Obama on Health Care - It's Only Been A Week!

Obama is correct - it's only been a week.

Hey Republicans - Bring It On

Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo seems a little tired of all the chicken-hawking going on in Republican circles when it comes to health care reform being the Democrats Waterloo and how they plan on using it during the midterm elections:

Make the arguments on substance. Not about how the bill filing wasn't filled out with a No. 2 pencil or whatever other nonsense. They may not realize this: but the Republicans can't run on how bad Reform is going to be for the Dems politically. That's very meta, to put it mildly. You can't be so transparently cynical with your riffs that they don't even make sense on their own terms. They need to run on repeal. So, enough. The terms of the 2010 election are set. Stop puffing and threatening, shut up and bring it on.

HCR before I FLY

It seemed a little odd to be munching a turkey sandwich in LaGuardia as President Obama signed health care reform into law today.

"Daddy, where were you when history was made?"

"Well, sonny, I was in terminal C in LaGuardia, downing smoked turkey and jalapeno slaw on a potato roll. "

Which means either I'll remember where I was, or I won't, but the memory of what occurred is forever imprinted. Today was a good day.

Perseverance is an under- valued quality, and based on a legacy of failure to get this accomplished after decades of attempts, it would have been easy to despair when it was darkest before the dawn. And it's unlikely that the battle is over. People tend to fight harder when they feel that they are cornered.

Health care reform strategy should never have been like a light switch flicking on. Too many interest groups and personalities were involved. A binary solution would fail like the rest.

What's transpired is reform by dimmer switch, where the bulb clicks on at a low wattage, and over time grows increasingly brighter as progress marches on, often so minimally that most don't notice or complain.

The light of reform is finally on, and with some luck and some leadership, the glow will begin to increase once our eyes adjust to the new viewpoint and we see it's not the end if the world, or government takeover.

It won't take away freedom. It won't make the riches poor. But it just might relieve a little suffering in this country, and that's an aspirational goal that I'm happy to defend.


-- Mobile post

Ross Douthat Makes Sense on the Health Care Summit

I don't think I've agreed with three sentences Ross Douthat has written since he moved to the New York Times roster of weekly columnists. Surprisingly, his commentary on the recent health care summit was so on-the-money I actually rechecked the byline.

Yep, it was Douthat.

Having watched large portions of the event as they unfolded, it took a great deal of effort to focus on Buddhist concepts like tolerance and equanimity as my primal side felt compelled to race to Washington and punch people in the head.

Douthat saw things similarly.

The first five hours proved the first point. Even with Professor Obama keeping a firm rein on the proceedings, the Republicans (especially Jon Kyl of Arizona, Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Dave Camp of Michigan, all exceptions to the self-parodic norm) were able to demonstrate that you don’t need to mention “death panels” to critique health care reform. You can talk about the bill’s budgetary gimmickry, the burdens of its mandates and the risks involved in having Washington set prices, define benefits and (eventually) limit care.

In the last hour, though, President Obama finally invited the Republicans to offer their own ideas — beyond, yes, tort reform and interstate purchasing — for covering the uninsured. And the Grand Old Party’s representatives lapsed swiftly into platitudes and filibustering.

Yes! It was like a game of reverse-health-summit-musical chairs. Each time the melody stopped, everyone scrambled to ensure they weren't left sitting on the seat of accountability.

Douthat:

As the forum wound down, the participants complimented one another on having such a respectful and substantive conversation. (“Never have so many members of the House and Senate behaved so well for so long before so many television cameras,” Joe Barton of Texas remarked.) Afterward, some commentators acted as though our elected representatives were to be congratulated just for talking publicly about policy without falling on their faces.

No congratulations are in order. The forum exemplified why Americans have every reason to hate Washington right now. The first five hours revealed a majority party whose health care bill probably deserves to be defeated. But the sixth one exposed a minority party that deserves to lose as well.

It will probably be months before I again agree with Douthat, but I'm willing to give the man his due. This essay accurately adduces both the symptoms and the disease.

Image via Wikimedia Commons
 

Dick Durbin Gets It

I watched long stretches of the event yesterday, via Internet streaming or video clips, and truthfully, I needed to revisit some of the Buddhist concepts I've learned to keep me driving to Blair House to punch people in the mouth.

Al Franken on the Democratic Health Care Message

Via Talking Points Memo:

The opponents of reform have found their bumper sticker, their slogan, their rallying cry, it's one word: No. You can read that on a bumper.

Our bumper sticker has -- it's just way too many words. And it says, "Continued on next bumper sticker."

Balls Beer for Health Care Reform

Via TPMtv

Senators Feed Uninsured to the Lions

If there's any doubt that the spineless self-interest currently on display in the US Senate is costing lives, take a look at this chart, courtesy of Ezra Klein via Kevin Drum:

Fuckers.

Jon Stewart Talks About Health Insurance Reforms

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
The Men Who Stare at Votes
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

The Public Option Singers

The Public Option Makes More Sense Every Day

The health care industry, in releasing their AHIP report, finally gets to the root of their problem with health care reform - they will have to insure people with actual health issues, not just cherry-pick the profitable clients.

Where's the cash cow in that?

Why Health Insurance Companies Are Mad As Hell

Via Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight, this may be one reason why health insurance companies are digging in and spending tons of cash since Labor Day:

Take a look at what's happened to the share prices of the six largest publicly-traded health insurance companies since Labor Day, which was about the point at which the Democrats appeared to regain their footing -- at least up to a point -- on health care.

Losing $9.9 billion in six weeks? Money talks, and bullshit walks.

Insurance Execs Happy With Public Option

Ahh, it's nice to see that at least one insurance industry executive isn't afraid of the public option.

digby passes along the good news:

"I believe the private system is important because it brings innovation, it brings energy, it brings change, it brings ideas that are often used in the public sector system as well," said Richard Collins, senior vice president for underwriting, pricing and health care economics at UnitedHealthcare. "I think we can have both a public and private system."

Spread the word. Nothing to see here, please move along.

David Sirota, via Hullabaloo

Health Care Debate Ignores Public Voice

It's disheartening, but not surprising, that those in Congress tasked with passing health care reform are dragging their feet on those items most popular among the citizenry.

After all, it's a tough slog when you're carrying massive satchels of cash provided by the very industry we're asking you to battle.

National Public Radio (NPR) reports that a recent poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation, and the Harvard School of Public Health finds 71% of respondents believe that Congress isn't doing enough to listen to what the publics wants as an outcome.

According to the polling data, who is most trusted when it comes to health care reform? Groups representing nurses, at 79%, followed by patients, doctors and seniors.

Least trusted? No shocker here, with insurance companies, drug makers, and large corporations continually seen in what I would describe in their traditional roles as money-grubbing robber barons, lashing all of us to the railroad tracks as illness and disease comes 'round the bend.

Since we can only seem to be able to make up our minds when voting on American Idol or some other insipid reality show, it's difficult to reconcile the fact that half of those polled believe the federal government is partially responsible for the current health care mess, yet we're expecting that same government to fix the problem for us.

So let's see...the least trusted organizations, who people overwhelmingly view as having caused the crisis in health care in America, spend millions of dollars each year funding the campaigns and interests of the American government that we're hoping will stand up and provide leadership and solutions that are diametrically opposed to their self interests.

Yeah, that could happen. More likely is a scenario being advanced by filmmaker Michael Moore, who said, "To the Democrats in Congress, find your spine. Read the polls. And see us coming."

Moore added:

"We're going to start in the primaries. Any Democrat that gets in the way of true reform, reform that has to include the public option, we are going to campaign against them in the primary. We're going to try to find people to run against them. They are not going to get away with this."

It's put up or shut up time, Dems. The White House cannot count on the continued support of progressives like those polled by Kaiser.

Kudos to MoveOn.org for essentially telling Rahm Emanuel to stop complaining about ad campaigns criticizing Blue Dog democrats and lily-livered Congressional leaders like Harry Reid, Max Baucus, and Ben Nelson. And make no mistake - failure to pass a public option will result in a furious backlash against the ruling party.

Democrats have talked the talk. Now they must walk the walk.

Health Care Reform Is Spooky - BOO!

The Public Opts In

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Sick for Profit

Via Hullabaloo

Protect Insurance Companies

Protect Insurance Companies PSA from Will Ferrell

Socialist Doctors? Someone Call Glenn Beck!

Via John Cole at Balloon Juice, a quick look at a survey included in a recent New England Journal of Medicine that showed an overwhelming percentage of physicians support expanding health care coverage by having a system that includes both private and public options.

A RWJF survey summarized in the September 14, 2009 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine shows that 62.9 percent of physicians nationwide support proposals to expand health care coverage that include both public and private insurance options—where people under the age of 65 would have the choice of enrolling in a new public health insurance plan (like Medicare) or in private plans. The survey shows that just 27.3 percent of physicians support a new program that does not include a public option and instead provides subsidies for low-income people to purchase private insurance. Only 9.6 percent of doctors nationwide support a system where a Medicare-like public program is created in lieu of any private insurance. A majority of physicians (58%) also support expanding Medicare eligibility to those between the ages of 55 and 64.

In every region of the country, a majority of physicians supported a combination of public and private options, as did physicians who identified themselves as primary care providers, surgeons, or other medical subspecialists. Among those who identified themselves as members of the American Medical Association, 62.2 percent favored both the public and private options.

Oh, the humanity!

Drug Companies Make Their Move

Matt Taibbi writes a scathing indictment of the incestuous relationship between our government and the pharmaceutical industry in a posted aptly titled PhRMA’s Big Bribe Comes In.

Taibbi notes that PhRMA is launching a staggering ad campaign in an attempt to get weak-ass language into the health reform bill, similar to that contained in the Baucus bill, as part of a deal with the Obama administration.

Say Taibbi:

Now we’re also seeing pressure from a group of freshmen and Blue Dogs, who have composed a letter to a quartet of House Committee chairs requesting that the Waxman language be removed from the health care bill and replaced with the PhRMA language, which happens to be the language the White House is pushing and which will appear in the Baucus bill in the Senate. The pro-PhRMA language retains the preposterous government subsidy to the pharmaceutical industry in the form of laws banning Medicare from negotiating market rates. It is completely useless and of no possible social benefit to anyone except pharmaceutical companies, but this group still managed to get 60 people to sign this letter.

Money talks, and bullshit walks, as they say.