Dems Agree to Drop Government-Run Insurance Option

I think it shows that the Dem party is not the ultra liberal....oops i mean progressive party of Obama and Pelosi. They are still the minority and they do not have a mandate.

This is probably a failure for the USA though. If they still have a mandate that everyone must have insurance the pressure is going to be put somewhere. I don't think their solution of shifting it to medicare is gonna be that awesome.

 

Not so fast here. It appears there are conflicting reports going around right now. Latest news seems to be that the initial AP report was wrong, and that what was dropped was the Opt-out public option. It appears to have been replaced by a new form of a trigger option.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/...-trigger-medicare-buy-in-and-more.php?ref=fpa

An aide briefed on the negotiations among the gang of 10 offers up the rundown of the most important aspects of the public option compromise being sent to CBO.

If this trade-off carries the day, the opt out public option is gone.

In its place will be many of the alternatives we've been hearing about, including a Medicare expansion and a triggered, federally-based public option, the aide said.

As has been widely reported, one of the trade-offs will be to extend a version of the Federal Employees Health Benefits Plan to consumers in the exchanges. Insurance companies will have the option of creating nationally-based non-profit insurance plans that would offered on the exchanges in every state. However, according to the aide, if insurance companies don't step up to the plate to offer such plans, that will trigger a national public option.

Beyond that, the group agreed--contingent upon CBO analysis--to a Medicare buy in.

That buy-in option would initially be made available to uninsured people aged 55-64 in 2011, three years before the exchanges open. For the period between 2011 and 2014, when the exchanges do open, the Medicare option will not be subsidized--people will have to pay in without federal premium assistance--and so will likely be quite expensive, the aide noted. However, after the exchanges launch, the Medicare option would be offered in the exchanges, where people could pay into it with their subsidies.

It appears as if liberals lost out on a Medicaid expansion that would have opened the program up to everybody under 150 percent of the poverty line. That ceiling will likely remain at 133 percent, as is called for in the current bill.

In addition to the new insurance options, the group has tentatively agreed to new, and strengthened, insurance regulations, which the aide could not divulge at this time.

As with the process Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid undertook in merging the Senate Finance Committee and Senate HELP Committee bills, CBO will evaluate a menu of options, some of them interchangeable, so there's no certainty that this list won't change in the coming days. However, a senior leadership aide says that all of the options sent to CBO include the (triggered) public plan. Reid and other senators declined to offer specifics earlier tonight, as part of an agreement with CBO not to publicly discuss the policy options on the table while actuaries analyze competing ideas.

Now it's a question of what the CBO says, and then: will Joe Lieberman object to the trigger? This trigger seems awfully hard to pull. But he's said he'd object to any kind of government insurance option--even triggered--in the past. And if he's out, what will Olympia Snowe do?

 

You just don't get it.

When it comes to healthcare...

F*** the Democrats.

And f*** the Republicans.

They are both dragging the nation down in their own way. Both parties are failing us.

They are both responsible for this sad state of affairs. Your partisan bull**** contradicts the fact that you seemingly know there is a need for reform and you will, like any logical being, pursue the best available option. Instead of slanting this one way or another and celebrating Democrat defeat, why can't you recognize the loss for yourself and your nation? If you recognize the need for significant reform, why celebrate defeat? Yes, I recognize there are different approaches to reform and that conservative plans have not been fully respected but the watering down of the only significant option on the table is nothing less then a defeat for those who truly seek a change.

 

One thing I do know is that in Quebec, a lot of PMEs (petits-moyens entreprises or small/medium enterprises) have always been around and are a major employing force. Whether or not that can be directly correlated to health insurance is...somewhat intangible, but I can say that Quebec has one of the strongest social safety nets in the world and a disproportionate amount of small entrepreneurs, so there would seem to be some relation.

 

If obama doesn't get a real healthcare bill through, I will not vote for him again, and I hope he loses because he is no better than the republicans.

 

I'm surprised the compromise is as good/strong as it is, from a progressive standpoint. I just want to see a lot more people covered and see insurance costs go down. If there's a way to do that and get 60 votes to overcome the promised Republican obstruction of (ANY) reform bill, and it looks like this compromise is it, I'm in awe. Democratic presidents have been trying to do this for decades. It looks like it's finally going to happen.

 

I see now why you said I was wrong about the premiums for the public option, you knew it was getting ****-canned so the premium would be zero.

Nice job

 

It does seem the compromise is a good one. Along with the expansion of Medicare, there will also be a triggered public option.

From TPM

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/...rigger-medicare-buy-in-and-more.php?ref=fpblg

So we get expansion of Medicare and a public option if insurance companies refuse to offer an option for lower income people. The CBO will be scoring the bill over the next few days and if the numbers are there, I think we have a bill.

 

As was told to me face to face from someone respected within the Democratic Party and who served a huge proponet of Health Care Reform.

"Obama doesn't care what he signs as long as he signs something"

Hope and change is the same old same old

 

That certainly hasn't been the case so far, and many of the changes he's made have been fantastic.

 

mcmark will be oweing the tip jar money here soon.

 

So if 41 Senators vote against a bill that includes a public option, and 40 of them are Republicans (that's 98%), the Democrats are still 100% at fault?

 

DAM YOU RHAD! DAM YOU ALL TO HELL!!!!!

:grin:

 

The Dems will get the credit for passing HCR and, as with so many other incredibly vital government moves (Social Security, environmental controls, women's suffrage, civil rights for minorities), the GOP will be seen as the party that sided with their base over We, the People.

 

This is the ultimate story. If reform turns out to be popular, the GOP will have shot itself in the head. If it isn't, the Dems will suffer accordingly. The Republicans' total obstructionism was a high-stakes gamble. IMO, it will prove relatively popular in coming years and the GOP knows that. They had everything to gain if this failed to get done.

When Obama signs it into law, the scary stories about grandma getting the plug pulled and the other nonsense will cease.

 

and he will have assured himself a second term.

 

Almost. I hate to be repetitive, but I still say Afghanistan can bring him down. The economy could also but that doesn't seem likely.

 

is this the famous Deckard humanity making it's presence felt, or has mc vivi bogarted your account?