Victory!

[ccr1138.livejournal.com]

Wow, it looks like populist anger CAN make a difference. [crossing fingers]

White House appears ready to drop 'public option'

Democratic senator: Public health insurance option dead

I know a lot of folks don't think the federal government has any business regulating health insurance at all, but the elimination of a public option is a huge victory. Citizen co-operatives will be much more efficient, and they lend themselves better to local/state oversight.

w00t!

Comments

[arkadelos.livejournal.com]

So, is this the end of the healthcare debate or the end of a provision? Either way, it is very exciting.

[countalpicola.livejournal.com]

Definitely just the provision. Without having done a lot of research, I can think of a few things to consider:

1) Depending on how the thing is set up, there may still be increased federal involvement. One article (http://cnsnews.com/public/Content/Article.aspx?rsrcid=49536) talks about government insurance whenever there are fewer than two private alternatives, and Schumer has said that he feels any co-op would need to achieve the same goals as the public option.

2) The co-op would probably need to be started by the federal government, probably with federal dollars. As we saw with the car companies, when the federal government gives money away, it thinks it owns the thing it gave money to. How independent is a federally funded co-op really going to be?

3) If these were such a good idea, why hasn't private industry created its own co-op system yet?

4) The public option is only part of the government's health care plans. A co-op may kill that, but it won't keep the government from expanding its reach in other ways.

5) To me, it feels like socialized health care on an installment plan. They reached too far, and are now willing to make concessions and meet in the middle. If this passes, expect the next health care go-around to focus explicitly on single-payer, with concessions to get us back to about what we've rejected today.

[ccr1138.livejournal.com]

You could be right, but part of making co-ops work will be allowing insurance companies to compete in all markets. Right now state regulations make that difficult. If the federal government can help encourage competition, I'm all for it.

Look at credit unions. Mine is awesome. Its services are far less expensive, there are fewer fees, and they don't try to trick you or gouge you. If citizen co-ops for health insurance take off, that could force the private companies to clean up their act. I sure hope it works.

[ainu-laire.livejournal.com]

My dad: Co-ops are as American as apple pie.

This news made mine and my parent's day. Here's for hoping this is what happens! As long as it is actually separate of the government, and the people forming together is exactly what it is... *crosses fingers*

[kataoi.livejournal.com]

I heaved a huge sigh of relief when I saw this - in the news wedge of my Yahoo mailbox. Not the front page of course, but holy crap this is great.

...Though all I can think of is a joke from MST3K during a Canadian movie: "Don't you love our health care system?"

[kali-kali.livejournal.com]

Co-ops are the way I think health care should be. Government just mucks everything up, and I believe making a profit off of someone else's ill health to be immoral, so a nonprofit option is the best option for health care.

Good on you America.

[rightsaidred.livejournal.com]

I'll believe it when I see it happen. What they NEED to do is scrap the whole damn bill and start over.

[countalpicola.livejournal.com]

This doesn't feel like victory. A step in the right direction, perhaps, but not victory. Not by a long shot.

[slm76.livejournal.com]

Rep Massa (D-NY) at our Town Hall this evening said he'd just heard about this today. So he called the current HR3200 "largely irrelevant."

Makes you wonder what the rush was about if they're changing their minds already! Thankfully, our rep wanted to take it slow anyway.

[coldblossom.livejournal.com]

You'd better do a double-take at your Rep (http://www.washingtontimes.com/weblogs/watercooler/2009/aug/16/video-rep-massa-i-will-vote-against-interests-my-d/):

MASSA: I’m not going to vote for 3200 as it’s currently written. Step one, I will vote for a single payer option or a bill that does have a medicare coupled public option, which we don’t have right now. If my town hall meetings turn into the same media frenzies and ridiculousness, because every time that happens we lose, We lose another three million people in America. They see that happening and negate us.

PARTICIPANT: It changes America.

MASSA: Every time that occurs. So what happens in my town hall meetings frankly is important, because I am in one of the most right wing Republican districts in the country, and I’m not asking you guys to go back to wherever and send people to me. This is a generic statement of what can I do? Well that’s one thing we can do.

PARTICIPANT: So if we got your meetings to sixty forty, you’d vote…and there was single payer in a bill you would vote for it?

MASSA: Oh absolutely I would vote for single payer.

PARTICIPANT: If there was sixty forty sentiment in the room?

MASSA: Listen, I tell every audience I’m in favor of single payer.

PARTICIPANT: If there was eighty twenty in the room?

MASSA: If there was a single payer bill?

PARTICIPANT: And there was a single payer….

MASSA: I will vote for the single payer bill.

PARTICIPANT: Even if it meant you were being voted out of office?

MASSA: I will vote adamantly against the interests of my district if I actually think what I am doing is going to be helpful.

[ccr1138.livejournal.com]

I don't think most of them are quite that stupid. Let's hope not.