Why isn't Hagan backing a public option?
Submitted by James on Mon, 03/01/2010 - 2:19pm
Maybe she has signed on to the public option, like 30 other Senators have, or maybe she is masquerading as Dick Durbin? All I know is this. If the US Senate pushes through health reform without a public option (forcing citizens to buy health insurance from private companies or else be fined), there will be some serious hell to pay.
Call Kay Hagan today. Insist that she commit to supporting a public plan through reconciliation.
I called Hagan a couple of
I called Hagan a couple of days after the Bennet letter supporting the PO went public. Her aide told me she was going to sign the letter. She has not. I've tried to call her repeatedly for the last 2 weeks. I get a busy signal or no answer. I hope the Dems primary her ass with a progressive. IMO a Blue Dog Dem is a Republican in sheep's clothing. Traitor. I agree with you. If they try to force me to buy ins. from a private company, I'll go into revolt mode. I'm pretty much there any way.
Thanks for that report
Hagan has been disappointing on my fronts, but this is by far the most discouraging. I can't tell if she's just afraid to take a stand for anything ... or if she truly doesn't even know where she stands.
Do good. Be nice. Have fun.
She does need to get on board w/ PO
But I heard on NPR recently an interesting case being made for requiring everyone to have insurance regardless. Other than the idea that making everyone get it promotes preventative health which is ultimately a money saver and good for health overall, the person who was making this case focused on a "death spiral"
She said as premiums go up and up, only those are sickest will remain on the more expensive plans as the healthier people in the pool will start reducing coverage or not getting it in the first place. This in turn requires raising rates to keep it going since the sick-to-healthy ratio gets worse and worse. And as rates go up, the problem continues. And that everyone needs to realize were only one injury or sickness away from needing insurance, so we have to pool our resources. It is one of the least popular aspects of health care reform, and one of the most important, according to the person speaking.
Of course the main concern is if you force people to buy unaffordable insurance or punish them with fines, that isn't helping anyone, and the public option is the best cure for unaffordable rates. But depending on what the final product looks like, and the kinds of regulations therein, it may be possible that the rates are controlled in such a way that we have a better system than we have now, even if it isn't the best option.
Under the cover of darkness
This health care debate has become so "political", it seems it has gone beyond what is good for America rather than what is good for the two parties. The right is presenting things "under the cover of darkness", y'all. WTF is it about having a "public option" that provides some kind of competition to the insurance companies that steadily increase their rates that Americans don't understand???
This whole debate on health insurance is about trying to get health insurance for those that cannot afford it and to reduce the cost of health insurance for those that already have it.
What in the WORLD is there to argue about that????
WTF? Hate to use that, but, it is just SOOO appropriate.
Beating a dead horse
When Senator Jay Rockefeller, one of the leading proponents of the public option says the public option is dead, it is dead. At least Senator Hagan is not pandering to the supporters of the public option by signing on to something she knows that will never be voted on. Hey I'm a big fan of the public option, in fact I am a bigger fan of single payer, but I will take what is out there now, which is the biggest expansion of health care since Medicare was enacted in 1965. It is not perfect, but it will provide good health care to the majority of Americans. If you are calling anyone, call your Congressman and urge them to vote to pass the Senate bill.
It ain't over till it's over
I'm looking for single payer to make a come from behind sprint and win the day!
We all know that's where this is going. It's just a matter of when.
Do good. Be nice. Have fun.
Kristof
is always ahead of the curve on stuff like this. Here's his latest take.
Do good. Be nice. Have fun.
Committing to an up/down vote on public option is "pandering?"
If anyone is pandering, it is people like Harkin and Rockefeller who claimed to be public option champions back when it looked certain that the strategy was going to involve passing a watered-down bill with 60 votes. All those long months ago, many supposedly "progressive" senators claimed that we had well over 50 votes in favor of the public option. "Gosh, I'd really love to vote for comprehensive health reform, but we don't have to votes to override a filibuster, so a public option would be impossible."
Now that it looks like Reid is open to reconciliation, those same senators are backpedaling, desperately grasping for any justification to avoid actually fighting for a public option.
Reality check: we need 50 senators plus Joe Biden to get a public option. Reconciliation has been used in previous administrations to pass trillion dollar tax cuts and to create health care policies like COBRA and SCHIP. The Vice President presides over the Senate and is the final arbiter when it comes to interpreting Senate procedural rules. If Joe Biden thinks we can use reconciliation to get there, we can.
It's people like Kay Hagan who are preventing a truly progressive health care bill from happening. (Joe's boss hasn't helped matters either.)
Yeah....but
I am most certainly going to get a tongue lashing here for this, but I am just not willing to just say: "A lot of this legislation is wrong but some of it is good so we should go with it". Being against that is not repub or demo...it is common sense.
I know, James, you are liking much of what Kristof is saying but I just have a problem with:
It is not about "getting what we can get" or "not getting what we really want". It is about our leaders putting in place a viable, comprehensive health care bill that will provide affordable, available and adequate health care for all of our populace in the U.S.
I listened to Cal Cunningham today on Brad & Britt when he was asked about TORT reform and even he..a lawyer...said there is a need both from the claimant's side AND from the defendant's side to have limitations here so as to reduce health care costs. This cannot just be slid off into the future. It will not come up in the future, and we all know it. This and many other issues/questions must be decided right now, right here, while we are determining the best for our health care system overall.
I am sorry that I cannot just stick my head in the sand on this or the other very pertinent and important issues with regard to our health care system in America.
I hope we get the public option presented and voted on and signed by the president...that ONE particular issue. Otherwise, I see the health care bill in total being something that includes much more than just one issue but goes to the entire health care needs of ALL of our people in our country.