DISQUS

timncguy · 5 months ago

the PROFIT in 'for profit' private insurance is nothing but added COST. And, the 'for profit' insurance industry adds NOTHING OF VALUE to healthcare in return for the profit (added cost)

kugelschreiber · 5 months ago

Such a basic concept that almost every American that doesn't have "Senator" in their name gets!

judybrowni · 5 months ago

I phoned Baucus on the Finance Committee and got a snotty clerk who, when I asked about the public option, said,"Who's going to pay for it?"

"I'm paying for YOUR healthcare," I said before he hung up on me, and I didn't have the chance to point out that we'd been ponying up for Baucus for 30 years.

But that's the Beltway for you, plenty of cash for them and theirs, but nada for us.

Butch1 · 5 months ago

If they feel so smug as to think they can insult and dismiss their constituency, they deserve to be sent home. Enough of this. "Who's going to pay for this?" Who the hell else pays for everything they've been throwing money at. . . You ought to report him to Max Baucus' office and tell them that being rude will not keep him in office.

Busboy · 5 months ago

The key to the whole thing is that Congresspeople cannot imagine having their healthcare rationed as it is in medicare and medicaid. If they exempt themselves from whatever system they create; then they're toast in the next election. It's a Win-Win for them if they just kick the can down the road. My own guesstimate of the value of a congresspersons healthcare plan; if it were available in the public sector, is over $4000 per month.

vkobaya · 5 months ago

Oh the stinkers know alright. They can read, hear about on radio talks shows, see it on TV and see it in Michael Moore's documentary movie. They simply choose not to give a damn about the abuse suffered by the rest of us. We elect them, send them to Washington and pay their salaries, but they choose to work not for us but for the corporations who contribute to their campaign funds crediting the corporations with their elections.

The entire campaign system is corrupt because we allow corporations to have the rights of the citizen to free speech, that is to have a say in our elections and to contribute to the campaign funds. Elections should be publically financed. Corporations are not citizens and should be banned from contributing but also from having any access to our elected representatives or to hiring them after they leave office for anything more than a clerical position and a minimum wage clerical salary. Our elected representatives should also be barred from lobbying other elected officials after they leave office.

Ha ha! Yeah, like that is likely to ever happen. Dream on, dream on! While I am at it, I can also dream that maybe we will eliminate the two party system by getting rid of the corrupt electoral college system and have a much truer democracy. Lovely, lovely silly. foolish, wishful-thinking daydreams.

scottinsf · 5 months ago

Why are taxpayer funded health care benefits even provided to lawmakers and their staff? This is no longer acceptable.

bgoldmund · 5 months ago

The same reason they are paid extraordinary salaries and are permitted to accept all manner of gifts, bribes and blackmail from private industry and lobbyists. They make one set of rules for themselves and another for we "consumers" and we don't object. IRAN CERTAINLY IS TO BE ADMIRED . A CITIZENRY WITH ENOUGH PRINCIPLE TO REJECT THE KIND OF GOVERNMENT WE'RE STUCK WITH. And Congress will never rule against bigger and better prizes, gifts, bonuses and bribery for themselves as long as they are "self-regulated".

jharp · 5 months ago

You've got a winner here. I, for one, will be phoning Senator Baucus Monday morning.

I'm hoping others will as well.

KarenMrsLloydRichards · 5 months ago

When the Baucus got busted for solicitation, she objected that she was being subjected to police harassment, just because she was Baucusing outside the hotel. Her mother had been a Baucus, too, so the poor young woman didn't know any other life than Baucusing. It was a hard life and she knew that Baucusing wasn't something she could do for more than a few more years. Yes, life on the streets as a Baucus sure took it out of her. Other Baucuses didn't get out of that life, and she knew that many of them Baucused until they ended up in prison or rehab, after having hit bottom.

timncguy · 5 months ago

If one of the ways they decide to fund healthcare reform is by taxing employer provided insurance, will they "exempt" congress from that?

It's just a question. I don't have a problem with taxing SOME employer provider insurance as long as they only tax employees over a certain income level and only the "very extra generous" plans.

But, in most cases employer provided insurance is given to employees in lieu of additional income. THis is especially true in the case of union workers who have given up pay increases and other benefits in order to retain their health benefits.

kugelschreiber · 5 months ago

It is not health care reform without the public option. Period.

Vince in Cedar Rapids · 5 months ago

O/T but I love your name. Is the slang something like Kuli? It means pen, or ink pen, correct?

kugelschreiber · 5 months ago

Haha. thanks. Yeah. It's "ballpoint pen". When I look for a screen name, I'm pretty much certain this one won't be taken (I've been "La Pluma", too)

Butch1 · 5 months ago

How do we get the incompetent people off the committees that make these crucial decisions? They all seem to get these positions only because they have been in the Congress longer than others. It would be nice if one could be appointed who actually had to knowledge to make good decisions.

Here we go again. The more they talk change, the more it stays the same.

douglaslynch · 5 months ago

We need to remember all the politicians who voterd against a public option. I do not see Universal Health Care being passed there is too much money flowing into their campaign funds. This lobby money determines which way they vote and for any of them to say otherwise is a total lie. We should bombard their offices with "are you prepared to give up your free Health Care and go out on the open market like the rest of America ?" The free ride for the richest has to stop.

pet valet · 5 months ago

In 2008,
--348,289 Montana votes for Baucus vs. 129,369 for his opponent (Bob Kelleher, an 85 yr old who supported nationalizing oil and gas and Single Payer health system).
--91% of $$ for Baucus campaign came from people living outside Montana.
So, 218,920 votes and a lot of $ lobby $, gets us no representation for Single Payer.

That he is the committee leader says a lot about our leaders (imho)......

Daddy B · 5 months ago

Of course, Kelleher is also for:
-- Abortions should always be illegal, including funding. (Nov 2004)
-- Emancipate the "slave babies" of abortion. (May 2008)
-- State-funded vouchers for private or religious school. (Nov 2004)
-- Ban handguns, but no restrictions on rifles and shotguns. (May 2008)
-- Solve unemployment with military & civil draft at age 18-25. (Jun 2008)
-- Replace Congress with parliamentary system to end lobbying. (May 2008)
-- Charge import duty on computer source code written overseas. (Jun 2008)

Source: http://www.ontheissues.org/senate/Bob_Kelleher.htm

He has some endearing qualities, but I'm not sure you REALLY want him as a senator...

pet valet · 5 months ago

not an endorsement by any means. only meant to show who baucus was up against: that less than 220k voters selected him over an 85-yr old and that was with a lot of money from the usual outside lobbying suspects. it's galling that states have counties with more voters and now millions of americans get a guy who'll dump single payer health plan. thanks for added depth to the non-viability of the opponent. (you're not really max b, are you?) thanks, again for the added context.

DCinDC · 5 months ago

Good health care will not pass in yhe United States. The insurance companies rule the congress and the voters are too afraid to get mad and take the fight to the streets!

rexkc · 5 months ago

One requirement of anything that is done on healthcare is that special government programs for elected officials should end and congress should have to use the same system as the rest of us.

katymine · 5 months ago

John McCain probably has been insured by some government sponsored health insurance ALL his life, father in the navy, McCain went into the navy, injured covered by military and VA system, then the FEBA plans as he was a congressman then a senator......

ALL his life......

Currently he has three health insurance plans that cover him, the senator FEBA plan, Medicare and the VA.

Can someone do research on all the senators and how long they have been sucking on the government tit of government sponsored health coverage? Lieberman has been since the 70's, Landriew has been most of her life...... senator bryd?

sittenpretty · 5 months ago

{{{KATY}}}
i see a youtube commercial here,move on could produce it lets take it viral

nicho · 5 months ago

So, Baucus is just a high-priced DC whore.

LasloPratt · 5 months ago

This isn't limited to senators. My wife has a friend who's career Army. He had no idea there was any kind of problem with our health "care" industry. Because for him, of course, there isn't.

Oval12345678 · 5 months ago

Ah, it is very interesting how blue dog corporate Democrats and all the Republicans (except Ron Paul) in the US House and Senate love to accept their free socialized health care for themselves, their families and their staffs. But the rest of us have to eat corporate crap at the corporate health care table.

O/T: The Iranian people have endured fifty-six years of misery so far in their attempt to get back to their quiet secular democracy, which they had in 1952, until we gave them the dictator Shah, who was followed by a theocratic dictatorship. A tip of the ole fedora to Republican President Eisenhower, his CIA and the Brits for creating all this human misery in 1953 with the destruction of Iran's democracy and its replacement by the vile Shah...

Another tip of the hat to the American corporate media, who, after the Iranians seized the US Embassy in Tehran in 1979, covered up the fact of the US involvement in the 1953 coup against their democracy. Heck of a job, NT Times, SF Chronicle, LA Times, et al ad nauseum...

katymine · 5 months ago

It is my understanding that Iran has a universal health care system which covers all citizens. Here we are watching them protest for freedom and they have The one freedom most of us crave......

DonQ · 5 months ago

How about a campaign to ask each senator and representative who doesn't support a public option to drop their own publicly funded health coverage?

triple7s · 5 months ago

Many members of congress also have spouses, children, or other family members who work either in a government job, or lobbies for a corporation, or is somehow connected to employment that directly relates to something that the particular congress member oversees. I wonder if anyone has put together a full list of those people and their jobs. Does anybody here know? I just think it would be really helpful to actually see how many people have their hands in the till, at the taxpayers expense.

An_American_Karol · 5 months ago

Joe, excellent thread..maybe by putting the health care crisis in perspective, our leaders in Washington will finally get it.
Let Congress do without adequate health care, and we will see how quickly something gets done.

sparrow · 5 months ago

It's a tough world out there. Golden plated health care, automatic pay raises, and a dandy retirement plan smooth out life's bumps. It's obvious that they have no difficulty responding to feeling pain, theirs not yours.

SkippyFlipjack · 5 months ago

I think the fact that Baucus and his compatriots have government-financed health care is interesting, but I'm not sure how great it is as a debating point. The government gives him health care but they do so as his employer. If he'd worked in private industry since graduating college he'd have the same lack of knowledge about not having health care. You're sort of indicting everyone who works for a stable business.

I think his status as an employee of the government is more of a counter to those who say the government couldn't run a health care plan, since it obviously does right by Baucus and others.

scottinsf · 5 months ago

We're quickly reaching the point where a majority of working Americans DO NOT receive ANY insurance benefits from their employer. In fact, 19% of businesses polled say they will completely discontinue offering insurance benefits in the next 2-5 years. It is now time for all members of congress, their family members, and staff to lose their health insurance benefits.

Father_Time · 5 months ago

Have you noticed how TV commercials have become capitalist political propaganda?

We may have to put on green armbands and take to the streets. Unfortunately nobody can afford to go to DC and protest so we'll just have to burn down our own towns.

bgoldmund · 5 months ago

Did you ever get the feeling that the function of Congress is to create situations where American's are like unto "fish in a barrel" to be shot at by various industries, ie. insurance. . Make private insurance the only choice and make it a law that everyone must buy it. Tell me you don't see that handwriting on the way. No public program, just a mandate that we all have to buy private insurance. See, problem handled. And they'll call it a public option, because everyone has to participate. Is it Time for the pitchforks and torches yet?

charlenemoran · 5 months ago

Knowing all of this helps us how ??? Is the msm reporting anyof this and if not, why not. Can't you/all reach the msm.

MichaelLWagner · 5 months ago

Health Insurance Companies “Win Big” because high risk people will be directed to the Public Plan...

There'll be some kind of competitiveness clause…, and with mandatory insurance the insurers will make out like bandits...!!!

WHAT???!!! Universal Health Care has been implemented by ALL other developed countries!!!

Here Read:

+ Canadian Health Insurance: Lessons for the United States / Government Accountability Office (GAO):

--“If the universal coverage and single-payer features of the Canadian system were applied in the United States, the savings in administrative cost alone would be more than enough to finance insurance coverage for the millions of Americans who are currently uninsured.”

+ Medical Bills Leading Cause of Bankruptcy, Harvard Study Finds / Consumeraffairs.com

--“Surprisingly, most of those bankrupted by illness had health insurance.”

+ The Truth About Drug Companies / Mother Jones:

“… Angell attacks major pharmaceutical industry -- whose top ten companies make more in profits than the rest of the Fortune 500 COMBINED -- for using “free market” rhetoric while opposing competition at all costs.”

+ Single-Payer Protests Challenge Democrats / Washington Post, 06/06/09:

--“The White House and Democratic leaders have made clear there is no chance that Congress will adopt a single-payer approach -- named for the idea that a single government-backed insurance plan would pay for all Americans' medical costs -- because it is too radical a change.”

Why not Universal Health Care with a $25 deductible after the first annual visit???

Also Read:

+ The neutron bomb of health insurance / CNN Money:

--“Imagine being insured...and then not being insured. Such situations are on the rise.”

“Waiting for an overdue reimbursement check is a hassle. Finding that your health insurance has been nullified after you've incurred serious medical costs can be an outright catastrophe.”

“Called "rescissions," … they don't occur in employer-sponsored group plans … the practice appears to be growing.”

+ State Tries To Block 'Fishing Expedition' Against Blue Cross / Los Angeles Daily Journal (ConsumerWatchdog):

--“When the Schwarzenegger administration in July struck a deal with Anthem Blue Cross that required the insurer to resell medical coverage to dropped policyholders and pay a record $10 million in fines, some attorneys questioned if state regulators had offered the company sweet concessions in exchange.”

+ More insurance rescission coverage / LA Times:

*An eroding model for health insurance, 2008,

--“Working Americans once could rely on employer-based benefits. But more people are being forced into the individual market, where coverage is costly, bare-bones and precarious.”

* Former Members Sue Blue Cross, 2006

* Anthem Blue Cross sued over rescissions, 2008

*Healthcare insurance probe grows, 2008

* Health Net ordered to pay $9 million after canceling cancer patient’s policy, 2008

* L.A. sues insurer over cancellations, 2008

* Doctors balk at request for data, 2008,

* Health insurer tied bonuses to dropping sick policyholders, 2007:

--“One of the state's largest health insurers set goals and paid bonuses based in part on how many individual policyholders were dropped and how much money was saved.”

* Complaints spark state hearing on Blue Cross, 2007,

* Insurer cited in policy rescissions, 2007

* Halted health coverage suit may be far-reaching, 2007,

* Doctors, hospitals join Blue Cross suit, 2007:

--“The largest organizations representing California physicians and hospitals joined a lawsuit against Blue Cross of California on Thursday, accusing the state's largest health plan of illegally and routinely refusing to pay them millions of dollars for medical care provided to enrollees whose policies were later canceled.

* Blue Cross cancellations called illegal, 2007

* Blue Cross sued over revoked insurance, 2007

* Health plan review may be intensified, 2007

* Kaiser Told to Reinstate Coverage, 2006,

* Blue Cross Sued Over Claims Refusals, 2006,

* Canceled Policies Prompt Lawsuits, 2006,

* Garamenda to Probe Blue Cross’ Practices, 2006.

THERE’S SO MUCH (MONEY) AT STAKE—IT’S ENOUGH TO MAKE YOU SICK!!!!

lopas · 2 months ago

nice post!