by FDL Action, promoted by hotflash

Here are the FDL Action health care reform highlights for Friday, December 11.

1. Jon Walker says that the “‘Medicare buy-in’ idea might not really be Medicare at all, it might in fact be fake Medicare, one which “would lack almost all the benefits of Medicare.” Walker adds, “A Medicare buy-in program that does not actually allow people to fully buy into real Medicare is a farce.”

2. Jane Hamsher writes that Harry Reid, “who is solely responsible for crafting the bill that he introduced in the Senate, decided that there should be a limit on lifetime benefits.” Meanwhile, “Reid is also manipulating procedure to keep the Dorgan drug reimportation amendment, which would save both the government and consumers hundreds of millions of dollars, from coming to a vote.” Hamsher wonders why “Reid never uses the powers he has against Joe Lieberman.”

3. Jon Walker believes that, “For the past few days, Obama and Reid have rather publicly fought against bringing down America’s health care costs.”

4. Jane Hamsher writes a letter to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation, calling on them to “ask Hadassah Lieberman to step down as a ‘Global Ambassador’ for the organization in light of the inherent conflict of interest her continued presence brings.” Hamsher invites everyone to sign a petition urging the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation to do just that.

5. Jon Walker writes that Harry Reid has “quietly gutted one of the most important consumer protections in the bill, the ban on annual limits.” Walker argues that by adding the “‘unreasonable’ qualifier {Reid} added is a loophole you can drive a school bus through.” Jane Hamsher adds that the Department of Health and Human Services knew about this and even has been “quietly promoting” it for a while now.

6. Jon Walker reports that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has concluded that the “new excise tax on employer-provided health insurance will result in most people getting worse health insurance from their employer, insurance that covers less.” Walker adds that if “this excise tax is the core of the plan to ‘bend the cost curve,’ it is a failure.”

7. Jon Walker argues that the “reason Reid dropped the annual limit from the Senate bill was to make his bill appear cheaper in the CBO score, and make insurance premiums appear lower.” “Of course,” Walker points out, “eliminating the ban on annual caps makes a mockery of the entire idea of ‘insurance.'”

8. Finally, Jon Walker has highlights of CMS’ analysis of the Senate health care bill. Overall, Walker concludes, “the report is a mixed bag,” with “very slightly higher” national health expenditures in 2019, but on the other hand it “shows a bad bill can still greatly expand insurance coverage without noticeably increasing our national health care spending.” Ergo, Walker concludes, “Imagine what could be done with a good bill that is not full of massive corporate give aways.”

by FDL Action, promoted by hotflash

Here are the FDL Action health care reform highlights for Thurssday, December 10.

1. Marta Evry says that Rep. Bart Stupak’s New York Times op-ed is not harmless, as Stupak claims, but “would effectively ban reproductive choice services coverage in the exchanges.” According to Evry, “We can’t let that happen. We just can’t.” Evry urges that everyone join a “One Voice for Choice” phone bank or start one of your own: “It’s easy, it’s fun, and best of all, you will make a difference.”

2. Jane Hamsher reports that Mike Stark of Stark Reports is “back up on the Hill for FDL, covering Congress.”

3. Jane Hamsher points out that Harry Reid claims he has no time for a House-Senate conference, but that he has time to attend a “$1,000 plus per plate fundraiser” this weekend. Hamsher encourages people to call likely Nevada Democratic voters and let them know what Reid is up to.

4. Jon Walker says that the Senate health care reform deal is actually “less a health care deal, more an agreement on vague parameters for a possible deal.” As Walker notes, “It is always easier to reach agreement on vague ideas,” but as “with all things in this health care reform effort, it will all come down to details, details, and more details.”

5. Jon Walker believes that nobody should be “shocked when the Democratic base doesn’t turn out in 2010.” Walker asks, “Who would want to support a party” in which “a simple temper tantrum by Joe Lieberman, Blanche Lincoln, or Ben Nelson really cause the other roughly 300 elected Democrats in Washington to abandon every promise they made and every principle they claim to stand for?”

6. Jane Hamsher writes about Nancy Pelosi saying “that a bill without a public option is now possible in the House.” Raul Grijalva, co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, apparently isn’t going to be one of those votes, as he told Mike Stark that “what the Senate is doing is effectively emasculating an opportunity to have a public option.”

7. Jon Walker reports that Joe Lieberman, “the biggest champion of the health insurance industry in the Senate, will chair the committee that oversees [the OPM-run] ‘alternative’ to the public option.” Can we say “foxes and henhouses?”

8. With signs that the Senate health care bill might just “ping pong” straight past the House of Representatives without a full conference between the two chambers, a frustrated Jon Walker asks, “Why Don’t We Just Go A Step Further And Abolish The House?”

9. Jane Hamsher asks, “what kind of a platform we should ask Medicare for All candidates to agree upon?” Hamsher adds that “[i]f you’d like to volunteer to lead a search committee in your district for a single payer candidate, you can do it here.”

10. Finally, check out Jane Hamsher on the Ed Show as she invites Progressives to recruit primary challengers for any “Democratic member of Congress [who] decides to support the corporatist agenda and vote for a health care bill that makes the insurance companies say ‘we won.'”

by FDL Action, promoted by hotflash

Here are the FDL Action health care reform highlights for Wednesday, December 9.

1. Marta Evry points out that it’s far too early to “fold up our tent and start our Christmas shopping early” with regard to protecting women’s reproductive rights in health care reform legislation. Evry notes that, “so far, One Voice For Choice is the only campaign going on out there that’s targeting the Stupak coalition of conservadems” on this issue. She encourages everyone to join a “One Voice for Choice” phone bank or start one of your own. Thanks.

2. Jane Hamsher says that “despite the fact that the country wants a public option, the President campaigned on one and Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid both promised there would be one in the final bill, the woman who took $763,000 from health care interests for her upcoming Senate race is allowed to dictate what happens.” And that woman’s name is…you got it, Blanche Lincoln, who until recently claimed on her website that she supported “a quality, affordable public plan.” And if you believe that one, I’ve got some awesome, low-priced private insurance I’d like to sell you. 🙂

3. Jon Walker writes that, at this point, “it is impossible to even evaluate this pile of vague ideas that may or may not be part of this ‘deal.'” Walker concludes, “Fancy names like ‘Medicare buy-in’ sound good, but it could easily be worthless subterfuge, just like the trigger. I recommend everyone stay very skeptical and hold judgment for a day or two until we actually know what we are dealing with.”

4. Jane Hamsher is incredulous that OFA is fundraising off of a health-care reform package that she sees as – to put it mildly – subpar.

5. Jon Walker warns Howard Dean that the “Medicare buy-in” he is talking about “might not at all resemble the Medicare buy-in that [he] wants.” Or it might. The main thing right now is to “wait until you hear details” of this plan; until then, “we are simply chasing vapor.”

6. Jane Hamsher urges everyone to sign a petition urging President Obama to “save the public option and make these statements more than mere campaign promises.”

7. Jane Hamsher reports that she contacted Physicians for a National Health Program to see what they thought about lowering the Medicare age to 55. The response was that it “only works if it is mandatory…Otherwise it becomes the place where all the sickest patients get dumped.”

8. Jon Walker asks, “Why Did Snowe Not Demand Giving Americans The Freedom To Buy Cheaper Drugs From Canada?” More broadly, Walker finds it “very unfortunate that Snowe decided to use her new-found power for evil instead of good.”

9. Jon Walker notes results from a new Quinnipiac poll indicating strong support for a public option, “even as Senate Democrats look to kill the idea.”

10. Jane Hamsher provides a timeline indicating longstanding support in the Obama administration for a “trigger,” stating that this is “something that Rahm Emanuel has been fighting for all along.”  

by FDL Action, promoted by hotflash

Here are the FDL Action health care reform highlights for Monday, December 7.

1. Marta Evry asks that you consider joining a “One Voice for Choice” phone bank or starting one of your own. As Evry says, “It’s easy, it’s fun, and best of all, it works.”

2. Jane Hamsher says sarcastically that there’s “[n]othing like having Joe Lieberman running the country.” Except maybe John McCain or George W. Bush running the country?

3. Jon Walker argues that “the new ‘alternative’ to the public option” is “nothing at all even like a public option.” Instead, “It is an OPM run exchange for current, private, non-profit insurance companies.” Great stuff, huh?

4. Jon Walker warns that “Sen. Debbie Stabenow is prepared to kill the public option to make Joe Lieberman and Blanche Lincoln happy.” As I always say, anything to make Joe Lieberman and Blanche Lincoln happy! (snark)

5. Jon Walker says that Sen. Ben Nelson’s anti-abortion amendment “is as close to the Stupak language as possible…it would have an incredibly long reach, and could make abortion coverage extremely rare in this country.” This must be stopped, hence the efforts of “One Voice for Choice”.

6. Jon Walker reports that “Senate Democrats are considering a possible early Medicare buy in for older Americans.” Walker believes this proposal on its own could have merit, but “without more concrete details about exactly what the proposal is, I will not really know if it has value.”

7. David Dayen believes it’s possible there might not be a conference committee for health care reform, “with the House expected to accept whatever the Senate passes.” Dayen believes this is ominous, particularly when one considers “the recent history of the credit card bill.”

8. Finally, Jon Walker agrees with the health insurance industry that if “the Senate bill ends up like I fear: no public option, no serious regulation on insurance, no real medical loss ratio, very low insurance standards, and an individual mandate the private insurance companies will have truly won.” Let’s make sure that doesn’t happen.

by FDL Action, promoted by hotflash

Here are the FDL Action health care reform highlights for Friday, December 4.

1. Jane Hamsher points to a new Mason-Dixon poll indicating that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid trails two potential GOP opponents. This doesn’t make Hamsher particularly sad, to put it mildly, given that she believes Reid “is doing what he always intended to do – take the public option out of the bill.”

2. Jon Walker warns that “unless we do health care right, every private sector union will be dead in nine years.” The reason? “Manufacturing in this country will not expand or even survive as long as health care insurance is an ever-growing overhead cost,” which means “there simply will not be a manufacturing sector to unionize.” I’d add that there won’t be a healthy economy in general if health care costs continue to rise and health care expenditures make up an ever-growing portion of our GDP.

3. Jon Walker has Part 5 of his series on “what the Senate bill does better.” In this episode, we’ve got the fact that “the risk adjustment mechanisms in the Senate bill (page 226 – 238) are slightly better than in the House bill.” Well, that’s something at least. 🙂

4. Jane Hamsher announces that “Blue America is going to be working to get single payer candidates on the ballot in every Congressional district across the country.” Also, “Tomorrow at noon ET, Blue America will host Jonathan Tasini, a long time single payer advocate who is running for the US Senate in New York.” That should be interesting, check it out.

5. Jon Walker writes that he has been “watching the debate on health care reform for the past five days, and it is amazing how much time and effort the Republican party has dedicated to defending massive government waste and huge corporate giveaways.” Walker is talking, of course, about Medicare Advantage, “a network of private plans that the government pays to provide Medicare-eligible seniors with health insurance instead of covering them with traditional Medicare.” The problem is that “[a]s the result of a broken payment formula (put in place by the Republicans), the government overpays these private insurance companies by roughly 12%.” It’s a huge corporate giveaway, in other words, which certainly helps explain why Republicans are so enthusiastic about it!

6. I highlight an interview on Blue Arkansas with the founder of “Draft Bill Halter” to primary Sen. Blanche “No Public Plan For You” Lincoln.

7. Speaking of Blanche Lincoln, Jon Walker says that she’s trying to “shake her corporate shill image with [a] faux-populist amendment,” but that “it is unlikely that most insurance companies will even be affected by this amendment.” Walker concludes, “Sorry Blanche, but no amount of meaningless symbolic amendments will change the fact that you are doing everything you can to defend the profits of the private insurance industry.”

8. Finally, Jon Walker predicts that the Senate “like all entrenched institutions, will only change when there is a crisis.” And, Walker believes, “[t]his is the perfect moment for the progressives to force the crisis needed to change how the Senate works.” Walker believes that if this doesn’t happen, it “will pretty much guarantee not a single piece of really progressive legislation is passed during Obama’s presidency.” On that cheery note, have a great weekend! 🙂