What ever happened to the progressive caucus and tri-caucus whip count that was supposed to be released last week?

RRRRRAAAAWWWW!!!!!!!!!!1111

Keep up fight Nadler!

Yeah, I’ve been wondering about that as well. Wasn’t Grijalva starting the count last Monday? This is making me nervous. Have there been turncoats in the CPC that have made announcing the count embarassing?

I called Anna Eshoo office and requested that she sign Rep Adler’s letter!! He also said she does support the public option…. we shall see..

Keep up the great work Jane you are our hero and leader!!

Speaking of keeping up the fight (and OT):

Mel Zelaya snuck back into Honduras today and is being protected within the Brazilian Embassy.
http://narcosphere.narconews.c…..d-honduras

Seems there was coordination among nations and the various citizens groups within Honduras. The power of an organized people! I think the single-payer movement in America could learn a lot by studying what’s been happening in Honduras over the last few months.

Oh, and the Republic Windows former CEO has been arrested and held on $10 million bond. Would not have happened without the well organized sit-ins that happened there last year. Time to rock n’ roll for single payer! We’ve got a couple year window to get it done.

Rep. Nadler: I think the chances of the public option of being passed in health care reform are pretty good. it depends on 2 things. 1: do the Progressive and Black and Hispanic and Asian caucuses hold together and make clear that more than 40 of us — enough to bring down any bill — will vote as we have pledged against any health care bill w/o a public option. 2: does the President believe our threat and is he willing to exert some leadership on the Senate to insist on a public option.
That about the size of it !

I was under the impression the head count was to happen early this week .

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Actually, Ben, I’m going to make an exception. We’ll get one question from the Chilean press. How’s that?
Q Mr. President, yes, I’d like to ask you, I realize that your agenda is moving forward. But I’d like to ask you, President Bachelet in a previous trip to the United States made echo of an old joke: “There’s never been a coup d’état in the United States, because there’s no American embassy.” The point being that almost –
PRESIDENT BACHELET: That was a joke from an American guy. (Laughter.) I just said it was a good joke.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Yes, it is. (Laughter.)
Q The point being that almost no Latin American nation has been free from CIA — bloody CIA intervention, Chile being a prime example, President Bachelet being one of its victims. Is it time for a historical apology?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, look, I think you answered your own question right at the beginning, which is I’m interested in going forward, not looking backward. I think that the United States has been an enormous force for good in the world. I think there have been times where we’ve made mistakes. But I think that what is important is looking at what our policies are today, and what my administration intends to do in cooperating with the region.”
Allow me to point out that Michelle Bachelets father was tortured to death and both she and her mother were tortured !
Presently in S. America the US gives a free pass to the Honduran coup leaders trained at the school of the America’s , the secretary of states former campaign manager Lannie Davis represents the wealthy business community there and the US military stations itself in Colombian bases having seemingly been directly involved in a coup attempt in Venezuela !
In Mexico city recently the president said this : “the same critics who say that the US has not intervened enough in Honduras are the same people who say we are always intervening and the yankees need to get out of latin America .You can’t have it both ways “.
Disingenuous at best !

Here’s hoping that Rep Nadler can whip his 40+ into staying in line.

I still find it difficult to understand why Obama et al would want to be going out to voters in 2010 and 2012 on a health care reform bill that acts like a tax on lower middle income families (and will be demagogued to death as “tax and spend”, probably increases premiums for other folks who already have a health care plan (b/c open access will shift the risk profile of insureds).

I’d love to ask Rep Nadler if he has an opinion on why dear ol’ Joe Biden has not been more of an ass-kicker back in his old stomping grounds… seems to me that Biden could slap Tax Max around and bring him back in line, as well as other senators with a “D” after their name.

Rep. Nadler: I think the chances of the public option of being passed in health care reform are pretty good.

Actually, Rep. Nadler, the chances of the public option being passed in health care reform are pretty nowayinhell.

Everything is going as planned.

Please resume your normal activities.

Jane the Mad As Hell Doctors need some help getting the media attention they deserve. Can you get in a word with Rachel, Olbermann or one of the other muckety mucks you are rubbing virtual elbows with

Folks spent a bit of time (on the phone) with some of the Mad as Hell Doctors road and media team. Of course I am kicking myself in the ass for not contacting them weeks ago for a stop in Athens Ohio. They said they have basically honored most request for stops when they first put their plans for the road trip up I believe they said 8 weeks ago

As Montanamaven shared they are having a hard time getting the media coverage they so deserve. So as MM as suggested let’s help them on their way. Contacting mainline media outlets on their way. Asking them to give full coverage to these DOCTORS for single payer.

Schedule
http://www.madashelldoctors.com/

contacts for the Mad as Hell Doctors team
Clinton 971-235-6590
Fiori 206- 718-2417
Gary 503-679-8482

Their next stops are around the Dayton Ohio region. Then to Cleveland etc. Let’s help and contact media folks before they get there.

Call or email the Columbus Dispatch today or early tomorrow ask them to cover the “Mad as Hell Doctors”

http://www.dispatch.com/live/c…..index.html

The Dayton Daily News
http://www.daytondailynews.com…..ntact.html

Folks should contact the Diane rehm show and Talk of the Nation (have been successful at getting them to do particular shows and have even gotten a few guest on their programs. Let’s make sure the Mad as Hell Doctors get the coverage they deserve on their way…especially when they hit D.C.

drshow@wamu.org

Ok, so what is the public option? I mean, this is all about politics at this point. I think there is a good chance the House will pass a “public option”, the Senate won’t, and it will be nixed in reconciliation. Where’s the policy discussion? Every time someone in Congress says we’ll get a “public option” it would be great to know what the heck “public option” is. I think this strict PO advocacy, with no discussion about Medicare for All, has been a strategic disaster. For example, PO advocates say “this is the compromise from single payer”, large swaths of the public have no idea what single payer is. They don’t know what you have compromised or why or for what. They don’t know the policy.

Go for the eyes, Nadler! Go for the eyes! YAARRGHHH!

the public option needs to be better defined. maybe it needs to be advertised after definition. dr,cortese ceo and president of the mayo clinic was on c-span talking about the care they provide. very affordable high quality. the mayo plan could be design be an example of a public option. by the way dr. cortese was wonderful taking questions.

Citizen masslib:

I can understand your frustration, Citizen, but the wheels inside of wheels that are grinding here will chew us ALL up if we don’t stand and fight on the ground we have left. First of all, there will be no economic recovery, no EFCA legislation and no Democratic victory in 2010 unless there is a “public option” hung on the Medicare structure. If that happens, Obama becomes a one term President and we will be fighting extra-constitutionally to preserve what is left of our country. If on the other hand, the progressives in the congress stand firm, they become the legislative base with which Obama must work in order to accomplish ANYthin’ and it provides cover for him to quietly get rid of Rahm Emmanuel after the 2010 elections.

Obama is not stupid but he IS right now hung out on the line he strung when he chose Emmanual in the first place…in order for him to succeed, he needs to be able to justify putting his name on legislation that he promised the “big boys” wouldn’t come up for a vote and then he needs to take credit for legislation that works while being tied to the progressive base of the party for a second term.

So, this fight is for ALL the marbles and Obama knows it.

Citizen MrCleveland:

“Actually Rep. Nadler the chances of a public option being passed in healthcare reform are noway in hell.”

And you know this how, Citizen Karnak from Cleveland? Pray tell, what insight do you have from your perch amid the rubble of the collapse of industrial capitalism there in Cleveland that Congressman Nadler doesn’t have from the floor of Congress?

Dunno, but it doesn’t bode particularly well.

I agree with this:

I mean, this is all about politics at this point. I think there is a good chance the House will pass a “public option”, the Senate won’t, and it will be nixed in reconciliation.

How is a public policy discussion going to change that? You’re going to have to clue me in.

It could be single payer, it could be a public option, it could be the ability to negotiate prescription drug prices. Congress is going to take something the public wants and they don’t intend to pass it, they’re going to try and bail out the insurance industry instead.

If they’re not responsive to what the public wants, is the fact that people are clearer about how they are getting screwed going to change that fact?

In a nut shell.

Any insurance plan is designed to cover the cost associated with the risk of sutaining an expense that an individual could not afford to pay. To operate properly it must have a sufficient number of particants paying into a pool that would cover the expenses of all members as the occassion arose. Because the cost would be too high if only high risk high cost participants were involved you need to have a wide majority of relatively low risk low cost members participating. This means more relatively healthy than relatively sick participants.

The merit of this way to cover risk associated cost is that the cost to each member is the lowest possible, but only if it operates in a not for profit manner. In this way payouts from the pool go only to cover the cost associated with the risk involved, in our case the cost associated with becoming sick. The not for profit aspect of this way of covering risk is what characterises the PO.

The PO is essential because it allows for overall cost reduction. It would basically cover the 40 million or so people who are currently not able to afford the high cost of the premiums offered by private insurers who provide coverage for risk but who keep a portion of your premium to themselves as a profit. Private insurers are the main reason why the cost of medical care is so expensive and why it continues to grow and that is because they do not fully reimburse for the cost of the health services provided. This non-payment for services is what constitutes their profits. The larger the non-reimbursement the higher their profit.

Now of course private insurers are incensed of having to compete with a not for profit insurance plan but that should be of no interest to people in general. In fact it would be self defeating and stupid to prefer to pay a higher premium for the same service, so that someone has the nice priviledge of keeping some of that premium for themself.

It may help if and when people communicate with their congresspeople. Having some vague sense of being screwed isn’t something that a legislator can act on, even assuming he wants to. Having specific goals is a key to getting a specific result. It’s also good, I think, when you can remind people months later: “See, this is what we told Sen. Thusandsuch, and he didn’t deliver.”

I’m also uncomfortable with vagueness, because in government that usually provides cover for politicians who don’t want to do the right thing.

Yes it is true that vagueness in arguing one’s case shows that you are not clear about what you are arguing for.

There are however very clear reasons to advocate for the PO as being crucial in a reform of the current system run by private insurers.

Basically, private insurers make a profit by excluding people with a high risk of costly medical care. They also gain by diverting a portion of the cost of the health service provided to the policy holder. These practices are the main reason why the delivery of health care is so expensive.

These practices result in a large number of people unable to meet the cost of the health services they receive and as a result health care providers need to increase the cost of their services to cover these non-reimbursements. However the private insurers then turn around and increase their premiums pointing at the fact that health services have increased.

This cycle can go on indefinitely with premiums and health services increasing all the time. Private companies are continually gaining because it is the non-reimbursement they create that constitutes their profit.

The fact that private insurers cause rising premiums and health care costs argue against their whole reason for being. It does no good to attempt to reform this model of operating because the profit for a private insurance plan will necessarily come from some degree of non-reimbursement with the consequences that flows from it. It is this way of generating profit that is the essential pernicious aspect of private insurers and would need to eliminated.

Yes!!! Let’s help the Mad as Hell Doctors make a big splash from this point on. They were on The Ed Show tonight. Here’s hoping it’s Keith and/or Rachel next.

Their position is in favor of single payer.

They will rally at the Humana Insurance building in Louisville, KY tomorrow. The next day, their schedule shows events in Xenia, OH.

The culmination of all this will be a rally in D.C. on September 30. Please get the word out.

By the way, their Facebook page is becoming very active. Just search “Mad as Hell Doctors” on Facebook and you’ll find them. Let’s get their “fan” numbers up, up, up!!!

One of the Mad as Hell Doctor team members that I talked with today had said that they were hoping to get on the Ed show tonight. Great that they made it. Now lets keep pushing for them to get covered by Rachel, Keith, Matthews Diane Rehm and the local newspapers. Check their schedule and call the media outlets a couple of days before they arrive in the next town

Hey I think Jane has some connections with Rachel and Keith. Hope she mentions the Mad as Hell Docs

Really glad Ed gave them the time

“If they’re not responsive to what the public wants, is the fact that people are clearer about how they are getting screwed going to change that fact?”

Absolutely, Jane. People are already angry over the bailouts, high unemployment, etc..If they fully understood how Congress is screwing them on health care, yes, I think it would make a difference. You assume all the public option support is strong support, I think it’s soft support. I know there are polls showing less enthusiasm for reform without the PO among the base, but there are also polls, that show something like 80% of Democrats still support reform without the PO. I’d define that as soft support, and I think Obama and the Democrats know this. I think people indeed have to be told how screwed they are getting on health care. Single payer provides context for the public option. Without it, few Americans actually can grasp either concept. They don’t know if it’s a sliver for a few Americans who can’t afford better insurance, or something they may actually want. As far as “the ability to negotiate prescription drug prices”, there is no excuse, public option or not, for health reform advocates to ignore this egregious deal making. Wal-Mart negotiates drug prices based on their market size. There is no excuse for Congress not to do what Wal-Mart does freely. This should have been reform number one. The reform debate from the activists side needs to be broadened or we are going to be stuck with Romney Care for several years to come.

Thank you Rep. Nadler!

I don’t think of it as the public option or nothing. If we do not get a good public option now, we will get it after we shed some blue dogs in the next election. I just hope we don’t get some insurance company written plan that is designed to fail. I want a real public option. The insurance companies need some competition. They are trying to build fail into the public option by trying to make it follow all the many different rules and regulations in all the states. It would make much more sense, if you want it to succeed, to allow all the insurance companies in all the States to offer the same benefits as the public option. But that is the point. They do not want the public option to succeed, and they do not want competition. That’s why they are trying to sabotage it.

Keep up the good fight. I like the website.

late to the discussion but FWIW:

http://www.pnhp.org/news/2009/…..avid_u.php

April 23, 2009

Dr. David Himmelstein

There is no question that we have a fragmented health insurance industry. And it thrives on being fragmented, avoiding any kind of serious centralized examination or control. The drug companies make much more money with this insurance fragmentation, because there’s no price control. The insurance companies make much more money because they can push away people who aren’t going to be profitable, let public programs take care of these patients who are “unprofitable”.

What the President and the Congress are really, realistically advocating – since there is absolutely no possibility of having enough money to cover all people in this country as long as the private, for-profit health insurance industry is allowed to exist – is more incremental reform, not National Health Insurance. It is now 44 years since Medicare and Medicaid came into existence. In the interim, there have been many experiments in this country and abroad to try to provide universal health coverage.

Other countries have uniformly rejected the private for-profit insurance industry and have adopted National Health Insurance. Is everyone else wrong and only the US is right?

A recent study by the international OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development)[1] provided health insurance data from its 30 member countries (Europe, Korea, Japan, Mexico, Canada, the U.S. and others including Australia, New Zealand and Iceland). The latest data from those countries showed that 27 of the 30 had health insurance coverage for more than 96% of the population, with only Germany having any non-public coverage (10.3%). The other three were Mexico with 60.4% covered – all with public coverage, Turkey, with 67.2% covered, also with public coverage and the U.S. with 84.9% covered 57.5% with private and 27.4% with public coverage.

In Canada, back in 1970, they were spending the same percentage of their gross national product as we were on health. They also had millions of uninsured people and many of the same insurance companies such as Blue Cross, Blue Shield. They decided to just get rid of the health insurance industry. They had experimented with it in Saskatchewan ten years earlier and it had worked so well, they couldn’t wait to do it nationally. So, where there’s a will, there’s a way. There is no way we are ever going to get to having good health insurance for everyone, as long as there’s a health insurance industry, in the way, obstructing care.

Other more recent experiments abroad include Taiwan. In 1995, Taiwan had said, we don’t like the fact that 40 percent of our people are uninsured. They passed, essentially, single-payer plan and within a few years 90-95 percent of the people were covered.