Nov 29, 2009 10:55am
Sanders — No Line in Sand on Health Care
EmailLast week on “This Week,” moderate Democratic Senator Ben Nelson told me flatly he would not allow a health care bill with a public option for a vote on the floor.
This morning his liberal colleague Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) wouldn’t draw a line in the sand, even though he supports a public option.
Sanders told me on “This Week” that he would be reluctant to support any bill without an enhanced public option. But when I asked him if he would prevent a bill without a public option from getting on the floor for a final vote and support a filibuster, Sanders wouldn’t put his vote on the line. He said he’d have to see what happens, but that he’d “fight and demand a public option and a strong one at that.”
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Well, I am in my 50th year with NO Insurance (can’t afford it – below the poverty line) and I probably won’t make it much past 60 years, even if everything goes well, but then I will be dead, AND these problems will persist. My Ashes will laugh.
Posted by: ZACH | November 29, 2009, 11:48 am 11:48 am
Sanders worries about spending and yet wants to support 2 trillion dollar health care overhaul, whats up with that?
Posted by: earl | November 29, 2009, 12:17 pm 12:17 pm
They should draw a line in the sand. Reenact the whole Alamo thing. It could be very dramatic.
Obama got elected so his mandate should be followed to some degree. Besides the sooner we do this, the sooner the house of cards collapses.
Posted by: Huh | November 29, 2009, 1:47 pm 1:47 pm
For all who insist on Obamacare please, please consider the national debt. Would you beg for nanny state privileges if it trashed a nation so many fought and died for? Are you that selfish?
The Congressional Budget Office has warned that the current level of debt is unsustainable. The current level is $12 trillion, but Obama and his minions are on a track to double it to $24 trillion by year 2019. Consider that if no one has the faintest hint of a plan to resolve a $12 trillion debt we can be certain there will be no hope for resolution of a $24 trillion debt!
So, what is next? You might ask your congressman and senators what they plan to do about it? Mean while Google Cloward-Piven Strategy and pray Ps. 109:8.
Posted by: Ed Taylor | November 29, 2009, 2:23 pm 2:23 pm
Sanders thinks that private industry and the profit motive are the source or scrouge of everyone’s and society ills. He wishes to blame the health insuracne companies for high premiums and the high costs of health care. It is painfully obvisious the honorable gentleman from VT does not understand health care acocunting, much less have read finacial statements of health insurers.
If has, he would note that many insurance carriers are non-profit. They have dominant positions in many states because of their non-profit status, having driven the for profit comapanies out. Many of these, like BCBS of NC were set up to help indviduals and small companies obtain healh insurance at affordable costs.
Sen. Sanders does not realize that the bulk of the money the carriers collect as premiums are paid right back out again to providers for the insureds. The largest public option plan, Medicare, is deep in debt and for all pratical purposes insolvent.
the public option will NOT give folks cheaper coverage as long as they pay health providers and workers competitive wages and fees for services.
If congress is serious about providing affordable health care and slowing the trajectory of costs, they will focus on shoring up medicare and medicare and focus on the real reasons costs are so high. health insurance premiums merely reflect what is paid out to providers for their customers who buy the insurance. This is not the cause for the high costs and clouding the real issues of people buying services (health care) and having no concept of what it costs beyond their co-payment.
Posted by: scott jeffries | November 29, 2009, 3:00 pm 3:00 pm
Today, the day before the health care debate in the Senate, the church I attend observed AIDS Sunday. The service revolved around John 9:1-7.
That chapter describes Jesus’ healing the blind man at Siloam. Jesus’ disciples asked Jesus if the man became blind because of his own sins or the sins of his parents. Jesus refuted this belief. Then, he spat in some clay, spread it over the blind man’s eyes, and told him to wash his eyes in the pool of Siloam. The blind man did, and he was cured.
I can’t help thinking about John 9:1-7 whenever I hear about the so-called health care debate. Jesus healed the blind man without asking about pre-existing conditions and without asking about the blind man’s HMO. But beyond that miracle, I must ask the question – Who was blind in this story? The man whom Jesus cured? Or the community in which the man lived, including the religious authorities, who permitted a cherry-picked verse of scripture blind them to the common humanity they shared with the man they branded and ostracized as unclean?
Except for Obama, I have heard little discussion about the need to health care reform. The media in particular gives a lot of press time to the Tea-Baggers, but almost never shows the plight of the 50 million people in this country without health care. As a result of this blindness, 44,000 thousands Americans die each year because of inadequate medical care. (Source: a recent study by the Harvard University Medical School.)
Babies fare very badly in our for-profit health care system. According to the 2009 CIA World Factbook, our infant mortality rate is twice as high as the infant mortality rates of Sweden or France, and nearly 3 times higher than the infant mortality rate of Singapore. Washington DC has the highest infant mortality rate in the country, according to Statesmaster.com; the infant mortality in DC is 3 times higher than the infant mortality for Sweden or France, and nearly 5 times higher than the infant mortality rate of Singapore. As lobbyists are bribing Senators with campaign contributions, a few blocks away, babies are dying. Why am I the only person in the country who notices this.
Like the religious authorities in Jesus time, who blamed the blind man for his affliction, so blame the victims. We claim they are too lazy to work, or we blame them for not earning enough money to buy health insurance. We blame them for being too fat, or for having a pre-existing condition like acne or asthma. We blame them for having inadequate insurance, or for getting dropped from their insurance provider because they come down with an expensive illness, like breast cancer. Like the religious authorities, we are allowing our love for the market place blind us to the human needs of our neighbors
What makes me even angrier is the blindness of the so-called religious authorities, which matches the religious leaders whom Jesus violently denounced. Yes, they will mobilize to keep gays from getting married, or for preventing a 14 year old who has been brutally raped by her stepfather from terminating the resulting pregnancy.
But they show absolutely no interest in a health care overhaul that will save thousands of babies lives and will prevent thousands of desperate women from resorting to abortions because they cannot pay medical bills.
When we pledge allegiance to the flag, we claim to be “one nation under God”, yet our for profit health care system rations health care according to a person’s ability to pay. This is a obscene violation of the most fundamental precept of the Gospel.
Jesus said “Whatsoever you do unto the least of these my brethren, you do also unto me.” Our blind, callous disregard for the uninsured is a jihad against Christ.
Posted by: William Joseph Miller | November 29, 2009, 8:32 pm 8:32 pm
WOW…the rampant misinformation spread by the insurance companies is evident by the comments posted. Anyone who really believes the following quote is woefully misguided: “Sen. Sanders does not realize that the bulk of the money the carriers collect as premiums are paid right back out again to providers for the insureds.” The same commenter made a point of stating that Sen Sanders is ignorant of medical accounting. I am not sure which 10K’s you are reading, but FYI, these companies make it a priority to bury the reality of what they are doing with creative accounting. Financial statements issued by insurance companies are meaningless in determining benefit levels for their enrollees. Medical loss ratios are similarly meaningless as applied to the The ever-changing models we use to manage and deliver health care.
The bottom line is that insurance companies first obligation is to their stockholders, not to patients. Anyone who believes that the CEO of an insurer can put the health care needs of its enrolees above and before their fiduciary responsibility to maximize profit for shareholders has their head in the sand. It really is as simple as that.
Posted by: Kevin B | November 29, 2009, 9:34 pm 9:34 pm
Interesting that liberals are now framing the current health care bill as some sort of religious duty.
I thought liberals believed in separation of church and state?
Posted by: Joe White | November 29, 2009, 9:42 pm 9:42 pm
No one has bothered to bring up the fact that this Congress will not be participating in this health care bill they want to enforce on the rest of the U.S. taxpayers. The same health care bill which the White House bought the votes of Rep Cao (La) for $100 million and Sen. Landreau (La) for $300 million. Let’s not forget this congress upon retiring continues to receive their wonderful health care along with a nice pension for the rest of their lifes.
Posted by: bailedout | November 29, 2009, 11:17 pm 11:17 pm
The voters should draw a line in the sand, and demand that adults in Washington behave like responsible adults (regardless of party). Signs of irresponsible leadership:
1) $12 trillion nation debt – and growing
2) Adding taxes to struggling businesses
3) Adding regulations to struggling businesses
4) Adding taxes to struggling population
5) Focus on health care, when people are losing jobs by the millions.
Washington is out of control. It has become so large that it has become unmanageable. We must reduce the burden of the bloated federal government on businesses (so that we can bring back jobs), reduce the burden of the government on peoples lives (so that we have more money in our pockets to live on), drastically reduce the size of the federal government to a more manageable size (so that the additional taxes aren’t needed, and so we may be able to bring about true accountability), and reduce the national debt(so that the dollar is not devalued). Voters need to draw a line in the sand in 2010 and 2012, and demand responsible leadership. Where did all the grown-ups go?
Posted by: RobAla | November 30, 2009, 6:43 am 6:43 am
I’m a supporter of Health CARE Reform, but not of a bill that will cost middle class workers with health insurance thousands more in non-fightable tax money. We can now at least fight the thousands of dollars the medical community wants to charge, but what happens when it is tax money. We end up with tax evasion, and penalties, on what the medical community thinks are justifiable charges for saving a life. This is NOT reform. Reform is looking into the outrageous amounts of money charged by the medical community, without just finding a scapegoat. throughout the community. It is working to find the answers to the obesity epidemic, without just looking at the doctors, who are profiting off the deminishing health of the country. It is looking at controlling spending, without cutting mammograms, but trying to figure out why they cost so much. There are a lot of people, not JUST the insurance industry, making a lot of money, and a lot of people on this side of the fence who need to watch what they are doing to their own bodies, or the bodies of the family members, they support, in DOING WHAT THEY LIKE TO DO.
Posted by: Gary, Parma Hts, Oh | November 30, 2009, 7:08 am 7:08 am
They spent a trillion dollars and counting in Iraq and Afganistan but they don’t want to provide affordable healthcare through public option to americans.
Posted by: hybridhealthcare | November 30, 2009, 8:09 am 8:09 am
American is out of funds!! We cannot afford to finally break middle America,
in the name of “Sending out tax money to 3rd world countries” to fix global warming?? First of all any lane brain proposal to give money to 3rd world countries for this purpose, will NOT happen!! 3rd world dictators will get it all.
Cap & Trade is a killer for american citizens, who will have to lower there standards of life/living, to support
a world gov., and support socialist doctrine around the world.
Add up all of the exposier –
Fixed expense up for utilities by 300%.
Fuel for cars — $10.00 to $12.00 a tank.
Mandatory retro fit to sell your house.
Est cost = $60.000.00. How are we going to cover this? and how will a potential new home owner afford to pay the extra cost, with a credit crunch
and non expansion of the job market??
Health Care, will in all reality, show a 1% increase in withholding regardless
of your current status.
Gun control buried in the new health care, 2000 page bill, no one has read.
Yes – Gun owners will be viewed as higher risk, and a 20% penality imposed.
Surrender you fire arm and you get the lower rate.
We cannot and must not, be forced to pay these proposals, no now.
obama takes office with a crisis, and solves it with finishing off whats left of the middle class.
Posted by: JBS | November 30, 2009, 12:49 pm 12:49 pm
There is no regulatory rules to reign in the insurance companies from raising rate or costs in this bill,It is not reform it is government take over. I will not sign a health care bill that raises the deficit one dime. Is this another lie from the Commander-N-chief?
Posted by: lightningF | November 30, 2009, 4:23 pm 4:23 pm
Huh is right.
“Obamacare” can’t be as good for us as “Bushdontcare”.
We should keep the Bush deficit spending program which only overspent $1.2 trillion in his last year (check the Dept of Treasury rpt) and wasted 4000 lives in a country looking for WOMD which didn’t exist.
And, I would hate to make execs who lost billions in bank mismanagement have to stand in line at a doctor’s office while the rest of us can’t get in. That would be too cruel for words.
Better they should get the privilege of trashing a nation that so many died for since they are so good at it.
We should lower their (bank execs) taxes and increase their pay because they are doing such a good job and we can’t afford to lose them.
Posted by: Mike | December 1, 2009, 9:01 am 9:01 am
ZACH wrote:
“Well, I am in my 50th year with NO Insurance (can’t afford it – below the poverty line) and I probably won’t make it much past 60 years, even if everything goes well, but then I will be dead, AND these problems will persist. My Ashes will laugh.”
I just turned 50, so I guess I’m in my 51st year now.
I have been buying insurance for my family for over 20 years, with an income often WELL below what is considered ‘the line’.
It isn’t cheap, and it is a struggle and a sacrifice to do without other things in order to make sure my family is insured.
But it is possible.
Posted by: Joe White | December 2, 2009, 1:14 pm 1:14 pm
Mike–”We should keep the Bush deficit spending program which only overspent $1.2 trillion in his last year”—
How is that worse than the Obama administration which overspent by 3 trillion in the first 9 months?
“I would hate to make execs who lost billions in bank mismanagement have to stand in line at a doctor’s office”– Yet the people who allowed this situation to occur (Democrats headed by Barney Frank, Chris Dodd and Maxine Waters) still get better healthcare than anyone, are exempted from this legislation and don’t have to wait in a line at all… I bet if they were being forced to use this plan, it would fail miserably.
“We should lower their (bank execs) taxes and increase their pay because they are doing such a good job and we can’t afford to lose them.” — No, we should lower their taxes because thats what allows the economy to grow and make jobs for you and me. I love the liberal idea that making money automatically equals dishonesty. A good portion of these “execs” GREW their businesses and created jobs for the country. And somehow you think it willbe good if we take away their profit (and their incentive to continue) in order to make yourself feel better.. Insane liberal gibberish
Posted by: arkievet | December 2, 2009, 2:48 pm 2:48 pm
WE NEED a public option to counter the greed from the health insurance companies, bottom line. Its an option folks. Not a mandate. The health insurance industry is corrupt. There has to be a way for us to have a choice in the way our money is exchanged for actual healthcare and not into the coffers of the insurance industry.
Posted by: Umaguma | December 6, 2009, 8:11 am 8:11 am