Huffington Post: Obama Made Deal to Kill the Public Option -

[jonathon]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/miles-mogulescu/ny-times-reporter-confirm_b_500999.html?just_reloaded=1

For months I've been reporting in The Huffington Post that President Obama made a backroom deal last summer with the for-profit hospital lobby that he would make sure there would be no national public option in the final health reform legislation. (See here, here and here). I've been increasingly frustrated that except for an initial story last August in the New York Times, no major media outlet has picked up this important story and investigated further.

Hopefully, that's changing. On Monday, Ed Shultz interviewed New York Times Washington reporter David Kirkpatrick on his MSNBC TV show, and Kirkpatrick confirmed the existence of the deal. Shultz quoted Chip Kahn, chief lobbyist for the for-profit hospital industry on Kahn's confidence that the White House would honor the no public option deal, and Kirkpatrick responded:

"That's a lobbyist for the hospital industry and he's talking about the hospital industry's specific deal with the White House and the Senate Finance Committee and, yeah, I think the hospital industry's got a deal here. There really were only two deals, meaning quid pro quo handshake deals on both sides, one with the hospitals and the other with the drug industry. And I think what you're interested in is that in the background of these deals was the presumption, shared on behalf of the lobbyists on the one side and the White House on the other, that the public option was not going to be in the final product."
Kirkpatrick also acknowledged that White House Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina had confirmed the existence of the deal to him.

More at top link

[Subdivisions]

1. I thought the PO was in the bill on page 116? I didn't have time to read it

as I was heading out to dinner at a friend's house but there were a few posts on it earlier.

I saved it to my desktop, and looking at it now, well...here:

Subtitle B—Public Health
2 Insurance Option
3 SEC. 221. ESTABLISHMENT AND ADMINISTRATION OF A
4 PUBLIC HEALTH INSURANCE OPTION AS AN
5 EXCHANGE-QUALIFIED HEALTH BENEFITS
6 PLAN.
7 (a) ESTABLISHMENT.—For years beginning with Y1,
8 the Secretary of Health and Human Services (in this sub9
title referred to as the ‘‘Secretary’’) shall provide for the
10 offering of an Exchange-participating health benefits plan
11 (in this subdivision referred to as the ‘‘public health insur12
ance option’’) that ensures choice, competition, and sta13
bility of affordable, high quality coverage throughout the
14 United States in accordance with this subtitle. In design15
ing the option, the Secretary’s primary responsibility is
16 to create a low-cost plan without compromising quality or
17 access to care.

[jonathon]

4. Pelosi has said there will no NO public option in the final bill

Putting a weak phony public option in the house bill that was a symbol to get it passed through Congress does not a public option make...

[DJ13]

6. I believe it was explained last night thats an old bill

Something about any reconciliation has to have been dated prior to sometime last October, so their using an existing bill as a shell that gets written over to meet that date requirement.

[Subdivisions]

12. Ok, well, the bill I have says MARCH --, 2010 at the top of it. So, who knows? n/t

[Skittles]

2. it was pretty obvious

when Obama started saying he'd never touted the Public Option

[gorfle]

3. Like I said all along...

There is no way in this economy that our government is going to destroy a multi-trillion dollar industry, including all the jobs and 401K investments in it.

[truedelphi]

18. Oh, please please please, the government

could care less if billion dollar industries get killed (or not.)

The government was quite content to BAIL OUT ONLY THE BANKSTERS, after the housing market burst and then the stock market crashed. Did the folks in the House or in the Senate get weepy because house builders, masons, plumbers, real estate agents, mortgage brokers etc all lost their line of work?

Nor do they care that few on Main Street are getting any of the Fourteen Trillion bucks that Bernanke has fed to the Banksters.

And they say everything is fine and We the People are now in recovery. While the school teachers, social workers, the project managers and fire fighters are being laid off.

But I imagine that the same thing is happening here that used to be happening south of the border - the Big Bad Health Insurance Industry simply paid off everyone they needed to pay off. In South America, it cost Bechtel the equivalent of $ 1,000,000 per Bolivian Senator to steal away the Bolivian people's water.

Here it probably cost them 100 million bucks for some of the key players. For some it might be money in a Swiss account - for others it is simply the same old same old - the revolving door between industry and government.

I doubt Michelle will ever have to settle for a job that only pays in the six figures again. (Remember her line of work was in the hospital administrator field.)

[gorfle]

30. I think you're wrong, partially.

The government was quite content to BAIL OUT ONLY THE BANKSTERS

They bailed out the Wall Street Banks (multi-billion-dollar industries), the Auto Industry (multi-billion-dollar industries), and the investment insurance industry (multi-billion-dollar industries).

Why did they bail out such huge companies? To protect their corporate friends but also because if these companies failed the economic repercussions would have been ENORMOUS.

Likewise, they are not going to destroy the multi-billion, if not multi-TRILLION dollar industry that is health insurance.

Here it probably cost them 100 million bucks for some of the key players. For some it might be money in a Swiss account - for others it is simply the same old same old - the revolving door between industry and government.

This I agree with 100%. I have no doubt there are massive payoffs going on to maintain the status-quo.

[truedelphi]

31. Thank you for the corrections - I do tend to make

some over-simplifying statements all too often. And those are points well taken.

And good to have someone else affirming that my gut feeling that payoffs are probably happening.

[ProSense]

5. Haven't you heard: He made a deal with Kucinich to bring it back

Oh wait...


:rofl:

[depakid]

14. Tom Tomorrow pretty well summed Obama up on the matter-

and when you've got that guy poking ridicule on you, it's not a very promising sign...

[robinblue]

17. and it is spot on

[truedelphi]

20. Well we may not ever get real HC in this nation, but boy, did

I get a laugh out of that.

ROTFL

[CoffeeCat]

24. Well....they do say that...

...laughter is the best medicine.

;-)

[truedelphi]

33. Thanks Depakid - laughs are needed now more than ever. n/t

[mzmolly]

7. There is no proof of any such deal in this article.

I'll wait for something beyond speculation and gossip.

[jonathon]

9. Links are at the webpage

[mzmolly]

25. I've checked the links thanks. At this point it still appears speculative?

"Several hospital lobbyists involved in the White House deals said it was understood as a condition of their support that the final legislation would not include a government-run health plan paying-Medicare rates...or controlled by the secretary of health and human services."

Even if this is true, it doesn't prevent a state by state public option approach.

[Supply Side Jesus]

8. To quote Cenk....

"OF COOOOOOURSE!!!!!"

[mmonk]

10. But Obama supports the public option

From http://crooksandliars.com/john-amato/president-obama-strongly-supports-publi">Crooks and Liars:

President Obama: I think one of the options should be a public insurance option. (Loud cheers) Let me clear. It would only be an option, nobody would be forced to choose it. No one with insurance affected by it. But what it would do is provide more choice and more competition. It would keep pressure on private insurers to keep the policies affordable, to treat their customers better. I mean think about it. It's the same way the public colleges and universities provide additional choice and competition to students. That doesn't inhibit private colleges and universities from thriving out there. The same should be true on the health care front. Minnesota I have said I'm open to different ideas on how to set this up we're going to set this up but I'm not going to back down on the basic principle that if Americans can't find affordable coverage we're going to provide you a choice.

Are you saying he is a flip flopper? What a grandstander.

[MisterP]

13. it's not grandstanding when HE does it, only when Kucinich stands up to Aetna

just like "democracy" doesn't mean that the one with the most votes gets the government (see Iran 1953, Guatemala 1954, the Dominican Republic 1965, Chile 1973, Venezuela 2002, Haiti 2004, Gaza 2006...), but one that agrees with the leader of all democracies: the great Reagan and His faithful servant, Freedom House

[robinblue]

16. He is confused yah know!!

;-)

[Robeson]

23. He did, until he didn't.

[unkachuck]

11. was he for it....

....before he was against it?....or was he against it before he was for it?

[mmonk]

15. He was against it before it was cool.

Or is it the other way around?

[inna]

19. Public Option (in its current form) is a distraction, anyway.

I'm amazed that that puny, minuscule, bait-and-switch version of it hasn't made it (yet?) into the final bill.

I thought for sure they were going to throw some crumbs to the peasants. :shrug: Well, maybe they still will.

[jgraz]

21. The utter contempt these people must have for those of us who voted for them...

it boggles the mind.

[Luciferous]

22. I'm so fed up with Obama. I'm embarrassed I even voted for the man.

[DisgustedInMN]

26. K & R

[Echo In Light]

27. Grim, indeed

[bullwinkle428]

28. Knock me over with a frigging feather.

:eyes:

[Jefferson23]

29. Has the chess world commented on Obama's skill level I wonder.

[truedelphi]

32. One more thank you for posting this. n/t