay, et al were allowed to make energy policy, what was the result?

When corporate welfare queens on Wall Street were allowed to design their own bailout, what, besides million dollar bonuses, did we get?

Was Howard Dean snubbed because he knows what is ahead for Americans if so-called healthcare "reform" is written by insurance, hospital, and pharmaceutical lobbyists?

Because he knows that prices for these private insurance plans will rapidly surpass any voucher? And that Americans forced to buy insurance will be in no position to negotiate fair prices with the insurance companies that were too powerful for even the head of HHS?





Would not a system of vouchers and mandated insurance be an insurance CEO's wet dream?





Is it possible that our Democratic administration may bring to pass what Bush & Cheney would NEVER have been able?


That a Democratic president & Congress may bring about not only Massachusetts-style mandated insurance, but the PRIVATIZATION of MEDICARE?


Is all this just a bad dream?


Is this really possible?






:kick:

[FLAprogressive]

1. Zeke's little (and I mean that literally) brother Rahm wouldn't want a non-corporatist in!

[Captain Hilts]

2. It's the president's call. And his call alone. nt

[Occam Bandage]

3. I think he didn't pick Dean because Dean wouldn't go along with Rahm's plans for a second Holocaust.

Rahm is the source of all evil in the world!

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

9. How could there be a second one when the first one never happened? n/t

[FrenchieCat]

4. I'm getting a sickening feeling that, as usual, there are some

who are bringing their Dark Cloud to an undertaking that is just getting started,
and those folks are creating a boogieman, and like some did with Bill Ayers, have replaced this person to be a body double to Barack Obama, as though this is the person in charge.

Last I checked, this Boogieman, Zeke Emanuel, was not in charge of anything dealing with health care, and is only one of many Presidential Advisor on the issue.

Citing Howard Dean as saying.....IF Barack Obama’s bill gets changed...
doesn't translate into this "Sky is falling" overeaction.

This chicken little shit is starting to get on my nerves. :eyes:

[napi21]

5. The way I read Obama's plan is to allow public policies for those who

want them and the ability to buy into medicare for those who want that. I think the idea is that after time, when friends & neighbors compare what they're paying with their private policy with others who subscribe to medicare, the medicare subscriber portion will grow and the private side will shrink.

It would be impossible to coldly jump into a universal HC plan only right now. Not only Conggress but the American people are too afraid of that drastic of a change all at one time. You can usually convince them to take baby steps, but never to jump into the poll in the dark.

As much as I love Howard, he would have had a very difficult time with congress. He has remained an outsider and they just never liked him!

[SmileyRose]

11. That's how I read it too.

Medicare recipients already have a choice between assigning their benefits for private managed plans and standard Medicare. Supplementals are allowed.

Basically, Obama is giving us medicare for all but calling it by a different name. Giving us an electronic voucher to make a choice rather than directly assigning benefits is not that much different.

[babylonsister]

6. Zeke Emanuel is not in the admin afaik. Here is the new advisor.

You might want to cut down on the fearmongering. :eyes:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=8239466&mesg_id=8239466

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

7. No, that's stupid..

[ecstatic]

8. FAIL. Zeke is not in the admin so give this BS meme a rest! nt

[Still Sensible]

10. What makes the most sense to me is that President Obama

didn't select Dean for the position because Dean would be a lightning rod for the GOP. They would dig in their heels and do any and everything they could do to keep anything with Dean's name on it from passage. They would treat him like the new Hillary Clinton. He was the head of the DNC that kicked their ass from coast-to-coast, including areas that were formerly thought to be their strengths.

Make no mistake, they may dig in their heels just about as hard with anybody at HHS, but that wouldn't have the same weight in the media IMO as having Dean to vilify every day. I think the President wants this fight to be between him and the republicans because he knows that's a battle he can win. If Dean was there it would be easier for the GOP to make it about him.

So long as the health care plan that Obama favored during the campaign, which includes a "public plan based on benefits available to members of Congress" as one of the options, we'll be on the right track IMO.

[HelenWheels]

14. We need a fighter

Dean's a fighter and knows how to get things done no matter who is up against him. He fought the DLC and won and the DLC was full of powerful people. The gloves have to come off. The Republiks jammed every thing down the throats of the Dems and got away with it. We have to do the same thing with them. The Republiks think bipartisanship shows weakness. A lot of arms have to be twisted to get a health care plan done and Dean is the guy to do it.

[peacetalksforall]

12. "Supporters of Single Payer Healthcare-for-All have been conspicuously NOT INVITED to the upcoming "

Not invited? They are going to hold a SUMMIT and all sides are not invited? Did I get this wrong.

I join those who are getting a sickening feeling. Is the DLC in charge or not?

Where is the line between DLC and Republicanism?

[stray cat]

13. Novel conspiracy theories.....everyone really is out to get you

[Faryn Balyncd]

15. Zeke proposes to replace Medicare with private insurance. Single payer advocates aren't invited....

...to the health summit.

That doesn't sound like a conspiracy.

But, if you believe that Single Payer is the way to go, it sounds like we're listening to someone who wants to go in the opposite direction.

If you are a supporter of Single Payer, what do you think the phasing out of Medicare, (& the replacement of Medicare with private insurance for future retirees, which Zeke Emanuel explicitly advocates) would mean for the prospects of eventual Single Payer?

If you believe we can only afford universal healthcare if we tap the 31% "administrative costs" taken by insurance companies, it sounds like Zeke's proposal would be the death knell of true (Single Payer) reform.

On the other hand, how would an insurance CEO view such a voucher system?

It seems to me we ought to be listening to the Single Payer supporters, such as the Physicians for a National Health Program, and the California Nurses Association, rather than be hiring advisors who want to privatize Medicare.

[newtothegame]

16. Good read, thanks n/t

[dysfunctional press]

17. luckily- there are LOTS of unemployed people to descend on washington dc...

the huddled masses WILL NOT be denied!

[OHdem10]

18. Has anyone actually read Zeke's book or listened to him explain his

position. He believes in National Health Care. Rahm does not
believe the country is ready for this.

[Faryn Balyncd]

19. Correct. He believes in national mandated private insurance, vouchers, & phasing out of Medicare....

Rahm says that Zeke's plan is a "game changer". Rahm is an incrementalist only because he thinks that is what is feasible.

The problem is WHAT KIND of national healthcare plan is being advocated.

We spend twice as much on healthcare, 2-3 times as much on "administrative costs" as any other industrialized nation.

Only Single Payer will allow us to tap the 31% "administrative costs" that insurance companies take.

Others have advocated letting younger Americans "buy in" to Medicare and/or Medicaid.

Zeke Emanuel, however, recommends "scrapping" Medicare & Medicaid, and replacing them with a voucher-assisted mandated purchase of insurance. Future retirees would NOT have the option of Medicare, but would be forced to continue purchase of a private plan.

In the most optimistic of scenarios, the voucher would pay for the basic insurance, and "higher quality" plans would be paid for by the individual, if he/she so desired.

Do you honestly believe that, with insurance purchase mandated, insurance prices would suddenly stop their current rise of twice the rate of inflation, or that vouchers would be increased to keep pace with the rise of insurance prices?

Or, is it likely that retirees will find themselves deprived of Medicare, and forced to pay for spiraling insurance policies costing significantly more than the voucher?

The federal government (unlike Canada which actually negotiated reasonable prices with the drug companies) has not been up to the task of negotiating with corporate medicine.

So, in Zeke's plan, the federal government mandates that individuals purchase insurance, and somehow expects that INDIVIDUALS, who have no choice but to purchase, will be able to negotiate successfully with these corporate powers who have been too strong for federal regulators.








And here is a link to a hour long presentation Zeke Emanuel made to the Commonwealth Club, underwritten by the "California Healthcare Foundation":

http://fora.tv/2009/01/08/Zeke_Emanuel_Scrapping_the_Health_Care_System#chapter_01

Zeke Emanuel is a brilliant individual, and a fine speaker. My belief is that his plan would doom Single Payer Healthcare, our only hope of genuine reform, and be the biggest gift to special interests (insurance and for-profit hospital corporations) in our history.