Yes, of course it’s bad. But if they had this much trouble pushing what is really a REPUBLICAN, market-based version of healthcare reform, what do you think would have happened to single payer? Would it even have gotten to a vote?
I think this is a first step in the inevitability of single payer. It’s the only thing that makes long-term economic sense and there will be a lot of pressure to fix it. (Not to mention, the insurance companies will now escalate their abuse of their clients.)
I don’t care what the handwringers are saying this morning, the Republicans know this is the beginning of the end. Even Noam Chomsky says he would have “held his nose” and voted for it.
Obama’s not a liberal, but Nancy Pelosi is. Let’s see what she does with this.
If they fix this, I’ll forgive them. If they don’t, I won’t. As Atrios posted recently, it’s not what we voted for.
Jay,
No, it’s what James Roosevelt voted for. This is simple corruption. This is what Obama promised to do in return for the rules and bylaws committee giving him the nomination.
Pelosi for President. We’re in a new era — black POTUS, woman Speaker, and irrelevant white men in GOP looking like George Wallace in the schoolhouse door. I agree with atrios and Susie on the weakness of the bill and early missteps by Dems and Obama, but I’m really, really, really happy to see this limited progress. My Blue Dog Dem Rep. Allen Boyd even voted for it, perhaps signaling his readiness to retire. I live in a community where the majority have drunk the Conservative kool-aid, and heads are exploding all over the place around here this morning. Obama only got 45% of the vote in this congressional district in 2008, so I consider Rep. Boyd’s vote to come as near to statesmanship — as opposed to politics-as-usual — that I’ve seen from any local politicians.
No matter what the wrapper says, it still tastes like a sh*t sandwich. I think we’d be better off not eating at all than being force-fed this.
But who care what a bitter old uterus thinks.
Now we get behind Alan Grayson and his bill to allow buy-ins to Medicare. That could be/is the next step.
How many people will lose their insurance before the exchanges go into effect? How many will be priced out of any insurance, or priced into the junk plans which mean self-denial of care because, while they can afford the monthly premiums they can’t afford to pay for the deductibles and co-pays? How many will suffer or die due to junk or no insurance?
It is good that those with insurance can keep their grown children on it through age 26, that pre-existing conditions in children cannot mean denial of insurance coverage. The question in both examples is…can the parents afford the insurance? This bill has no real controls on costs.
I understand in six months, small businesses will receive monthly tax credits for insuring their workers. But…how many can afford to do so even with the credits?
What I do not know is when the mandates begin…anyone?
This is why Chomsky should never run for office. As a point the White House’s Plan B, was much better than Plan A:
Couple that with the popular insurance industry regulations already in the bill and even without reimportation of drugs, ERISA waiver, Medicare drug negotiation it’s a bill that I could consider at the very least abiding by the first rule of medical treatment: do no harm.
This P.O.S. is so far from that and so far from a pathway to single-payer I can’t believe you of all people Susie would suggest it is. In the future, the solution to increased premiums and drug prices will not be single-payer, but rather increased subsidies to Big Insurance/PhRMA, paid for by the Chinese and increased taxes on the lower-income/middle-class. We’re going to fork more money to the private insurance parasites, who will continue to deny claims – you know actual HEALTH CARE. Hell, like Medicare Part D, a future Republicans Congress will likely champion the bill!!!
The last time we had majorities this large in Congress and the White House we got the frickin’ Voting Rights Act, Medicare and Medicaid. This was a wasted opportunity. We could have slipped SOMETHING in there, and no I’m not talking about the public option, but rather something substantive like nationalizing Medicaid & CHIP, lowering Medicare eligibility to 55 and the ERISA waiver. But professional liberal organizations and PINO (Progressive in name only) Congress Members didn’t even try.
The iffy bill is a fact. Changes will not come from Obama who still thinks that the banks are the center of the universe. For single payer we need a leader that is progressive and strong and for that we have to wait until 2016 or longer.
Everyone including the tea baggers will get used to the new bill and will stop talking about it in at most a week. May be in 2014, someone will resurrect the travesty. We had enough votes for single payer this time but we didn’t have enough president for that.
The Dems will pay dearly in 2010 and 2012 for the trillions for the big banks; this will haunt us for a long time. Obama will not become famous for health care reform but notorious for his waste of money on the banks.
Given the sort of ridiculous rhetoric coming from the right-wing, the bill can’t be all bad–I look forward to seeing what sort–if any–student loan changes made it through…
I wonder what sort of health care bill McPalin would have passed?
The student loan changes were pulled out because they wouldn’t pass through reconciliation. Instead, they put in more money for Pell grants.
Purple Girl, I fear there’s little hope of Grayson even getting a vote, much less getting the 60 votes in the Senate.
Our chance was to get it into the reconciliation to pass with a simple majority vote. That chance is gone.
Obama does not want expanded Medicare or single payer, so he will everything in his power to prevent such a bill getting one chance to be voted on.
The WH spinning this bill as historic…and historic changes happen seldom. That’s part of the reason for the use of the term: It’s not going to be revisited if Obama et al can help it.
Actually, I just read something that indicates they put it back in as a final amendment.
yeah, sounded to me that the student loan stuff stayed in too…