Question: Given the events of this past week, do you really think we will get another shot at HCR

[WCGreen]

if we abandon the current Senate bill?

Now I am not advocating for the efficacy of this cobbled together bill from Hell, but I would like to know, in a thoughtful and realistic way, how we could get anything else passed given the circumstance and the mood of the country.

In addition, if we fail this time when all the cards were, at one time at least, stacked in our favor, when do you honestly, honestly think another realistic chance of passing and implementing any kind of HCR will be?

Personally, I would put the Senate Bill on hold with the House and try to pass incremental change such as eliminating pre-existing condition discrimination, erasing life-time caps, expanding Medicare to those 60 and older who cannot get insurance in the private sector. I would also raise the income level so that Medicaid for children would be expanded (fully funded to the states), revisit the COBRA program so that newly unemployed people won't have to kick in all of their unemployment compensation just to cover the cost of COBRA and stop the practice of cherry picking customers by Insurance Companies.

Each of these suggestions would be presented in separate bills.

Make the republicans vote, with recorded up or down votes, on these or similar measures. Keep the Senate Bill inactive in the House and if we cannot get these provisions through, then get our House Caucus together and get them on board with the Senate Bill. I don't even know if that is possible given the archaic rules in place in both Houses of Congress. But given what I know, this is what I would do.

This is what I would do, given the mood of the country.

This is serious stuff and deserves to be discussed in a thoughtful and intelligent manor. I know it is a very emotional time, but now more than ever, we need cool heads discussing what could very well be a generational opportunity. Lives are literally at stake. We may never get another chance, given the recent Supreme Court Ruling. So what say you DU, give us your best ideas. I gave you mine.

I am not going to comment so please do not call me out. I am not going to put this in my journal until the comments stop.

If this thread sinks without any meaningful discussion, well, then so be it.

Just to let you know, I am going to post this over in GDP as well.

Please, DU, let us put our best foot forward...

[endless october]

1. yes, but it might take a while.

the senate health insurance company bailout act of 2010 wasn't reform.

i'd rather have France's system in 20 years than that POS in 4 and then have to spend the next 50 years patching it up to make it work.

[stray cat]

2. I think the GOP will get their plan in place in 2012 - but I won't like that plan

[robcon]

3. Not for a while.

With republican intransigence, we will have to regain a supermajority in the Senate, and leadership that can herd the Democrats to develop and execute a health care bill.

Not likely before Obama's second term.

[TankLV]

4. What "2nd Term"???

Obama will be a ONE Term wonder - just a footnote in history...

Greatest - FAILURE...

[robcon]

5. He'll be re-elected in 2012. His personal popularity is undiminished.

He'll win easily - probably by more than he won in 2008.

[KharmaTrain]

6. There Will Be Something...

As we've seen through this process, every time the House or Senate gets their hands on this hot potatoe they whittle it down more and more...it gets watered down and the benefits affect less and less, but we've come too far and there's too much political capital at stake for it to completely fall apart.

Looking at the crystal ball, I could see parts being stripped, as some are advocating, and one piece of it...be it the prevention of dropping people with pre-existing conditions or an expansion of Medicare coverage or Bernie Sander's 10,000 clinics...or a combination...something not as adventurous as we're dealing with now, but also something that can get the votes...giving everyone an exit. No it won't be comprehensive and will do little to bite into the escalating costs, but it will be a token...something out of nothing. And it will try to not step on too many toes in the process.

This last week showed the focus this year will be on the economy. It's about jobs and "fiscal responsibility". We saw it yesterday when the focus was shifted on new banking regulations...and an issue that could help people forget about the healthcare fiasco and put the GOOP in a difficult position. It's one thing to obstruct "socializing medicine" or "death panels", it's another to prevent the local factory from getting a low cost loan to hire 50 or 100 people.

Eventually healthcare will have to be revisited...even if the existing bill were to pass as many key elements in the rising costs weren't addressed (big pharma, tort reform to lower malpractice rates) that will have to be dealt with...one that Chuck Schumer talked about last summer...that could lead toward expanding Medicare or creating some type of government healthcare program.

[rucky]

7. Killing this bill will kill any chance at reform.

I still begrudgingly support its passage. I can't imagine this fierce of debate over every single item as a separate bill/vote. And the stalling tactics - oy vey. I don't think Congress has the resolve to do what you suggest.

[WCGreen]

8. One Kick for the evening.

[fascisthunter]

9. It's a Possibility

but to get this done, we need a populist uprising.

[Edweird]

10. The senate bill = "I'm getting 95% of what I want". Unless/until that changes,

further attempts will be as pointless as this one. The people that decry Obama as not 'fighting' or 'having balls' are sadly mistaken. He FOUGHT to make sure there was no public option. Promising one, and then fighting against it, and then claiming that he did what he said he would do is BALLSY AS HELL. He has the right stuff to do what we need him to, he has unfortunately chosen the side of the corporations over the people.

[physaf]

11. I agree with many smaller bills approach -

It is time to eliminate these gigantic bills going through congress. It seems that the only reasons that can justify these are to buy votes of people who don't really agree that it is the best thing to do, and to hide from the American people the actual effect of the bill by making it impossible to read and to discern the "unintended consequences".

This said, in addition to your very good suggestions of individual bills, many other items should be put up for vote in separate bills: Tort Reform (which could lower the cost of medicine in this country by as much as 100Billion to 250Billion per year), Portability after being laid off from a company, Ability for every individual to buy insurance approved by a different state, Expanded health savings accounts, Deductability of health insurance expenses by an individual on their taxes.

There are probably some others that could be suggested, including some way to encourage expansion of general practice doctors and other health care professionals and pseudo-professionals.

This is about a dozen individual bills that could be easily written up, and voted on. Voters would be able to read each one and could then judge what their representative actually has in mind - whether they care more about the people or their lobbyists or expansion of their own power - whether it is health they care about or about power or obscuring responsibility.