Tweet
Anthony Weiner (D-NY) has a new op-ed in Politico calling for giving the public option a vote in the Senate. While he does not address the process dynamics, he leaves the impression that he is calling for an up-or-down vote on the public option as an amendment to the reconciliation bill or as a stand-alone reconciliation measure.
Supporters of the public option in Congress and the country want the president to succeed. I think we dishonor the long debate over this issue to let it simply disappear without a trace.
At the end of all whodunits is the “aha” moment. We know Kristin shot J.R. We know Maggie shot Mr. Burns. Heck, we even know that Colonel Mustard did it with a rope in the study.
Let’s put the public option to a vote, once and for all.
I fully agree with this sentiment and think the public option deserves an up-or-down vote as part of reconciliation. In fact, I spelled out the strategy for how just one determined Democratic senator could likely force an up-or-down vote on a public option amendment to any reconciliation sidecar bill. But, while I can only write about this stuff, Anthony Weiner, as a member of Congress, can actually do something about it–beyond writing op-eds.
We have seen how the Bart Stupak (D-MI), by standing firm with a handful of supporters, has gotten the Democratic leadership basically willing to move mountains to satisfy him. If Weiner could get, say, eight public option supporters together who agreed to oppose the Senate health care bill until they were promised a reconciliation vote on the public option in the Senate, he could achieve a similar result. All Weiner would need is a promise from Vice President Joe Biden and Majority Leader Harry Reid not to use any procedural tricks to stop the vote, and a promise from one Senate public option supporter, like Michael Bennet (D-CO), to work with them on crafting a public option that could survive the Byrd rule. That would result in the public option getting a vote as part of the vote-a-rama at the end of the reconciliation debate.
This is really a very modest request, and with Democrats desperately trying to whip the votes, they basically wouldn’t be able to refuse. I think most Americans would agree that the public option deserves an up-or-down vote in the Senate. Even if it does not pass, the American people are owed the right to know what senators stand with the American people and which are fighting to protect the profits of the private insurance companies.
So, the real question is: what are the public option supporters doing to make sure that vote happens? Are there even a handful of House or Senate Democrats who think the American people deserve an honest accounting from their representatives?
88 Comments
Support this site!
Subscribe to the newsletter
Advertise on Firedoglake
Send
us your tips
Make us your homepage
About FDL Action
Here ya go Anthony. Things get done when you’ve got balls.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMlPE1lV_5Y&feature=fvst
Seems like a no-brainer? “Back-in the-day” the Progressive Caucus said they wouldn’t support a bill without a “strong” public option, so why should only nutjobs like Stupak be allowed to stand-firm for what they believe? If we don’t get a public option then we’ve been hustled again just as with the Patriot Act, WMD, and the Bank Bailout Panic of ’08! Is this just one more fear-tactic hustle or is there anyone who means what they say? If Anthony Weiner won’t do what’s necessary, no one will!
Would love to see that–but I imagine the hammer would come down–hard–on anyone who tried to put the Senate and the White House on the spot for the P.O.
The Democratic caucus in the Senate was unable to produce a final bill with a public option, but the bill they produced got 60 votes without one. We now have 35 Senators on record supporting the public option…reconciliation requires, at a minimum, 50 votes plus V.P. Joe Biden. Are there another 15 Senators willing to vote for a public option? And then there’s the White House…the lack of enthusiasm for the public option is obvious. I doubt you’ll find them doing the kind of lobbying for the public option in the Senate as the full court press they’re putting on House members to pass the Senate bill as-is.
I think most Americans would agree that the public option deserves an up-or-down vote in the Senate.
I’m sure that BHO has already signaled to “progressives” that this would not be helpful.
Rep. Weiner – start the WAR for the public option!!!!!!! This is your chance to make history!!!!
If the House approves the senate bill first, there will be no reconcilliation bill to “fix” the senate bill. AND, health care will never be mentioned by this administration again.
Another man that’s all talk and no action. The story of my life.
When all the bluster and bullshit is shoveled away, most of these bastards are liars. The current POS bill w/o public option and mandating we buy insurance will never pass muster with the SCOTUS. So we’ll be back to square one with nothing, which is where they all really want us anyway.
Off topic. I was soooo proud of the college kids yesterday for standing up for something and refusing to have shit pounded down their throats without at least putting up a fight.
A very modest request, considering how well the Public Option polls and how the PO could reduce costs…
It’s all about the bucks. The congress is bought and paid for and what we are watching is kabuki theater.
Good Morning Jon and Firedogs,
Y’all can go over to his Facebook Page and ask him.
click on “Become A Fan”, (you can always un-fan later) click on “just fans” and type away
The whole scenario is for show. We can see how those opposed to giving the public real reform can get things stopped, but when it comes to moving TO real reform, all you get are a few strongly worded speeches or op-eds. Actually, I’m with the rethugs and teabaggers on this: kill the useless bill that only enriches the corps more than ever. Before this “reform” goes into effect, at least 120,000 more needless deaths will occur. In a way, this is quietly doing to our own country what we have done in Iraq and Afghanistan: kill off the helpless population to establish control.
(Me too. Go college kids!)
When is this Congressman going to learn that we elected a leader without a backbone and that goes for the rest of the party
I always thought the problem is that he’s a Medicare-for-all guy and considers the public option a watered-down waste of time. I would a vote on single payer. Wiener has made this his signature issue, so he’d better deliver something. I don’t see Kucinich, Grayson, or Nadler sticking their necks out too far, either.
This whole – We will fix it later meme…. before they even pass the problems is just one giant step into the bizarro looking glass.
I just want these people to stop intentionally breaking things to begin with.
The Senate and the White House don’t have a hammer. Besides, if you aren’t willing to stand for real public health care, you don’t belong in the House of Representatives, especially not as a Democrat.
Shit or get off the pot.
I’ve been lurking here at the lake since the days of Grandpa and Redhead. I’ve seen this flick before. Sound and fury etc.
The American people will do the lobbying if the measure comes up for a vote.
my subversive heart was bursting with pride all day yesterday – my niece was a chief organizer and MC at the Oakland, CA events :D
Just get out into the fucking Streets, – with the students or whomever is marching at the moment. No demand, no movement, – why would anyone of those in Washington give a damn what a cowered and sedate public wants?
Use your fucking bodies, people, as this is just the beginning of an unabashed and unopposed wealth transfer into a thirld world status.
Stop yapping and jump into fucking action!
On what do you base your assessment that a mandate to buy private insurance would not pass court scrutiny? I ask because legal beagle folks over at EW do not agree.
Don’t most if not all of us already live under a mandate to buy private auto insurance now?
get your own backbone first, start marching!
Ooohhh, very cool. Yay for niece. Is she a Cal student?
Exactly! These lying scheming scumbags are only fooling the weak minded and the uninformed and they’re counting on the short memory of this huge crowd to get them through this exercise in political theater. Their problem is they’re caught between trying to please two masters and really only wanting to please one of them ( their Big Corp. contributers). The other master is the people they need to fool into voting for them every 2 to 6 yrs. They’re confident they can fool enough people to get through this and thats what all this dancing about and talking in circles is about , nothing more. They’re hoping some other “shiny thing” or event will distract us and let them go back to monkey business as usual.
Marching is so retro.
SF State grad last june – now teaching film making and other arts to East Bay HS students. swear the girl would bring a tear to ol Norske’s eyes :D
UCSF
Sorry honey
I agree only a few million of us in DC in these bastards faces will change the dynamic of this debate. Even FOX news won’t be able to ignore 2 million REAL people demanding HCR real reform not this BS were going to get. Ok, so how do we go about this? Lets form a group called a MARCH FOR HEALTH or a MARCH FOR LIFE ( might sound to much like a RTL group though). Our rallying CRY could be HEALTH CARE FOR EVERYONE NOT HEALTH INSURANCE!! WE WANT SINGLE -PAYER NOW!!!
snark, right?
There are some pups who actually do hit the streets, like Southern Dragon. And, he shares photos of events with us.
Do you have any photos or videos from all the events you attend? People here appreciate those.
go and get your own fucking pictures, dearie.
That sure seemed uncalled for. Why the hostility?
I don’t think many of the so call Progressive Senators like Put Up or Shut Up Time.
Forcing them to vote on the Public Option, would probably piss them off, since all they want to do is pay the progressive base Lip Service.
Heh, I was just about say how cool that niece and I have the same alma mater, but UCSF has more prestige anyway.
I think they do have a hammer, but I agree with the rest of your comment.
Pretty sure CBL had it right and it is SF State. Sorry for the error.
I guess a passive/aggressive attitude just doesn’t sit so well with me at this point in the game.
Jon, Thank you!
Rep. Weiner,
You don’t get to call yourself a “fighter for real health care reform” the day before the White House’s bs summit in order to rake in contributions from public option supporters with a “moneybomb” unless you are willing to fight for real health care reform.
President Obama was right the other day when he said that the American people deserve an up-or-down vote on what we’ve been debating over the last year.
The Senate must be forced to vote up-or-down on a public option. Tough talk from you is not enough. Fight for real health care reform and force President Obama to fight for real health care reform, or stop playing a leader on tv as part of a fundraising gimmick.
Snark, but loaded with ambivilence.
Has there ever been serious social change without bodies in the street? Mass marches seem historically very important. Still, there is something quaint and dated about them. In America in particular, marches are done by the usual suspects who are nearly universally mocked.
Progressives need to integrate some more contemperary and innovative ways of protest, IMO, in addition to traditional marches and rallies.
You can always elect not to own a car or to drive if you don’t want auto insurance. You can’t elect not to live and breathe in order to avoid health insurance. That comparison doesn’t hold up, unfortunately.
Wow. Just wow. Very classy.
He won’t do it.
He’s Schumer’s protege. He won’t dare defy the leadership, he’s a party man thru and thru.
I would love to see him do it, but all he’s willing to do is campaign on it.
This post is not about the merits of marching.
This post is about whether or not the American people deserve an up-or-down vote on the public option in the Senate.
This post is about whether our allies in the House are willing to fight, or whether they’re charlatans who talk tough in order to benefit from our energy and financial support.
Integrate means that you are marching already.
We are looking at a lowercase ‘y’ recession and a loss of the American middle class.
Why are we bankrolling the healthcare of the Europeans, but cannot attend to our own health security?
Sorry for the OT. Back to the topic…
Let’s have an up or down vote on the PO. The senate needs to be forced to go on the record with votes against the PO so we know who needs to go.
Compartmentalizing is the wrong way of dealing with what is happening to the American public at this time.
HCR almost seems like just a ruse to keep us from not noticing the outright theft of trillions of dollars from our economy.
Wake up to the real situation. Tell me where the future jobs will come from?
I’m late to the thread. Perhaps I’m mistaken, but there seems to be a bit of internecine squabbling going on.
The GOP party brass love to see that, I’m sure. Just sayin’…
We can’t fight all the battles at once and we can’t solve the root of all problems short of a revolution (which no one here is calling for).
This discussion about marching is distracting from discussion of a public option, the need for an up-or-down vote on a public option in the Senate, and what our supposed allies in the House (who are always talking a good game when holding our their hands for our contributions) are doing to make sure that there is an up-or-down vote on a public option in the Senate.
Jon is asking “Where’s Weiner, and what’s Weiner going to do about it?” in this post.
They all are captives of the economic elites and nothing less than a willingness to put your brawn behind your brains will convince them that the public means it.
You’re probably right that this (marching, protesting, civil disobedience, etc.) needs to be discussed, seriously.
Have you considered doing a diary on the subject?? I’d join you over there at The Seminal.
Whoa, THAT was totally uncalled for.
Not. Cool.
I understand. But I also understand that shooting off e-mails, and signing petitions is too lame by half. We’ll be bailing out AIG, Fanny and Freddy to the tune of another tenths of Billions, while the government will propose austerity measures for us. Healthcare, – no matter what shakes out – 10 million out of work people will get it exactkly How?
Not cool is doing nothing, being a consumer of pictures instead doing the work yourself. Moreover, Demi’s comment was not made in good faith.
That’s not the same. You are not mandated to buy car insurance. You are only mandated to buy car insurance IF you own and drive a car. You are not mandated to own and drive a car. Millions of people don’t own a car or drive. Millions.
Also, I’ve seen their opinions expressing that it’s probably constitutional, and I’ve seen at least one prominent law professor (sorry, I’ll try to find the link, it was a few weeks ago and no longer in my browser memory) make the case it isn’t.
For me, if our Constitution, which was supposed to limit government and enshrine individual rights, doesn’t even prohibit the government from forcing us to become customers of this private entity or that private entity, then I’m no longer much of a fan of such a Constitution. I would almost wish I could take my pledge back I took to support and defend it as a service member and civil servant.
Also, once that precedent is set, how long do you think it’s going to be before other industries begin lobbying to have their product/service mandated?? After all, if it’s legal to force us to become customers of one private entity, for profit, industry, then it most certainly is legal for them to force us to become customers of others.
I think I see what you mean by “was not made in good faith” but I still think that was an uncalled for response, well, at least the tone of it was.
But I do agree with your overall context here. I’m beginning to come to believe that our only hope now is to begin some serious marching, strikes, civil disobedience, something. I think the channels that were supposed to work for change have now become too corrupted to accomplish that change.
So, I agree with the underlying gist of what you’re saying. And still think perhaps a diary would be a good idea. Or maybe even better a weekly one, that could build up support for this. Cause we’ve got to DO SOMETHING to take our country back. Thess rich, lying, assholes aren’t gonna just give it back.
David Dayen has a fresh cross-post up and running: Advisers To Recommend Trying KSM In Military Commissions
” how long do you think it’s going to be before other industries begin lobbying to have their product/service mandated”
Fuck that old time thinking about being forced to pay for services. The American taxpayer has been made to pay out 11 trillion to Wall Street for nothing!
You’re right OFG, I’ll moderate myself,-thanks.
Hmmm…imagining a law that says you must buy a car every five years whether you need it or not because otherwise our industrial base will dry up and blow away. Wow. It could happen, couldn’t it?
Without going into reams of elaborate scenarios it seems clear that at the time of passage of both the House and Senate bills there was a majority of people who favored a national public plan. So now if the House were to include such a plan among the fixes it includes in the bill it returns to the Senate for rconciliation, the Senate should have a mojority of votes to approve that measure.
There is nothing hindering or precluding both the House and the Senate from proceeding to do this. Whether the House includes this fix and the Senate approves it in reconciliation is completely dependent on if they want to do so.
There is nothing else to consider. Any reason given for not voting on this measure is just an excuse and all voters should take note of that. The willingness to vote on a public plan should be taken by voters as a determining reason to give or deny support. There must be a consequence paid by those Congress people that will not consider this measure.
That’s too convoluted, all of those bribed thieves need to be termed out by the voters, and let someone else sort out the sordid details.
but do you have equal respect for those of us who feel that the piece of shit HCR is being shoved down our throats and have been standing up and trying every way possible to block this bill ??
I don’t know where you live, but I have to own a vehicle… Nearly twenty miles round trip to the nearest grocery store. heck it’s six miles RT to the nearest milk cow.
It’s (auto insurance mandates) close enough to the same.. in terms of established precedent, imo. Government can and does force us to buy a private product/service (Which you do pay even if you ride in someone else vehicle from time to time, or buy products which are delivered under these laws, etc).
I certainly wouldn’t bet on winning with the Supreme Court we have.
Your representatives have been paid not to be responsive to your needs and the needs of the country. Free them to be all they want to be; Lobbyists.
The only way you are going to get a public option is to begin again and write a new bill.
You won’t get it with the current set up.
As soon as the House passes the Senate bill, there will be no incentive to pass anything in the Senate. Once the House passes the Senate bill, Obama has his health care reform. Nothing more is needed. The Senate liked the bill as it is, that is why they passed it.
Once the House passes the bill, you have Health Care Reform. Get it? What incentive will the Senate have to do anything? None.
Obama will have no incentive either. He will have his signature accomplishment, health care reform. As long as he can say he got it done, it doesn’t matter if it includes any one particular provision or another.
This is going to be stuffed down your throat. The promises will mean nothing. Once it is passed, all kinds of “reasons” will come up that the other parts can’t be done. If the Senate has health care reform done, if the House passes it, why would they want to upset the apple cart and put a little poison in the Senate atmosphere? And you know they like a congenial atmosphere there.
I think that defunding certain important and influential corporate entities as well as passing statewide ballot initiatives that limit corproate priviledges are the most effective and immediate way to undo corporate influence. This way of attacking the problem is just straigthforward.
For example all like minded people can just stop buying gas from say, Exxon. Or withdrawing their deposits from BoA, Citigroup and others and placing them in local banks that are secure. This concerted approach or even the threat of such an approach will achieve our ends without hysterics but very decisively.
Not everyone will join in with such boycotts but a committed few will be enough. And there is no time like the present to begin.
Our government is spearheading class warfare on behalf of about 2% of America’s economic elites who are buying public property in a fire sale with the money our government is shoveling into their pockets via the Fed.
Your prescriptions amount to too little and too late.
Furthermore, certainly boycotts and as far as I know state ballot initiatives can be carried out at any time without the need to wait for every 2 or 4 year election cycles.
These strategies are immediate public demands for undoing the damage wrought by the current corporate mess the country is being held hostage to.
“Striking Greek workers shut down transport and tried to storm parliament as lawmakers passed 4.8 billion euros ($6.5 billion) in budget cuts, including wage reductions, needed to trim the region’s biggest budget deficit.”
We’re next on the path to austerity.
You bring up the thing that I also see suspicious. If there is a mandate to buy auto ins. you can elect to not drive. If there is an income tax you don’t want to pay, you can… “elect” not to work… and ( maybe… that might work… no guarantees…) But here everybody is under penalty, required to purchase HCI.
This should to be a huge, ( SCOTUS… test… ) A landmark move to a new state of existence for the individual.
With this mandate to purchase ins. it is new ground, not so much about the worthless insurance products, but about encroachment on rights.
To play football with the… public option symbolism … Has been crass and cynical, because it is proper, that the state provide the item mandated. If ever there was a valid reason for it, and not private companies, for profit. This is part of a mental reconditioning process. This is an escallation of privatization, temporary end run or “substituted in the hole” for social security confiscation, maybe…
It may be so complex because it is a pivitol issue for basic rights that is about to be stealthily clamped on all. This is a big deal, for long range, it will be the start of something.
Real jobs do not come from massaging jobless data. Would someone tell me where the jobs are going to come from in America.
Health care for 10 million chronically unemployed and 40 million underemployed is here to stay if we’re lucky. Wages are stagnant, the government has moved our wealth into the pockets of Wall Street speculators. And the public, other than ‘baggers didn’t flinch. Well, they say, so far so good – keep on keeping on until they start physically stirring up against these policies.
You’re saying that they’re distracting us from another issue while you’re distracting us from this issue. In this thread, we’re discussing the need to get our supposed allies in the House – the ones who want our energy and contributions – to force the position of the Senate and White House and do everything possible to make sure that there is an up-or-down vote on a public option in the Senate.
If you want to discuss another important issue, it should be done in the thread of another post and/or in a diary.
I don’t dispute for a minute that people who remain wedded to notions like appealing to Democrats in Congress or Obama are thoroughly deluded if they expect any results from them. Those efforts are completely misplaced. But there is no harm in making our voices felt to the extent we can in this effort by supporting alternative candidates who are thereby indebted to our points of view.
Likewise defunding corporations makes eminent sense. It is our funds they feed on. By continuing to feed them we are complicit in facillitating their strangle hold on ourselves and that is insane. Defunding these entities are the first logical and likely most effective measures that we can take. The aim is to defund them not just to symbolically chastize them.
I completely agree that this is warfare but there are arms at our disposal we should employ. At the same time we should certainly refrain from unwittingly continuing to shoot oursleves in the face and facillitating our own demize.
Don’t support anything that stinks.
Issues that are as divisive as this one, and as rife with corruption should be widely discouraged, at least not actively supported. Where is the clear voice, of leadership? It is a good time to step back and wait.
First remember, like some doctors say… “Do no harm.” The congress seems to be going in the wrong direction.
Weiner is pretty good at motivational speaking, but the bill ? bills are all screwed up now.
Anthony Wiener is nothing more than a shameless self-promoter. Full stop. That was crystal clear the day he provided his little bit of emotionally satisfying theater on the House floor calling out the Republicans (with no mention of the real obstructionists in his own Party), and then proceeded to canvas seemingly every liberal blog on the internet with requests for cash with a link to a video of his previous day’s antics.
Principled my ass.
My only wish is that he were here to have it said to his face; cynical narcissistic huckster.
With THIS SCOTUS???
I fear you’re dreaming about the days when we had a REAL third branch of government [the judiciary] to protect us from the excesses of the other two — and of their partners-in-crime, the corporations.
Not so much any more.
May I ask which high school?
My sister-in-law teaches at Skyline. [Tom Hanks old school. He actually gave $$$ to the place to build their auditorium.]
This [like your repeated calls for "takng to the streets"] sounds like sophomore year late night dorm bullshitting.
Has it ever occurred to you that “marching in the streets” requires organization, publicity, fund-raising? You don’t just hop down to your local intersection, even with a bullhorn, and announce your brilliant ideas for overthrowing “the Man” and changing the system.
How’s that working for you, anyway?
And are you over the age of 22?
The public option would receive at least 51 Democratric votes in the Senate, which is why the Obama White House and the Congressional Democratic leadership won’t allow it to see the light of day in an up or down vote in the Senate as part of reconciliation–It would force reluctant Senate Democrats to choose between the voters (who support the public option by 60% or more) and their special interest funders. As I’ve written in the Huffington Post, the real reason there’s no public option in the final legislation is that the Obama White House made a deal with the for-profit hospital industry that there would be no natonal public option.
According to the NY Times: “Several hospital lobbyists involved in the White House deals said it was understood…that the final legislation would not include a government-run health plan…’We have an agreement with the White House [that there will be no national public option]‘ one of the industry lobbyists, Chip Kahn, director of the Federation of American Hospitals told a Capitol Hill newsletter.”
Jon, since the MSM don’t seem to want to touch this story further, you should investigate it and publicize it on FDL which migh embarrass the White House and/or Congressional Dems to allow an up or down vote in the Senate on the public option as part of reconciliation
Yes OFG, the nation is becoming a company town and we are forced to buy only at the corrupt company store, going deeper and deeper into debt. Will they pay us in script and send the company guards to patrol us next? The word is peonage, and we are being made mandated peons of Big Insurance. Big Insurance gets first dibs on our paychecks now with the IRS as enforcer.
It has nothing to do with the law. This SCOTUS has no intention of handing any democrat any type of victory. Five of these bastards will not rest until they have turned the US into an English speaking Iran.
What’s your point? I don’t like the fucking bill either.
No, not dreaming. See my rationale above.
“Anthony Wiener is nothing more than a shameless self-promoter. Full stop. That was crystal clear the day he provided his little bit of emotionally satisfying theater on the House floor calling out the Republicans (with no mention of the real obstructionists in his own Party), and then proceeded to canvas seemingly every liberal blog on the internet with requests for cash with a link to a video of his previous day’s antics.
Principled my ass.
My only wish is that he were here to have it said to his face; cynical narcissistic huckster.
”
Well said. Hi little Anthony, got your number over here!
: )
Miles, great piece over at Huff Post. Even if it was good policy (and of course its not), its astonishing that no one in the White House gave any thought to how damaging these backroom deals will be (future tense, because it won’t be until this fall that Republicans across the country will make every American knows the details that you report in your column (hey, maybe your piece will be cited in the attack ads).
God only knows how many ads the Republicans will come up with highlighting:
(1) Obama’s broken C-SPAN negotiation promise,
(2) just how richly the secret deals benefitted corporate special interests (who, incidentally, gave much money to the Obama campaign),
(3) used tax code to punishing industries that declined to politically endorse his reform bill (Senate bill put a 40% excise tax on medical device industry), and
(4) Obama broken public option campaign promises– the GOP will get a kick out of that last argument. From the Scott Brown race, they’re aware (even if DC Dems aren’t) that betrayed progressives staying home can be their margin of victory in otherwise liberal states.
I get the sinking feeling that this will all end with the next Republican president pulling a Nixon Goes to China and solidifying GOP (plus religious right, big oil and defense industry) rule for a generation by kicking the wealthcare lobbies off the sled and making the pivot to enact Medicare for All. Maybe President Palin (or whoever) will invite Obama to the bill signing as a goof.
wrong thread edit, nevermind…
Thank-you for continuing to expose this terrible truth that corporatist Democrats like President Obama betrayed the trust of so many and made a deal to kill the public option.
I wonder if these corporatist Democrats like President Obama know that they made that deal with an industry that, because of its being for-profit, not only causes 19% higher healthcare costs but actually causes a 2% higher rate of death. Amazing. Making deals with entities that cause more death. Check out this peer-reviewed study published in reputable journal that shows just this (copy-paste-Google the titles to read much about the studies):
(2002) A systematic review and meta-analysis of studies comparing mortality rates of private for-profit and private not-for-profit hospitals…….(4) (2004) Payments for care at private for-profit and private not-for-profit hospitals: a systematic review and meta-analysis (For-profit hospitals have 2% higher death rates and 19% higher costs because of the need to generate profit to satisfy investors, the significantly higher administrative costs, and the large executive bonuses.)
Even though corporatist Democrats like President Obama will not voluntarily give the public the strong public option it wants, the public option could still be forced into law in a rather unusual way: Since the Democratic Party will not give the self-proclaimed antiabortion Democrats in the House like Stupak the anti-abortion language they want in a side bill, these self-proclaimed antiabortion Democrats in the House could make it clear that it is politically impossible to cover tens of millions of uninsured via public money going to private insurance.
The only thing left by default would be a strong public option. The Democratic Party would then have no choice but to make it law, or else show themselves just as pro-death as the “pro-life” Republicans by joining those Republicans in walking away from all that suffering and death caused by lack of health care caused by lack of coverage.
They could make it law not by killing the whole bill, but by replacing the part giving public money to private plans with a part giving public money to public plans only.
Of course, the private insurance companies could, very paradoxically, to not let this happen and to keep all that public money, throw their cash around and get enough of these self-proclaimed prolife House Democrats to vote for what they say is pro-abortion language, in which case we get essentially the Senate Bill without a public option. (The insurance companies would do this because of, you know, the lesser-of-two-evils thing.)
If that happens, then, because of that deal with the for-profit hospital insurance industry, we can forget about corporatist Democrats like President Obama giving the public the public option it wants since, hey, a deal’s a deal.