Ron Paul is that front runner but he dives off into lulu land with some of his rants about entitlements.

If you want radical change it won’t happen without any bloodshed unfortunately.

You want real change?

If 80% of the workforce doesn’t go to work, doesn’t buy food or gas for a week, pulls all their money out of the 4 largest banks and don’t pay your health care premiums, you might actually see something happen.

Boycotts and Strikes only work if you can hit big business hard in the wallet.

When it was reported how they deny coverage, that went largely under the radar and explained away by the insurance companies as simply errors when filling out forms.

Its just another tactic to deny and delay care, they rather you die if it cost them enough money. With millions of couples everyday getting married and many of those then having children, they know you’re replaceable on the rolls.

The confusion behind Public Option is because it was never easily explained, it was vague and it has no emotion tied too it.

We are largely fighting with ourselves now, not the Republicans, they are no longer a factor. They won’t vote for it and we shouldn’t have to weaken any bill further just for one token Republican vote. We’ll get Bi-Partisanship once Republican Party rejects its Neo-Conservative leadership. That won’t happen until they experience more defeat and a total rejection of their ideas outside their strong holds.

Nobody has bothered to explain what the Pubic Option is and they keep coming up with these numbers short of 100% coverage, how is that acceptable? Isn’t that a form of discrimination? You make too much money, you can’t opt into the Public Plan??? Isn’t that class warfare?

They ask J. Hacker vague questions. Only GriTV has explained it, but I already know what the keys are. His plan assumes All In, including Medicare and S-Chip, pre-population is the key to getting the prices you want.

It seems the leadership is bent on covering only half or so of the 47-50 million (including myself) without in coverage. This will not work, because roughly 10 million will still not have access to the Public Option, but will still be forced to buy shitty insurance.

In a few years, some say around 2016 it will be deemed a failure and there will be pressure to wind it down or make changes.

Key elements of the current House Bill and now possibly the joke of a Senate bill is allowing States to opt out of the Federal plan for one of their own.

Looks like PA and CA are poised to Single Payer.

This is our only hope unless theirs some 11th hour enlightenment and during the vote for the House bill, the add-in for Single Payer (replacing the wording in HR3200) with Medicare For All and DARE the Senate not to agree to those terms, not allow for a Fillibuster and let the those with weak hearts allow it to pass with 50+Biden

Its not over but the clock is running…

The negotiated rates idea is something politicians came up with as a compromise for political purposes. The CBO scored it as saving $2.5 billion a year, which is probably within the margin of error of nothing. Health care providers would have little incentive to negotiate. It might help a little in states that have a single private company, but mostly it would just limp along.

The payment formula issue?

I don’t know enough about the economics of hospitals and so on. Kent Conrad seemed to think some of them would be hurt severely if the Rockefeller amend. went through. If there’s truth in that then why do any doctors & hospitals around the country accept Medicare-style funding?

In general I’m in favor of simply paying a bill at the negotiated rate. I think that reducing the payout by a formula only encourages them to increase their prices to ensure that in the end they still get what they want. I prefer simplicity and the lower numbers that would likely produce.

So, what exactly is robust? It must be the system which reduces prices best. Which approach reduces prices and final cost to everyone the most? Is it forced Medicare-style formula which providers can get around or is it simply paying what’s negotiated.

It’s not entirely obvious or easily decided, but I tend to go with free market negotiated rates.

I suppose one potential catch in that is whether it’s an individual or a large group negotiating those prices. The PO is a large group, but does it negotiate that way?