That’s a man whose mind is already made up, just looking for a reason to say ‘no’.

we must ensure there is fair competition and all plans are playing by the same rules.

When all of the private firms are operating under the rule of making a profit and paying millions to its leadership they cannot be operating by the same rules.

Jane, I made this comment on a previous thread;
Jane and other progressive bloggers announced the formation of a coalition several months ago. I would encourage her et al to come out now and announce that we are going to be going after these corporatist dems as well as rethugs.

Single Payer!
The American People want it! The Congress should listen to the voices of the people. Any elected Official must be challenged at the ballot box if they refuse to give the People what they want. Single Payer. Our health Care system is broken and is only listening to the Mantra of GREED at the expense of the sick and lives are lost. What price does society pay for their loss?? And what price do we pay for letting someone die because it would hurt the bottom line?

Health Care costs are one of the leading reasons of the extraordinary rise in Bankruptcy’s of the Middle Class who have coverage but the Insurance Companies refuse to cover much of the treatments needed or the co-pay is so high the patient cannot afford it.

What then are the more obscure costs of healthcare? If people are filing bankruptcy and wipe out their credit card bills are the credit card companies then raising costs to everyone else to remain profitable.

Hi Jane and Pups.

Nice catch, Jane.

Is it just me? Or do most senators, as they enter the chambers, appear to pick up a virus which disables their clarity sprocket?

Good thing FDL has a handy tool kit. Now where did I set down that sprocket wrench!?!

obama has given too much leeway to the nay sayers. Whatever he gets now will be touted as a great victory, with the real results being a disaster for the country. obama had his “shock” moment and he blew it. How can so many people defend a “public plan” without knowing what it really says? That is just a case of “trust me, I’ll do the right thing for you so don’t worry your pretty little head.”

Obama was speaking about this live as I pulled into the parking lot from lunch.

The last thing I heard was a question about whether a public option would put private insurers out of business.

Obama’s response was that for years they’ve been telling us that the free market solutions are always superior and that the government can’t run anything, so how could that competition drive the private insurers out of business?

I like what he says. I just wish it was followed up with real action.

It seems like he is going out and speaking very forcefully for a single payer option. Additionally, he is attempting to organize the grass roots. In our system the congress makes the laws not POTUS. I think he is doing about all he can. It is up to us to push our congress critters also.

Part of the problem, as I understand it, is that there is no public plan, per se, just as there is no other plan. All kinds of things are evolving; probably not to our choosing, but evolving and we need to remember that and to remind our reps that we see of their evolving is not acceptable to us and detrimental to the American people.

Thanks for the update, Jane,
Blessings to all,

Just a drive by, but thank you Jane and everyone who has been hammering away at health care and the hypocrisy seen in Congress on the subject. It is much appreciated!

I am strongly for single payer, and I am continuing, and have been for some time, calling my 2 senators and 1 representative every weekday and telling them I expect them to support and vote in favor of single payer, universal, not for profit healthcare. This is 3 calls a day, and takes me maybe 5 minutes. Anyone can do this. It may feel like you’re beating your head against the wall, but they can’t ever honestly say they didn’t know what their constituents wanted them to do.

Senator Bingaman needs to clarify.

He’s not the only one. Here’s a bit from the town hall meeting Sen. Begich held in Anchorage last Saturday:

Begich, an Alaska Democrat, on Saturday held a “town hall” forum on health care at the Anchorage venue as the debate over the issue rages nationally. Begich said there are many ways to have a public option and it doesn’t mean a government takeover of the health care system. He suggested an idea that was part of his campaign for the U.S. Senate last fall: letting members of the public buy into the health benefit program federal employees use.

“It’s such a big group, we are able to negotiate a lot of our cost factors,” Begich said.

The theater, which has a capacity of about 230, was almost full for the forum. Begich asked audience members to raise their hands if they supported a “public option” — which he broadly defined as something that was not owned and operated by the insurance companies. The vast majority of people raised their hands.

We’re trying to hold Mark’s feet to the fire on this, and on other issues, but I’m not expecting him to be very bold in how he eventually votes.

Rock on. They launched a new feature at OFA today similar to what Michael Moore did with Sicko:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…..19333.html

The single-payer movement will succeed only if it appears to come from a critical mass of the general public, rather than from a handful of politicians. Obama’s doing everything possible to make this happen given our BigMoney-controlled BigMedia, which promotes lies and confusion about this basic issue.

Obama was speaking about this live as I pulled into the parking lot from lunch.

The last thing I heard was a question about whether a public option would put private insurers out of business.

Obama’s response was that for years they’ve been telling us that the free market solutions are always superior and that the government can’t run anything, so how could that competition drive the private insurers out of business?

In paraphrasing the free market mantra on solutions, Obama is directly calling out those who praise competition as being the force that makes the market work and produce superior consumer options. It has not worked with health care, in part (IMO) because anyone, including their family, with an ongoing serious health condition, acute or chronic, is hardly positioned to think clearly on the matter until the condition improves or the patient dies.

Thus health care consumers are very vulnerable, and the current system exploits that fact, and the system also inherently exploits the fact that unlike many other consumer products, health care isn’t exactly portable. Who wants to change doctors, primary care or otherwise, when fighting debilitating or terminal disease?

For what it is worth costs for govt. employees are going up also and benefits are being reduced.

Whoa the credit card/banks are trying to milk every customer for everything they can by raising rates to usury rates and fees for everything they can get away with it. Medical debt is the leading reason why a large percentage of Americans file for bankruptcy. We are all just one major sickness away from bankruptcy! I have my own story but fortunately I am a Veteran and get most of my care at the VA, if I were not I don’t know what I would do. As it is I had to stop working so I could get on MediCal so I could get coverage at Stanford and I also had to apply at Stanford for financial hardship as even with coverage I have a $500.00 co-pay every month more than 1/2 of what I get in retirement!

And from the 06-22 Time article:
A study by FICO credit Score recent cutbacks have hit twice as many financially responsible consumers— those with a credit score of 770— as those with crummy credit. “These people have done everything right and now some arbitary decision could torpedo their credit score”

Clearly all this is tied to one thing BIG Money is greedy and wants to milk the “People” of everything they can! We are nothing but a source of big bonuses for the rich CEO’s and in Turn our elected officials who get massive funds to fuel their staying in office.

Beside Single Payer our country must bring Public funding into the election process and outlaw all money from Corporate America and the uber-Rich.
A good start down that road can be found at: http://youstreet.org/

I think Obama also knows that an overwhelming amount of people will choose the public option, thereby setting on the rapid path to single-payer. Using their own frames against them. After an initial aversion to the public option talk, I realize how really subversive it is, as you pointed as well.

I don’t know if it’s my own bias, but I couldn’t help hearing serious sarcasm in Obama’s comment. It was almost as if he too wants a national single-payer plan and knows that for-profit insurance just won’t be able to compete with a good public “option.” So this should eventually lead to single-payer.

But he’s always been good at getting people to project their own views onto what he says.

I wasn’t trying to suggest that the banksters are anything but greedy bastards but that a cost is a cost.
PS thank gawd for the VA and Champus

sounds to me like he’s entranced by the siren’s song of Big Daddy Baucus’s Glacier Pac

note this poll for Montanan’s on Single Payer – aiyeee !

loved this:

“No matter the issue, Max always puts Montana first,” says his spokesman, Ty Matsdorf. “

as in first on the list for fundraisers

YES! But that is a whole nother subject!! Our current crop of Vets should have the same benefits as were in the first GI Bill! How a country takes care of their Vets says a lot about it. I am still pissed that the Repukes cut benefits for millions of Vets out! They refuse to take care of those who stood up for all of us!
I feel health care falls under their same bullshit philosophy of “Drowning the Government in the Bath Tub” No matter what I could not vote for one of those Slugs of society.
You Street is a start in our taking away the Government from the Money right and giving back to the American People!

That must be the “real Montana” that Sarah Palin could feel at home in.

I too think we need to have public financing but I think the only way we are going to get it is if we get enough state legislatures to push for a constitutional ammendment.

Funny you say that I have been commenting here @ the Lake that a Constitutional Amendment may be the only way we get a Government Health Care system run something like the VA! Where your co-pays are scaled on how much you earn.
I know this is a bit radical but what if every health citizen has an obligation of 18 months to somehow serve their country just after they graduate from High school or they quit HS! And in return they get Health care for life!! Of course all children would be covered by their parents. Just think what could be done for the public good! After all it is our country and Freedom is not Free!

I don’t know if it’s my own bias, but I couldn’t help hearing serious sarcasm in Obama’s comment. It was almost as if he too wants a national single-payer plan and knows that for-profit insurance just won’t be able to compete with a good public “option.” So this should eventually lead to single-payer.

That’s been my take as well.

There’s just no way private insurance can compete with a real public plan because of the private plan’s fiduciary responsibility to make a profit, not just cover costs.

So, people are gonna run to the public plan in droves.

To stop the bloodletting, private plans will have to drop rates to stay competitive.

Jane, I know this is EPU-land, but I wanted to mention that I just got an e-mail from one of the main groups in NM that has been working on a single-payer plan for NM. They tell us to call our reps and tell them not to support any federal-level plan that does not allow an opt-out for states that want their own plan.

They say they have met with the Senators/Reps/staffs of same and have emphasized this issue.

So perhaps Bingaman’s statement is in line with this input from his constituency/single payer advocates in NM.

I think he does know that single payer is where we want to go. But I also have the hindsight from the post later in which McCaskill says it is going to be hell to get the discussion to move our way.