Zero Public Option + One Mandate = Disaster

[Echo In Light]

by Norman Solomon

Not long ago, the most prominent supporters of the public option were touting it as essential for healthcare reform. Now, suddenly, it's incidental. In fact, many who were lauding a public option as the key to a better healthcare future are now condemning just about anyone who insists that the absence of a public option makes the current bill unworthy of support.

Consider this statement: "If I were a senator, I would not vote for the current healthcare bill. Any measure that expands private insurers' monopoly over healthcare and transfers millions of taxpayer dollars to private corporations is not real healthcare reform."

That statement is as true today as it was when Howard Dean, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, made it three months ago in a Washington Post op-ed. But now, a concerted political blitz is depicting anyone who takes such a position as a menace to "real healthcare reform."

After devoting vast amounts of time, money, energy and political capital to banging the drum for the public option as absolutely vital during 2009 and through this winter, countless liberal organizations and prominent Democrats in Congress have made a short-order shift. You are now to understand that the public option isn't essential -- it's expendable. And all of the sudden, people who assert that a public option is a minimal requirement for meaningful healthcare reform are no longer principled -- they're pernicious

Good 'comments' section below, too:
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/03/18

[frazzled]

1. Sorry, but what we have right now is a disaster

And it will become a worse disaster if this bill does not pass NOW.

You could not have listened to the five or so stories that were told just now in the live House press conference without understanding this. The woman whose coverage was dropped in the middle of her breast cancer treatments. The young woman who has rheumatoid arthritis and is unable to get anything but the worst kind of insurance for her family. The retired teacher who goes into debt each December because of the donut hole on her medications.

And we will be saving more than 100 billion dollars in the near future for the country by helping to correct all these problems.

Sorry ... the COMMON DREAM is to fix much of this now. We can and will continue to struggle to add to these reforms. But the time to oppose this has ended.

[kenny blankenship]

3. and this just cements it in place

[frazzled]

7. Sorry, but you are woefully uninformed

According to everyone from Paul Krugman to Howard Dean to progressives across the board, this bill represents an enormous step forward. You're on the wrong side of history. You're welcome to stay there, but the rest of us are willing to take a step toward progress when we see it.

[kenny blankenship]

10. It's the first step - yeah on the same road of unaffordable, dysfunctional care we were already on

Congratulations.

[laughingliberal]

24. I'm not sure I heard any of them say an "enormous" step forward

and they are certainly entitled to their opinion. I notice none of them happen to be among the working class at present.

[Oregone]

5. At least now, its an unsustainable disaster

This will institutionalize it and put Americans that much closer to indentured servants with no social mobility

[girl gone mad]

21. The horror stories will continue if this bill passes..

because what is fundamentally wrong with the system has been left in place.

[jgraz]

34. Except now, no one in the media will cover them

The conventional wisdom will solidify around the idea that healthcare has now been fixed. Anything that doesn't fit with that narrative will be ignored.

[kenny blankenship]

2. Like I said last Summer: by the time they're done, they'll have you BEGGING for the trigger

Anyone remember what the "trigger" was, and how we all thought that was the lowest sell out of a mockery of a hollowed out sham?

LOOK AT YOURSELVES PEOPLE. THEY HAVE YOU BEGGING FOR SHIT.

[laughingliberal]

25. Fighting for the crumbs gets a little degrading, huh?

I know I'm tired of it.

[eridani]

27. Actually, I think that the trigger option was a great idea

--but only if you lined up all the insurance CEOs against a wall first.

[Starry Messenger]

28. + a gazillion

:thumbsup:

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

4. Zero expertise + Zero critical thinking = 1 waste of bandwidth.

That's pretty much how the math goes on Norman Solomon.

[leftstreet]

6. K&R Excellent comments there as usual

...The passage of the current health bill will be another step in the progress of crushing American labor to a world level playing field.

I love cd and its user comments!

K&R

[Echo In Light]

9. Although it's obvious CD has its plants & RWers too trying to shift debate

[leftstreet]

12. True, but it's always fun watching them get a butt-kicking

:hi:

[NYC_SKP]

8. I'm quite happy with Inclusion of Non-profits and CO-OPs, thanks just the same.

Why cry over what we could never have gotten with this congress.

We're getting options to for-profit insurance plans, this will create competition and lower costs, so I'm pretty happy about it.

Sorry, I'm sure others will want to be upset that we didn't get something we couldn't and weren't going to get.

My hopes had been high for a P.O., but we've all learned how shitty our congress members are.

That's an important lesson, by the way.

[kenny blankenship]

13. Non-profits like Blue Cross? Co-ops like the ones tried decades ago which failed ?

Co-ops were to be the Plan B when earlier attempts at universal health care were rejected. They failed, dried up and blew away.

Wake the fuck up. They're screwing you again. With the SAME tricks.

[dflprincess]

14. If Bush had tried to push this insurance scam on us

the people on this board who think it's just the best thing to happen since the New Deal would be screaming bloody murder. But, like with so many questionable things, if Obama supports it's okay.

Sometimes it's necessary to let the Democrats take "control" because when it comes to destroying the middle and working classes there's some things only Democrats can get by with. Remember, the DLC has Social Security on Medicare "reform" on its hit list - something Rahm and his brother Zeke both want and if Obama didn't want it too, he probably wouldn't have both of them on his payroll.

[Echo In Light]

16. +1

[leftstreet]

18. +1

The Republicans could never have pulled this off

[laughingliberal]

26. +10,000 nt

[jgraz]

35. Yep. It's getting harder for them to hide their Good Cop/Bad Cop routine.

[dana_b]

36. yes

war under Bush = bad
war under Obama = not good but understandable
Patriot Act under Bush = bad
Patriot act under Obama = necessary
NCLB under Bush = bad
NCLB under Obama = improving & necessary because we need to get rid of those nasty teachers!
Social Security reform under Bush = bad
Social Security reform under Obama = necessary - we're going broke you know!
Union busting under Bush = bad
Union busting under Obama = good! Nasty unions - who do they think they are?! Getting what I want and fighting for all workers in the long run - bah!!

[NYC_SKP]

15. Good thing you didn't help Edison with inventing Light Bulbs.

The first attempt didn't work.

Neither did the second.

If you think the P.O. would have magically not been exposed to sabotage or failure, then I can't help you.

If you think that co-ops that failed the first time are thus destined to fail, again I can't help you.

If you think trying again and being vigilant to make these work, and that this is better than the status quo, then we have something upon which to agree.

[dflprincess]

20. Except that, unlike Edison, we weren't starting from scratch with a new system

A time table could have been developed to expand Medicare to everyone.

We could have looked at the health care systems civilized countries have and picked from the best. We could even have copied Switzerland and kept the for profit crooks involved - but if we were really going to copy the way the Swiss do it, we would have had to enact some real regulation.

But no, Obama & the Democrats dropped any pretense of giving Americans access to care, when they decided it was more important to protect the profits of the insurance companies and all those campaign "contributions" they make.

[nightgaunt]

32. Edison didn't invent the light bulb nor electric light~healthcare fix?

He invented a better version that burned longer & steadier. "Electric Light Bulbs" had been around since the 1840's. Tesla saw how so much of the energy was wasted on thermal emissions and built a better one. We call them neon, which he invented. Very easy to build, cheap to run and don't waste as much energy on unnecessary heat. LED's of today are even better at it. Imagine if we replaced all or most of the light sources on earth with them? (They use only 4% of the energy used by incandescence sources to produce the same amount of light.)

Even Dennis Kucinich relented under the pressure because he knows that though this may initially help 30 million people it will ultimately benefit the status quo because the kind of locks on the corporate health industry aren't there now. To keep them from halting medical treatment due to cost, etc... Stripped out of the bill as they were put in to protect us. Pres. Obama was very shrewd then and now. He talks a good game but his actions speak far louder to me. His agenda is to keep the present system or strengthen it! He is just a nicer face of evil. Bush/Cheney were crude compared to him. Remember in "Star Wars" how nice Chancellor Palpatine seemed, caring, avuncular and gentle like a grandfather? Only he was Darth Sidious who had no problem starting a war (or keeping one and expanding it) and slaughtering anyone who got in his way. In this case it is a group behind both official parties which exclude those not on the program, like the aforesaid Kucinich. {Right now character assassination works well enough. But there are still mysterious deaths that continue to happen. Like that plane crash of the GOP's head of their computer division concerning vote counting back in 2008, after he was called in by a judge to answer question about his voting machine count operations.}

Now the fight may be to keep what little is intact and try to put in a public option before it is implemented in 2014-2017. That is while the corporations are moving to make sure what little good it can do will be eviscerated out of it. The court ruling allowing them to fund candidates, 5 states including Virginia already allow direct payments from corporations to candidates, could further weaken it if we are not careful. That includes the problem of E. S. & S. dominating various voting areas crucial to election wins like all of Florida, a pivotal state in many elections.

To put in common street vernacular, we are in the shit hole and they are still trying to bury us as fast as they can. They have used perfume to hide the odor but no matter how nicely it smells it is still from the ass end to us. Everything was done to make sure we got the poorest deal imaginable and it still could be lost anyway. So smart an evil it is when they aren't encumbered by empathy.

[jgraz]

37. I must have missed the part where light bulbs funneled money to huge insurance companies

:shrug:

[4lbs]

38. You mean the part where the light bulb caused the creation of General Electric which then created

GE Capital and GE Healthcare?

http://www.gehealthcarefinance.com/

<snip>
With over $17 billion invested, GE Capital, Healthcare Financial Services is a premier provider of financing to the healthcare industry, with investments in more than 30 sub-sectors including long-term care, hospitals, pharmaceuticals, and medical devices. With deep industry expertise in Real Estate Finance, Corporate Finance, Life Science Finance, and Equipment Finance, our team of professionals can create business and financial solutions tailored to meet the individual needs of our customers.

<snip>

[jgraz]

39. Um. no, but thanks for playing.

:eyes:

[Donnachaidh]

30. create competition?

bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!! Yeah, and monkeys will fly out of Robert Gibb's butt on camera when it does.

Wow -- Koolaid is even stronger when it's *blue* :rofl:

[JCMach1]

11. Something a bit less than total disaster which is what we have now

But yes, I am ambivalent at this point.

[joycean]

17. Not all of us have given up on the public option

even if the leadership in the Democratic Party has.

The issue with mandated health insurance is two fold. First, without a correlated public option it will only increase the cost of care. Second, even with a public option, it assumes access to care will be available for everyone. I have news for the supporters of this provision: there are not enough PCPs for everyone. If you want every American to be able to see a doctor, regardless of income, then you need to start working on making more doctors. This is a difficult task. It requires not only providing monetary assistance for medical school, but doing so with a provision that those receiving said assistance will work as PCPs/GPs instead of in more lucrative specialties. (ala the TEACH grant)

The state of Massachusetts passed this same law in 2007. When I lived there the law required that everyone be insured, and enforcement came in the form of proof on your state taxes. The state's PCPs were swamped, and it was nearly impossible to see a doctor without an appointment months in advance. However, even Massachusetts passed a public option for health insurance, which is not only affordable, it is better than most other private insurance policies.

[subterranean]

19. Massachusetts has a public option? I was not aware of that.

Do you happen to know what it's called?

Oh, and welcome to DU!

[joycean]

29. Yes, there are a few

depending on your income. They are called MassHealth, Commonwealth Care, Commonwealth Choice, and Health Safety Net Fund. Pretty much unless you have no dependents making more than 100k per year without any underlying medical condition (like HIV) you qualify for at least one of these. It (almost) eliminates the benefit insurance companies might otherwise receive from the mandate.

[nightgaunt]

33. It's Gingrich Care not a Public Option~Reich Wing propaganda at work

Don't be fooled what it is is the state mandating them under penalty of law to join the local insurance company or pay fines and maybe imprisonment at one of the local free enterprise owned prisons. That is what we will be getting nationally. Without the Public Option to give an escape the Health Insurance Giants will remain supreme, without weakness. The Public Option, a strong one is best, is their Achilles Heel and they know it. Which is why Obama has been lukewarm on it at best. Why it "doesn't matter" to him and does to us!

[Echo In Light]

22. .

[Echo In Light]

23. .

[AzDar]

31. K & R

[Max Stein]

40. K&R

[Bluebear]

41. kick

[Echo In Light]

42. .