Health Care

[! B L U E WAR R I O R..!]

clear majorities for public option.

only ones not for it ones not even know what is.

and stay away julie's uterus.  "too importasnt rush" mean "me republican who not want any 'reform' because like insane insurance company practices."  good luck with that, gomer.

wrong...too expensive and abortion not going to be paid for by the many...sorry...'bam will take it off table.


'sides...no tort reform???


and BAM...stands up to the liberal democratic doofus ilk...good luck going it alone now stupidberal jackasses....no rush to public option is a relief...thanks bam...many of us do not want to pay for the convenient killing of developing human beings...

[! B L U E WAR R I O R..!]

...liberals get a cold shower....conservatives and independents will get this thing done...one day at a time...just like this country...obama moves to the right...smart move 'bam!





Obama's healthcare address: The middle man returns
The politics of healthcare reform forced the president to the center.
By Doyle McManus

 
September 10, 2009

 President Obama rediscovered his inner centrist Wednesday night, forced by the arithmetic of congressional politics and the federal budget to trim his healthcare proposals to a new, more modest size.

On the surface, Obama's speech to Congress was aimed at shoring up sagging public support for healthcare reform by promising worried citizens that he won't bust the budget, won't force people to give up insurance they like and won't set up "death panels" to ration care for the elderly.

But the most important audience wasn't really the folks at home; it was the divided Democrats in Congress, plus one or two stray Republicans, whose help Obama needs to get a law passed.

For them, the president's message was double-edged. Liberals who had hoped for a big, government-run plan got a cold shower -- a warning from the president that if they hold out for everything they want, they may get nothing at all.

But for centrist "Blue Dogs" who want to keep federal spending down -- and who want to get reelected next year from conservative districts -- the president's message was a rousing "I'm on your side."

To make the plan attractive to the Blue Dogs, Obama promised that the cost of the bill would come in around $900 billion over 10 years, down from the $1.2 trillion most Democrats started with. He also promised spending cuts that would automatically kick in if costs turn out higher than expected. To help pay for his plan, he proposed a backdoor tax on high-end health insurance policies that will be hard for some labor unions to swallow (although it makes good economic sense). And he promised that 95% of small businesses wouldn't be required to pay for their employees' health insurance, a deep bow to the power of small business (or at least, the gauzy image of "small business") in the nation's heartland.

And what did liberals get? A stirring tribute to the importance of a "public option," the government-run insurance plan beloved by the left -- followed immediately by an offer to do without, if that's what's needed to pass a bill. Obama also promised that the plan would go most but not all the way toward providing insurance to the uninsured, and that it would include consumer protections, so that people would no longer lose coverage after getting sick or go bankrupt because their costs exceeded their insurance.

In the end, the speech won't spare Obama from the charge from the Republican right that he is a closet socialist who wants the government to take over healthcare; that has become an article of faith among many conservatives, and a few fiscal compromises won't shake it. But it does set up a test for Obama's liberal supporters, in Congress and across the nation: Will they take their president's advice and settle for half a loaf?

Obama said he wouldn't "waste time" debating healthcare with most Republicans anymore because they wanted only to kill his plan. Nevertheless, pieces of the plan appeared tailored to the tastes of the last two GOP senators who might vote for an Obama-sponsored bill, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, both from Maine. Snowe has proposed a "trigger" that would allow the government to set up a public-option plan down the road if private insurance companies didn't meet expectations. Collins has said she's mostly just worried about the overall price tag.

But the real debate has been among Democrats all along. They have giant majorities in both houses, but they are also deeply divided. Liberals who have fought for healthcare reform for decades are disappointed that they can't get Canadian-style, government-run healthcare. The Blue Dogs, mostly from conservative constituencies in the South and mountain West, are terrified that a bill that looks too liberal or too expensive will mean they lose their jobs in November 2010.

So now the dance of legislation enters a period of negotiations between liberals and Blue Dogs, House members and senators. The Senate Finance Committee will try to settle on a compromise proposal, shaped mostly by Blue Dogs and those two Maine senators, sometime in mid-September.

The House will vote for a big-government version of healthcare reform, including a public-option plan, that will give liberals the brief pleasure of a chance to vote yes and endangered Blue Dogs an equally welcome chance to vote no. The Senate will vote for a bill with no public option, although it may have Snowe's trigger idea. In late October, members of the two houses will meet behind closed doors to wrestle over the final details.

If all that works, a bill that looks something like the plan Obama described last night will be passed before the end of the year.

Obama hasn't provided complete clarity on the details of the plan, but he has finally provided clarity on how to get there, and that is likely to be enough.

The outcome won't be perfect in anyone's eyes. But if Congress actually passes legislation the president signs into law, it will be the most important piece of healthcare legislation since Medicare was established in 1965 -- and no small achievement for a president who critics still dismiss as a liberal dreamer.

[Julie Fern]

it public option or nothing, and it blue dogs going take sharp end of that stick.

[! B L U E WAR R I O R..!]

it public option or nothing, and it blue dogs going take sharp end of that stick.

mmm?...nah.

[Julie Fern]

if anyone know about dogs and and their ends, it you.

[! B L U E WAR R I O R..!]

...oh those pesky devils in the detail...take time...breathe...don't rush this...18 bluedogs want to have tougher anti-abortion language...good for them.


Democrats' health-care split makes predictions impossible

By David Lightman

McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — Before President Barack Obama can sign health care legislation, his biggest sales challenge will be convincing his fellow Democrats in Congress to enact his plan.

The party is badly, even bitterly, divided over a host of hard-to-resolve issues — including the scale of government involvement, cost and abortion — making it impossible to predict whether Obama can muster the 218 House of Representatives and 60 Senate votes he needs to enact a bill.

Party leaders say that the turmoil is typical.

"We will have a bill," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said flatly in an interview with McClatchy.

Crafting a health care compromise, she said, isn't even the most difficult task she's had recently.

"The hardest thing I've had to do all year is (get more funding for) Iraq and Afghanistan," Pelosi said, recalling last spring's fight to provide more money for the two wars. "People just did not want to do it."

While almost all Democratic lawmakers want to overhaul America's health care system, however, there's no consensus on how to do it. With almost all Republicans opposed to any plan the Democratic majority favors, the measure must draw near-united Democratic support in order to pass.

Fifty-two of the 256 House Democrats consider themselves "Blue Dogs," or conservatives. They're concerned about any plan's cost and wary of being tagged as expanding Washington's reach by creating a government-run "public option" alternative to private health insurance. If the Blue Dogs stick together, Pelosi would need the support of more than a dozen Republicans to forge a 218-vote House majority, which seems all but impossible.

In addition, 18 House Democrats want tougher anti-abortion language in the legislation, which many Democrats who favor abortion rights oppose.

Pelosi, among many, also favors higher income tax rates on the rich, which most Senate Democrats reject.

The Senate faces a different numbers game. Sixty votes are needed to overcome procedural hurdles, and Democrats now control 59 seats. Within a few weeks, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick is expected to name an interim replacement for the late Sen. Edward Kennedy; former Gov. Michael Dukakis and former Democratic National Committee Chairman Paul Kirk are mentioned most prominently.

Because Senate Democrats are split by the same disagreements as House Democrats, however, securing support from all 60 is going to be tough, even though at least two Republicans, Maine's Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, have signaled a willingness to compromise, though not on a public option.

After Oct. 15, the Senate could pass a health care plan with 51 votes because of a rules change, but Democrats are reluctant to use that weapon, fearing a huge backlash.

Obama has tried mightily of late to promote party unity, starting with his address Sept. 9 to a joint session of Congress and continuing with more public rallies this week and private meetings with members of Congress.

When they were asked whether the White House push has helped forge consensus, Democrats were guarded in response.

"The president has improved the atmosphere," said Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind.

The focus next week will be on the Senate Finance Committee, whose 13 Democrats and 10 Republicans will begin writing legislation Tuesday. They hope to finish within two weeks.


McClatchy Newspapers 2009

[Julie Fern]

you excellent candidate abortion.  too bad.

[! B L U E WAR R I O R..!]

...u sore loser...can't face facts bluedogs run the show and libs too weak to "go it alone"...huh?
 
what's that?

huh?

can't answer the question? that's cause you can't face the truth...

[! B L U E WAR R I O R..!]

House Blue Dog leader hails Baucus health bill


By Michael O'Brien - 09/16/09 12:56 PM ET


The Senate Finance Committee's healthcare bill won praise from a key centrist Democrat in the House, hailing it as an "important step forward" in the effort to achieve health reform.

Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-S.D.), the co-chairwoman of the centrist blog of Blue Dog Democrats, gave the healthcare legislation released by Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) a warm reception in a statement this morning.

"Today, the Senate took an important step forward as Congress moves to send responsible health care reform legislation to the President’s desk," Herseth Sandlin said. "I applaud Chairman Baucus and his colleagues in the Senate for their progress today and look forward to working together as we move to make health care reform a reality."

The Blue Dog leader's praise for the more centrist Finance committee bill puts House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in a tough spot, as Pelosi struggles to manage House centrists' concerns, as well as House liberals' refusal to vote for a health bill which lacks a public (or "government-run") option, as the Finance bill does.

Herseth Sandlin argued that the new Senate bill met Blue Dogs' key concerns about healthcare reform.

"The draft released by Chairman Baucus addresses two central goals of the Blue Dog Coalition and the Administration:  It is deficit neutral, and it takes real steps to bring down the cost of health care over the long term," she said. "Meeting these standards, also set forth by the President, is critical to reining in deficits and protecting our economy for future generations of Americans."

[lovely03]

I really believe that the delivery of modern health care depends on an expanding group of trained professionals coming together as an interdisciplinary team.



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International medical insurance