If there’s no public option:
From the few tea leaves I get to see, I’m getting the sense that people on The Hill are not even having the conversation about just how unpopular forcing people to buy shitty insurance they don’t want is going to be.
Mandate + No Public Option = Unpopular taxpayer bailout of private insurance
…The Baucus bill is a mandate with no price controls, because it lacks a public health insurance option to increase competition with private insurance…
May 27, 2009:
Senator Claire McCaskill in Sedalia – May 27, 2009 – part 4
….Question: Thank you for coming today. And many people whine about taxes., but my family, we’re paying like over seven thousand dollars a year in health premiums. And I’d much rather trade that in for a national health care system. And I appreciate what my taxes buy. [applause]
Senator McCaskill: Well, thank, thank you for that. Does anybody mind if I read another. [laughter] You know, I, I do not think we’ll do a, the President doesn’t support, and I don’t support a single payer system. I think competition in the marketplace and choices is very, very important in health care. Now, if we enact these reforms and , but I have a feeling that this is gonna work, because I think we’re gonna have the kind of competition that will drive down costs. And, we gotta make sure that the government run health program is fair, because we don’t want it to be so overwhelming that it stamps out all the private insurance. ‘Cause we want that healthy friction in competition, between the two. We certainly have had competition as it’s related to the, the, some of my friends on the other side of the aisle want to do with health care what we did with Medicare D. Which is a government sponsored but completely private program. Well, you know, yeah, there’s competition there. Sometimes there’s so much competition it’s confusing, seniors don’t know whether they’re going or coming, whether drugs are covered or not, whether they’re getting a good deal or a bad deal. But the problem with that is, we built into that program six billion dollars worth of profit on taxpayers for the pharmaceutical industry. Well that doesn’t seem right to me. They actually put in the bill that we couldn’t buy bulk to get down prices. Well that’s the silliest thing I’ve ever heard of. So I don’t think we want to emulate Medicare D because I don’t think we can afford it. I don’t think we can afford to plus up certain silos of profit in the health care industry. I think we can figure out ways to provide competition and choices and to bring down costs. And that are the three goals. Competition, choices, and bring down costs. And I’m kind of excited. I think we’re actually gonna get a bill this year. I feel pretty good about it. [applause]…
December 15, 2008:
Claire McCaskill (D): “Kitchen Table Talk” in Kansas City, part 3
…Question: On the issue of health care, this is a great opportunity to jump right in there, you know there’s a lot of [inaudible] thought, you know, early in the campaign health care was really being talked about by the group of [inaudible] candidates, by Barack Obama, by John McCain, so we thought this, the stars were aligned, health care is actually going to get dealt with, but then we had this little economic problem kind of creep up towards in there and everybody said, “It’s never going to happen!” But I was wondering if you had any insight, from the outset he picked Daschle, given the appointments that he did, that perhaps the impetus for reform now actually exist than the whole possibility of stimulus, in terms of the economic problems that may actually help push health reform along. So I just kind of wanted your insight on that.
Claire McCaskill: Well, I think Daschle’s going to be a very strong – he clearly, I mean I’d recommend his book on health care reform to anybody who hasn’t read it. He’s really knowledgeable in this area and this was what he really wanted to do because he is driven in terms of wanting to work on health care reform in this country. I think we will get at some serious health care reform within the first, hopefully the first of two terms, but the first Barack Obama administration. I think they’ll be some nibbling around the edges on some health care reform, possibly even in the stimulus. Expansion of the ability to stay on COBRA for example. Some, some additional funding for children’s health insurance. Potentially some tweaking of the Medicare rates. I think all of those are within the realm of possibility in the stimulus. But nobody is backing off at really taking a whack at the silos of profit in the health care industry and reconfiguring health care so it’s more efficient, effective and certainly more preventative. Yes?…
“…I don’t think we can afford to plus up certain silos of profit in the health care industry. I think we can figure out ways to provide competition and choices and to bring down costs. And that are the three goals. Competition, choices, and bring down costs…”
“…But nobody is backing off at really taking a whack at the silos of profit in the health care industry…”
We’re waiting.
That’ll be the day.
It’s patently clear now that we worked hard to put a Baucus/Bayh/Conrad/Dorgan/Landrieu clone in the Senate. Oh sure, Claire would argue she’s from a red state (she is despite what many Misery progressives think and the Villagers continue to ignore) and thus, hasta vote, yunno, like a conservative Democrat. It’s also patently clear that she greatly fears being seen as a nasty evil librul on just about anything since she might lose the 3.4569 independent voters left in this state.
I certainly won’t give her a dime of money and most likely won’t vote for her. I won’t vote for whatever white wingnut the other guys trot out to oppose her next time but I sure as crap am not gonna vote for someone who acts more and more like a DINO with each passing month of her term.
You’re blowing it Claire. Don’t piss on the base’s leg and tell us it’s raining.
that others (Robin Carnahan perhaps?) will take away the lesson that they can dis the base with impunity.
would save 400 billion per annum which would be enough to cover the presently uninsured. Funny that we are not allowed to talk about that. Funny that health care providers are arrested and booked for asking to talk about that. Funny that politicians and pundits know more about how they think the system works than those who work in the system. Funny that single payer advocates are considered radical by many. I think they might mean logical.
Frankly, I could give a good two cents what McCaskill thinks anymore. She is no more a progressive, or a Democrat than I am a Republican. The simple fact of the matter is all or most politicians have sold out to ego, and the dollar under the guise that they think they are doing the most good, for the most people. If she really was doing the most good for the most people she would be supporting single payer. This “personal responsibility” line that politicians like to use is a joke. Really how many people still pick up smoking knowing damn good and well what they know today, but those people must be punished not just by the cancer they may get, by those of us who will be injured paying for the cancer they got. It isn’t even a christian principle, if one believes such tripe. Jesus didn’t say well you caused your blindness yourself by getting trachoma by not eating right therefore you must suffer not only for your crime, but because the rest of us have to tolerate you being blind. So much for faith. And so much for the Senate that thinks the most important thing is they all get along instead of fighting every once in a while for what is right. They are sell outs to today’s religion which promotes bullshit like the movie “The Secret”, and that if you just wish for something one will attract the right vibes. More stinking shit, piled on top of more stinking shit; the compost pile has gotten so high we can’t even see our neighbor. What we need is single payer, what we should have is single payer, but what is good ole Claire fighting for? Some myth of personal responsibility which makes a nice frame for a box but doesn’t do a GodDamn thing for the person who has cancer or is blind. How Christian of her. I am finished with the lot of them, and I am throwing behind Dr. Dean.
the webs of deception and outright lies that pass for health care reform debate have become so thick that even Claire the Articulate is hard pressed to deliver a verbally coherent defense of the mess. The Democrats are determined to pass a bill for the simple political sake of being able to say they have passed a bill. The myth of the “strong public option” will be transposed into goals of (as stated above by Claire) “competition, choices and bringing down costs”. These goals are, unfortunately, also the stuff of imagination, they are just words. The foxes are running the hen house and all that Americans will see of health care reform will be continued denials, continued reductions in coverage and exponentially increasing costs. It is too bad b/c a bill such as this, once passed, will be difficult to undo and will serve no one but politicians and corporations. But then what else is new.