Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, came out yesterday for health care reform that includes a public option with an opt-out provision for states that don’t want to participate — a compromise that should get blue dog Democrats on board. However, it seems there’s no pleasing some people when it comes to prodding health insurance [...]
Posts Tagged ‘health care reform’
Lame excuse for health care reform
makes it out of Finance Committee
Heaven and Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus only know what a disembowelment genuinely helpful reform measures suffered in the futile quest for a semblance of bipartisanship.
Health care reform made simple and personal
In a powerful, sometimes emotional commentary this evening, Keith Olbermann put health care, public policy and basic humanity in proper perspective. Olbermann’s hourlong exposition drew power from being personal, arising from his experience helping his ailing father. All the more so, he explained, because he’s in the uncommon position of being able to afford whatever [...]
A public option battle lost, but not the war
The government-provided public option alternative for health insurance stood little chance of passing in the Senate Finance Committee, and sure enough, two variations of it were voted down today. Sen. Jay Rockefeller’s public-option proposal lost 15-8, with all committee Republicans, plus Democrats Max Baucus, Mont., Kent Conrad, N.D., Blanche Lincoln, Ark., Bill Nelson, Fla., and [...]
Obama speech highly effective,
unlike his public-option proposal
Finally trading his self-assumed role of moderator in chief for that of national leader, President Obama needed to make a game-changing speech on health care reform yesterday, and he did. Initial polling showed a remarkable uptick in support for the president and for his approach to reforming health care, Two out of three Americans who [...]
Rockefeller: Public option is a must
“I believe the inclusion of a strong public plan option in health reform legislation is a must. It is the only proven way to guarantee that all consumers have affordable, meaningful and accountable options available in the health insurance marketplace.” —Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV, D-W.Va., from a public statement quoted in a New York [...]
Death panel needed for Grassley’s career
It’s a good thing for Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley that nobody’s proposing a death panel to decide the fate of legislators who either can’t comprehend clear and simple language in a bill, or who can but choose to lie about what the bill says. If there were such a panel, Grassley would be a prime [...]
Times clears some smoke from
health care reform ‘debate’
Credit the New York Times with making an effort to sort fact from fiction in the unseemly brawl that passes for a debate on health care reform. The piece seems balanced for the most part, although we take exception to a couple of interpretive details, including these: Many Republicans view fighting the president as a [...]
Posts show seamy side of health insurers
This is to call your attention to a fine series of posts showing the dark, greed-driven and deadly dangerous side of the health insurance industry. At her blog, The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, Bee has created a veritable rogue’s gallery of major health insurers and their CEO’s You’ll gain insight, for example, into what makes Ronald A. [...]
Real health care reform being sacrificed
for bipartisanship that’s not happening
We’ve seen this movie before; it starred the infamous Harry and Louise. Health care reform and congressional Democrats got killed in the end.
