For those of you who have decided to commit suicide if Barack Obama signs a health care bill without a public option, well… you’re still probably going to have to commit suicide, because of that thing, what is it, “the lack of votes in the Senate.” But not just yet! Prepare to receive lip service again, tonight, reports Sarah Palin’s banking pamphlet: “WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama, in a high-stakes speech Wednesday to Congress and the nation, will press for a government-run insurance option in a proposed overhaul of the U.S. health-care system that has divided lawmakers and voters for months.” All corporations will now die, hooray!
But here’s the catch, WHICH HAS ALWAYS FREAKING BEEN THERE:
The president is likely to say that a government-run insurance plan, known as the “public option,” will not provide a level of subsidies that give it an unfair advantage over private insurers, according to aides familiar with the speech preparations.
Insurers oppose the public option, saying it will lead to excessive government control of health care and could eventually drive them out of business. Republicans say they won’t support an overhaul with a public option, and liberal Democrats say they won’t support one without it.
Mmhmm. It’s very important to remember, and bloggers of the left tend to get harassed when they write this, that there is an actual 0% chance of a “robust public option” ever coming through on any final legislation. So when you get the latest liberal organizing e-mail DEMANDING that Obama include a “robust public option,” maybe ignore it, because that was scrapped about 100 million years ago, when the Democratic party decided to leave the employer-based health care system in place because (a) altering it would be too radical a change for our stupid population and (b) labor unions simply do not care for any sort of cap on the employer benefits tax exemption.
The public option will not, under any current bill, be open to employees of all but the very, very smallest businesses. It will not be open to the vast majority of people, and it will not be tied to Medicare rates. It would be a very nice thing to have and would help limit costs, to a small small degree! But a more vital last stand to take would be ensuring that the level of subsidies offered to those below a certain income level to buy insurance are ample enough, since everyone will be required to have health insurance now, which is also important, etc., anyway… Go Obama!
Big speech tonight!
Robust Public Option!
Obama to Endorse Public Plan in Speech [WSJ]
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{ 58 comments }
I prefer the Max “let them eat cock” Baucus plan–mandates with no public option.
Problem: millions of Americans can’t afford health insurance
Solution: force them to purchase health insurance
So advanced, it’s simple! Only someone bought and paid for by the insurance companies could come up with shit like that.
Party pooper.
“Insurers oppose the public option, saying it will lead to excessive government control of health care and could eventually drive them out of business.”
Yes, I believe that is the whole point. Excuse me while I go find my tiny violin….
[re=405548]BadKitty[/re]: I know. As someone who worked for an giant insurance company, I was really looking forward to watching them slowly crumble. What has happened to my Nobama?
I’m hoping for a robust pubic option.
Reading DailyKos for the past month had me convinced that the public option would take each of us to our own personal healthcare Nirvana. Then, you know, I started looking at other elements that weren’t the public option and was shocked to find that THESE THINGS WERE IMPORTANT, TOO! Hmmm, maybe we should have been educating on how these things might help instead of making the public option the be all and end all of what us liberals were supposed to want.
Hmmm.
Oh, this one starts alright, with the ridiculing and such of us libtards, but then, pffft. Sensible policy recs. Boooo-ring. If I wanted that, I’d read TPM or some shit. Let’s go back to blaming this on Ben Nelson, Chuck Grassley, Vinegar Joe, etc. There’s your funny…
sounds interesting
http://www.netvibes.com/pharmacy-store
[re=405548]BadKitty[/re]: No kidding. If these Repubs were around a century ago the buggy whip industry would still be alive and well.
And besides, insurance is just a form of gambling.
They’ll have to put me in prison before I give one freaking dollar to an insurance company for “insurance” they’ll do anything not to pay out. And even then the health care in the prison would probably be better than what I’d get from insurance.
Expand Medicare and get employers out of the insurance business.
An average American’s understanding of public policy is about on par with a cat’s understanding of particle physics. A really dumb cat.
My neighbor Steve got word he was being hired by one of the insurance companies. A big one. His position includes access to a generous bonus structure. I told him about this Baucus thing, and he started masturbating furiously. The irony is, when he starts work in three days, cutting short his insane spank-fest, his insurance will kick in, but the ointment to heal his chafed-to-bleeding pecker will not be covered because the condition is…pre-existing. Small victories.
How about an option for a robust case of pubic lice? Can we at least have that?
[re=405563]Sharkey[/re]: “You are my brother. I love you. And yet, I feel a great sadness… in my bosom.”
JIM NEWELL IS A SELLOUT. ALSO.
[re=405566]qaf[/re]: Right on. And get the fucking insurance businesses out of the Healthcare business.
so, wait– are we getting a public option, or not?
SOCIALISM SOCIALISM SOCIALISM SOCIALISM SOCIALISM SOCIALISM SOCIALISM SOCIALISM SOCIALISM SOCIALISM SOCIALISM SOCIALISM SOCIALISM SOCIALISM SOCIALISM SOCIALISM SOCIALISM SOCIALISM STOP SCREAMING.
Out of all the accusations made towards B.O.’s administration and the round of dumb Democrats currently screwing the pooch over this health care bullshit, we haven’t heard enough of the “Lameism” stuff. SOMEBODY SHOULD GET TO THE TROOF. LAMEISM IS DESTROYING TEH CUNTREE.
Bastard Lameists.
[re=405554]Mr Blifil[/re]: I’m hoping for a manly, virile, vigorous, potent public option, with ripped abs and bulging delts…what? Sorry, I got distracted, and I’m not even gay.
[re=405566]qaf[/re]: Brave talk, but if you have a job with health insurance, your employer is already paying for shitty coverage. You just don’t see it in your paycheck. But you’re absolutely right that the health insurance companies either need to be dismantled or tamed with massive regulation as they do in France and Switzerland.
Ah, representative democracy, where doing the smallest bit of incrementalist good for the public always involves billions of dollars in bribes for some sector of our beloved multinational corporations.
[re=405560]tamiflu[/re]: Please eat a bag of flaccid dicks.
[re=405556]T.J.M[/re]: Reading DailyKos for the past month
HEE HEE…funny.
Wait — can’t we just lie to the Republicans and tell them we’ve got a healthcare reform bill that Ebenezer Scrooge would cream over, then we just turn into vicious bastards and roll them all? The Democrats are already going to have to fight for every little smidgen of reform they want to enact — they should just get mean about it already.
[re=405567]norbizness[/re]: A really dumb cat…and a really arcane niche of particle physics.
This message paid for by Mu-On.org
[re=405567]norbizness[/re]: My cat is smarter than $arah Palin. Well, the smarter of the two is, and he’s senile.
My understanding was that HHS would have quite a bit of power to define what counts as a “minimum acceptable” plan that satisfies the individual mandate if you buy it. So even without the public option, the executive branch would still get the power to tell Aetna to go eat a bag of dicks if it was screwing people by rescinding that classification from the offending plan.
But on the other hand, there’s 5 bills, which disagree on details, no one knows what’s even in any of them, etc., so I’m probably wrong about that. Someone want to educate me?
Wait, isn’t the Robust Public Option more like The National Health Service than the other plans, and therefore much like the system used by all of Europe, where no child has had so much as pink-eye since 1955?
[re=405605]SayItWithWookies[/re]: The funny thing is that while we think the dems are big soft pussies, the rethugs constantly accuse the dems of demagoguery and playing dirty! I dunno if it is a double-psych, or whether the rethugs are just fucking paranoid idiots, but it is funny.
Fired Up?
Ready to go!
Go get your broke ass some insurance, sucka.
[re=405592]V572625694[/re]: Actually, I was laid off months ago. And I’ve only ever had employer coverage for 18 months back in the 80s.
Anything else you’d like to mistakenly accuse me of?
[re=405617]bhosp[/re]: Yes, we are all fucked, nothing is as it seems and just when you have a tiny little bit of hope it will be bludgeoned by the dumbest fucking argument made by the stupidest and most corrupt human existent.
[re=405612]user-of-owls[/re]: that’s how it’s done, reply-of-owls. nicely met.
[re=405612]user-of-owls[/re]: Physics nerd.
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/08/why-the-public-option-matters/
I think when Barry totally failed to say “health care reform” and started saying, without fail, “health insurance reform” over and over, that’s when I got a vague sensation that my pooper was going to start spraying arterial red once again. I hate when that happens. The only people talking about public option at this point are… the people talking about public option, pulling their puds and eating pie in the sky.
Fun game: set your browser to highlight occurrances of insurance, insurer, insured, etc. and read the actual proposals, discussions and 100% Progressive-Free policy standpoints that the actual deciders have gone on record about. Hell, I started laughing at this story about halfway through the block quote. It’s so bipartisan! I know what my drinking game will be tonight… a teaspoon of light beer for every variation of “insurance” sounds about right.
“Insurers oppose the public option, saying it will lead to excessive government control of health care and could eventually drive them out of business.”
One can always hope.
Go get-em Obama
Have I told you lately, Jim, how I love you? I swear, wading into the comments on TPM or Huffington Post about this is so, soooooooo depressing. Even more annoying than the “robust public option or the Democrats will lost the House, the Senate, the Supreme Court, the Tennessee Valley Authority, and the White House in 2012″ are the “SINGLE-PAYER!11!!” people, who just can’t seem to understand that that was never on the table and would never have a shot of passing if it were. And then there are the people always droning about how the Democrats are pussies and Obama is nothing more than a tool of the Evul Corporations, which, while maybe true, is hardly news or a surprise. It’s like they lived in a totally different country for thirty years.
[re=405646]qaf[/re]: Ouch. No accusation intended. Sorry…
Here’s what the President should say tonight. He’s come to the conclusion that the Public Option is socialism. But then, so are Medicare, Medicaid, Trig-care, etc. So, starting tomorrow, he’s going to get rid of all socialism, including Medicare, since the mouthbreathers hate socialism so much. He’ll be giving Medicare recipients the precious gift of Freedom, so that, Free of government intrusion, they can all go out on their own to find a kindly health insurance company that will insure their old, diabetic, cholesteral-ridden asses.
We’re going to receive lip service from Barack Obama tonight? Boy howdy!
Thank you, voice of reason. I think. I hope.
Hell, as a self-employed couple whose business is going down the tubes even as our premium goes up up up (with $5000 yearly deductible! Each!), I welcome anything that is income-based.
“Insurers oppose the public option, saying it … could eventually drive them out of business.” They simply cannot survive without the spectacles, gold teeth, and hair (for pillows) of the uninsured dead.
DO RITE DO RITE
[re=405663]engulfedinflames[/re]: I was actually trying to suggest a work-around to the missing public option: make the restrictions on what counts as “acceptable basic coverage” for purposes of the individual mandate strict enough that insurers would have to comply and be good or lose all their customers to other insurers who are willing and able to comply. (Free market solution yay!)
[re=405728]V572625694[/re]: Accepted. I admit to being a bit prickly on this issue. And your assumptions would have had at least a 50-50 chance of being right for any random American.
Re your other point, you don’t need to be brave when you Just Can’t Afford It (and saw how useless health “insurance” was when people were dropped for getting AIDS, etc, in the 80s). Why go through this kabuki show of “subsidies” where I am forced by law to give money I don’t have to an insurance company that would just as soon forget I existed when I needed care, to be refunded at tax time, assuming I’m still alive by then? Why not just send it straight to them with an Xmas card in my name? I already participate in my own degradation plenty, I don’t need these personal quasi-funded mandates on top of it.
Some years ago, I read an article saying that politicians should identify their sponsors, NASCAR-style, with corporate logos on their clothing. Had this come about, I would have been very interested to see how many politicians would have railed against the public option, while wearing Blue Cross Blue Shield, Aetna, Kaiser Permanente etc. patches on their shirts.
I thought Nick Jonas was supposed to have solved this problem. He has diabetes, people.
Look for a lively discussion of this issue after the speech on the new “Mark Foley Radio Hour,” on radio stations broadcast across the nation! Mark’s first guest: Janeane Garafolo.
[re=405617]bhosp[/re]: “So even without the public option, the executive branch would still get the power to tell Aetna to go eat a bag of dicks if it was screwing people by rescinding that classification from the offending plan.”
Until a Republican gets elected president again. Then it’s deregulation for all!
That’s the advantage of a public option: much like social security and medicare, once people have had it for a while, they’re less willing to part with it.
[re=405724]Vulpes82[/re]: The people who drone that “Democrats are pussies” really suck because they’re generally the same people who drone “Hugo Chávez is a thug”. The latter is actually an example of a President who does what so many people (here and elsewhere) say Obama should do – use his mandate to shove reform down the Right’s throat whether they like it or not, and tell them to go piss up a rope when they complain. Now, I’m a big fan of Hugo (yes, an actual socialist), but really, anyone who voted for Obama thinking he was going to act like Chávez was either a retard, or a wingnut attempting to hasten the Rapture.
[re=405747]BlueStateLibtard[/re]: And Socil Security is socialism also.
Honestly, we don’t deserve a “robust public option.” It sucks, but there are a LOT of stupid people here, and the people that aren’t stupid are pussies because they don’t want to point out how stupid the stupids are – which they should be doing on a constant basis. We’re all to blame. Except me, I’m awesome.
[re=405915]doloras[/re]: I actually think more of Bush than Chavez. Bush bulldozed his way through whatever he wanted, damn the consequences and the constitutionality, and everyone yelled and screamed (and they should have). But now that it’s a Democrat in the White House, all the libtards are “be like Bush and Cheney!” Really? We apparently all want to be ruled by Darth Vader and Jar Jar Binks, as long as they give us cap and trade. The hypocrisy makes me twitch.
On “Fresh Air” yesterday:
Q– what do you call a cancer patient with full health care coverage?
A– a Canadian.
’nuff said. Have to take a break to go raid my kid’s college fund so I can pay for my health insurance.
Healthcare reform efforts have been stymied by an acute case of Streptobaucus contracted by a bite from the Hairy Reed Beetle acquired during a sojourn through the tall Grassley by the banks of the Lieberman river.
[re=405724]Vulpes82[/re]: This.
All the “wah! wah! wah! I want a pony and I want one with brown hair and blue eyes and a silver mane and I want to call it Princess and if I don’t get one RIGHT NOW I’m going to go vote for Nader!!!!” I’ve been reading on lefty blogs has been almost as depressing as watching the Death Paneler’s scream about socialism.
[re=406051]Hooray For Anything[/re]: I sometimes think they’re all just an unemployed panus-wearer with fifty different personalities, each with their own political views crazier and more paranoid than the last. And if I hear “Vote for Nader!” one more time, I’m going to kick a puppy. What exactly has that grouchy fossil done since he gave us all seatbelts? If he actually went back to try to do consumer protection instead of running ever-more quixotic campaigns, he’d get a hell of a lot more done for America. But he’s not owned by the Corporates, so he’s just sunshine and lollipops.
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