Another GOP senator open to health care overhaul

[Autonomy]

Source: AP

WASHINGTON – A second Republican senator signaled Wednesday she's open to voting for sweeping health care legislation this year, putting President Barack Obama closer to a historic achievement that has eluded generations of Democratic leaders.

But Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, told The Associated Press that the bill approved Tuesday by the Finance Committee needs substantial improvements to make coverage more affordable, contain costs, and protect Medicare. Nevertheless, she joined her Maine GOP colleague Sen. Olympia Snowe in endorsing the goal of far-reaching changes.

"My hope is we that can fix the flaws in the bill and come together with a truly bipartisan bill that could garner widespread support," Collins said in an interview. "I think this bill is far superior to the ones passed by the Senate (health) committee and the three House committees, but it needs substantial additional work."



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091014/ap_on_go_co/us_health_care_overhaul

[Mass]

1. "make the bill useless and I will support it". I think quite a few Republicans agree with this.

[Blasphemer]

2. Exactly. The want a horrible bill made even worse so we get the "privilege" of MAYBE 2 GOP votes

The fact that she thinks the Finance Committee Bill is "far superior" to the others says it all.

[krkaufman]

10. Both Snowe and Collins current positions are plotted ...

... to retain control over the shaping of the final legislation. I'm losing confidence that we'll get anything worthwhile out of this effort, and am beginning to worry that a disastrous bill may get signed.

[Laf.La.Dem.]

3. DANGER!!

"But it needs substantial additional work"

You know this is NOT good coming from ANY Republican:freak:

[groundloop]

4. Collins and Snowe see a huge opening to make themselves pertinant

Kiss our little tushies enough and you can have your bipartishanship.

If Reid could keep all the Democrats in line Snowe and Collins wouldn't matter.

[Autonomy]

5. The greater Democrats' unity the more likely

there will be Republicans who jump over to vote on the winning side. Repubs at the fringes will only break over if the Dems have al their little duckies in a row.

[Winterblues]

6. I wonder what basics both Republicans and Democrats could agree upon

Like ending the practice of denying coverage for pre-existing conditions, maybe...containing rising costs...More choice (competition). I think pretty much everyone agrees those things need to be addressed. If those three things are addressed and legislated on America will be a better place. What is at stake at the moment is how those things will be accomplished. It is possible that some Republican ideas might just help the situation. I think doctors are concerned about mal-practice insurance costs and I think we should be as well. I just believe the solution is in Insurance regulations instead of limiting liability. The idea of opening up every state to the same insurance rules has some merit as long as it isn't a race to the bottom, which is what it would be if we followed the Republican solution.. I think we should make Insurance regulation a federal obligation instead of a state one. that way it would be universal but with safety guards.. Republicans have some good ideas just lousy solutions...

[thereismore]

7. I don't want no effing bipartisan bill. Go away. nt

[krkaufman]

8. "make coverage more affordable, contain costs, and protect Medicare"

Simple. Open Medicare up for buy-in, charging a slightly elevated premium beyond cost to pay for subsidies and to strengthen its finances.

[SandWalker1984]

9. Let's make a deal: Obama, Big Pharma and you (minus you) by Howard Fineman

Let’s Make a Deal: Obama, Big Pharma and you. (Minus you.)
by Howard Fineman
Oct 13, 2009

So it looks as though we are going to get a health-care-reform bill. Now the question is whether it will be reform, or "reform": whether it will improve the way we care for people in this country or, for the most part, be a taxpayer-funded boon to the warped and wasteful industry we already know. Call me naive or cynical—or both—but I can't quite get my mind around the notion that the way to bring "change we can believe in" is to cut an upfront deal with Billy Tauzin.

-snip-

Barack Obama ran on the claim that he would be the new sheriff in town, that he and his posse of fresh-faced Rhodes Scholars would tame the capital's ruling class. But the first thing that he and his tacticians, Rahm Emanuel and Jim Messina, did on health care was to strike a bargain with Tauzin. Big Pharma, it was agreed last June, would kick in $80 billion over 10 years to help shrink the "donut hole" in seniors' Medicare prescription-drug coverage and would spend $150 million on a pro-reform ad campaign. \

In exchange, the White House would oppose congressional attempts to extract more, and would specifically fight two common-sense, long-overdue reforms that Big Pharma fears most: allowing imports of cheaper drugs and empowering Medicare to negotiate directly with the industry to keep prices down, as the VA long has done. The administration has similar understandings with other stakeholders, such as the hospital and doctors' groups—and still hopes to engineer one with the health insurers.

-snip-

As the drugmakers, hospitals, and doctors have come aboard, the pressure has increased on the health insurers to do so—even though they have yet to get what they want: a flat-out guarantee from the president that there will be no "public option" insurance alternative in the bill.



Please read the rest of the article at http://www.newsweek.com/id/217458
especially the part about what happened to Sen Bill Nelson when he wanted to introduce 2 amendments to the Baucus bill that would have benefited Medicare at the expense of the insurance corporations. As the White House aid supposedly told Nelson, a deal is a deal.

Too bad we the American people weren't included in the bargaining of their "real" deal.
:banghead:

[Doctor_J]

11. Go Mainers!

You have got your Senators' ears.

[MaineDem]

12. Someone's upset that Olympia is getting all the press

Poor Susie. She wants attention, too.

I'm still waiting to see how they vote when their votes will actually matter.

[Kingofalldems]

13. I heard someone claim today that the bill takes $400 million

or something like that out of Medicare. Anyone know?

[Gently Used Deal]

14. Their Reign in Maine Falls Mostly on the Sane

I think this proves how much this debate is sliding our way. Too bad we pre-compromised it, and are now allowing a couple of perennially vulnerable Republicans to define its extent.

How about pledging to cover all Americans, and actually doing it?

Or, option B:

Cater to a couple of Republicans, and hope that you win the windfall of sixty votes you get from calling it bipartisan. That's fifty votes from VOTERS, not Senators.

Legacies and majorities are not produced by covering one's own ass, they are produced by covering everyone.

[Honeycombe8]

15. I like her, on a personal level. But make no mistake...she is against even the Baucus semi-Repub

bill. She will only use her lure of a vote to water down the already weak bill.

The Baucus bill, as it exists currently, does nothing that I can see to hold down costs. Nothing. It is useless in that regard. It is a gift to the ins. cos.