58 of the 59 Senators who were ready to pass a bill with MC Buy In before WH pressured Reid to cave

[Faryn Balyncd]

....to Lieberman and drop the Medicare Buy In "because we only have 59 votes" are still in the Senate.


The only reason the Medicare Buy In was not in this bill is because of White House's deal with the for-profit hospital industry.


Grayson's bill is nice window dressing for gutless "progressives" to sign on as co-sponsors for a bill going nowhere so they can claim to favor a Medicare Buy In, to cover for their shameless complicity in passing a lobbyist written industry give-away.


The sad truth is that party I worked for does not have the guts to take on the cartel, but they have the gall to hand the middle class an unfunded mandate:


(43% of Americans will be ineligible for subsidies, more will be forced into the individual market, which the CBO says will experience an ACCELERATION in premium inflation, even as the CBO optimistically predicts group rates will continue to inflate at "only" the same astronomical rate, DESPITE the expansion in coverage and the resultant decline in uncompensated care)


Only with "customers" captive by a no-public-option mandate, with neither effective price controls nor competition, will corporate interests be able to continue the price gouging that was in past said to be due to the vast amount of uninsured, uncompensated care, but which even the CBO predicts to continue DESPITE EXPANSION (by mandate) OF COVERAGE, and a reduction in uncompensated care.


When I turned on C-SPAN yesterday and saw a California Democratic representative shamelessly talking as if this bill was "taking on" the insurance industry, I felt nothing but nausea.


The Republicans have kept their hands clean, but after the voter backlash, the Republicans will NEVER reverse the unfunded mandate on the middle class.


Never have we seen a better example of why the corporate interests need two "opposing parties" of whores.




:kick:





"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...."

- Howard Dean

[eridani]

1. Yes, we could have gotten the public option by the whip count as well

But people are just worthless unless some parasite is making money off of our illness and pain.

[jgraz]

2. Shhhh! It's No Truth Day on DU

Haven't you heard?

[sabrina 1]

3. You're spoiling the party!

You're supposed to do what any good politician would do. Get on board with something you know is wrong, but do it for the team. Everyone's doing it in DC. Even Howard Dean and Kucinich.

Excellent post as usual. I especially agree with your last two sentences.

:kick:

[kstewart33]

4. It's over guys. Deal with it. nt

[GreenPartyVoter]

5. Should people not bother with trying to reform the reform, then?