ACTION: Senator Reid does the American thing, puts a public option in the Senate bill. Support him.
Posted on October 26th, 2009 by Jason Rosenbaum in Congress Watch
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Harry Reid stood up for America today.
He put a public health insurance option in the Senate bill, the merged version of the two health care bills passed out of committee that will now go to the Senate floor for debate, amendments, and passage.
This is a huge victory. Putting the public health insurance option in the Senate bill that goes to the floor makes it much harder to remove later. Opponents will need 60 votes to amend the Senate bill, meaning a high bar will have to be cleared to take out or change the public health insurance option.
Why did Senator Reid do it? As he said:
I believe that a public option can achieve the goal of bringing meaningful reform to our broken system. It will protect consumers, keep insurers honest and ensure competition and that's why we intend to include it on the bill that will be submitted to the Senate for consideration.
For these reasons, the public option is what America wants. In poll after poll, in rally after rally, month after month, the American public has spoken. We want a public health insurance option to keep the insurance industry honest, to increase competition, and to give us somewhere to go if we don't want to be at the mercy of the private insurance industry any longer.
When the Washington Post - harbingers of cautious beltway conventional wisdom - has their polls showing 57% of Americans support a public health insurance option, you can be sure that this is a mainstream position.
Senator Reid deserves our thanks today for leading America forward. The fight is far from over, and to be sure, there is plenty in the Senate bill that needs to be fixed. We need:
- To make sure health care is truly affordable to everyone
- Ensure employers are responsible for helping to provide good health benefits to their employees
- Fairly finance reform rather than taxing higher-cost plans
However, Senator Reid stood up for America and he should be encouraged to keep fighting. Sign the petition below to pledge to keep fighting for a public health insurance option and quality, affordable health care for all.
Click here to sign the petition thanking Senator Reid and telling him that as he fights for us, we'll stand with him.
Thank you for doing the right things for those americans that need it the most.
I have an S Corp. 28 employees. Ipay $220.00 per month of each employee's health insurance premium with Blue Cross . They pay the rest.
How will the new Health Bill affect my company.
Should I just drop what I'm paying on each employee or what???
Depending on the final details, you may be able to buy insurance for your employees through the new Exchange, so you may be able to get a better rate. But no need to change anything if you don't want to.
I believe this celebration is premature. A public option with opt-out provisions is no public option at all. We need a Strong Public Option with no opt-out provisions.
Dear Senator Reid,
Thank you for supporting a public option that will put the health care industry on notice that their obscene profits on human suffering needs to change.
While I support single payer publicly managed health care, providing a public insurance option is the next best thing.
Despite the shouting from radical right wing elements in our society, please continue to fight for the least powerful Americans and bring them the right to a healthy future.
I have no doubt that you are on the correct path, history will recognize you as being so.
Harry Reid:
Chooses Public Option with Opt-Out…
The Good and MOSTLY BAD of Opt-Out !
By Greg Jones
Blacks4Barack
Well, this is good news and bad news (but mostly bad). In answer to millions of pro-strong public option phone calls and emails Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has announced that there will in fact be a public option in the Senate version of the bill he will bring to the floor, a move that Reid feels will pacify his constituents in Nevada who are overwhelmingly in favor of a strong public option. That's the so called 'good news'. The bad news is his plan will include the 'opt-out' clause which means that the public option plan would start out as a national, all-inclusive plan but will give all individual states the option to opt-out of the strong public option plan resorting to the status quo system with no option at all.
Some say that Reid's opt-out decision is a move that could garner enough support to actually pass in the Senate with the hope that each state would be 'too embarrassed' to opt-out, therefore would remain in the strong public option plan. But the fact is, the states in which the insurance cartel currently have near monopolies would be at greatest risk of being 'shameless' enough to opt-out with a desire to squash any type of competition that could hurt their pockets. And if you think the lobbying is bad in D.C. just wait and see the cartel in action on a per-state basis.
Bottom line, this is a major crap shoot. If states do remain in the public option plan then that will give residents access to much needed affordable health care coverage. But each state that DOES excercise their right to opt-out will create an absolute disaster for every uninsured resident of those states. Combine the lack of an affordable public option with the anticipated mandate (forcing all Americans to have/buy health care insurance or be PENALIZED) and it is easy to see the nightmare that may lie ahead.
The benefits of the strong public option derive from it's negotiating powers and leverage due to the plan's mass, national number of participants/members, enabling the public option to demand better rates which are passed on to each member. But if states can constantly opt-out of the public option, there can never be a concrete number of members to base true discounts/leverage on. There would be much greater discounts if 50 states are in the plan than if, say 42 states are in. Or what about when 4 or 7 states per year opt out; public option rates for members would have to keep going up accordingly, creating constant inconsistency, and a prime recipe for failure.
Although this watered down plan may have the ability to get the votes necessary to pass in the Senate, since the majority of the Democrat and Republican Senators really DON'T want true, affordable reform thanks to the millions in lobby/bribe money they have taken from the insurance cartel, this plan really does not securely address the health care reform needs of We The People. With 47 million Americans having no health care coverage at all and an average of 44,000 Americans dying each year due to no access to quality health care, the idea of fulfilling the health care needs of the 47 million on a per state basis is at best sad and barbaric. This 'great health care reform' with a potential end result that your life could have been saved if only you had lived in the right state simply means that we could become a bunch of third world countries right here in the un-United States of America.
Will struggling, uninsured Americans be forced to relocate to states that DO have the strong public option ? After they move, will Americans then have to hope and pray that their new state doesn't decide to opt-out one day, forcing yet another out of state move ? Are we to literally play musical states for the simple right to quality health care in order to stay alive ?
Now, the millions of supporters of strong public option are expected to be thankful that this public option will be in the Senate plan while simultaneously holding their breaths in fear that their individual state may opt-out, leaving them still uncovered due to the unaffordability, while becoming lawbreakers thanks to the new mandate. Our politicians may need to include some kind of mental anguish coverage in this plan because if it does pass it could be stressful enough to make one literally lose their mind. On the bright side, with the passing of this plan the politicians will be able to brag that they did give us
"A public option" and some will feel that this is better than absolutely nothing, the original goal of our well bribed politicians.
Many are familiar with the old traditional Indian rain dance. Looks like now we'll be forced to do the American Shame Dance in hopes that we can shame our state politicians to do the right thing for the health care needs of Americans by not opting-out. Something tells me there's going to be a lot of dancing ahead, or, if nothing else, a lot of future business for UHaul.
Shame Them NOW…
Say NO To Opt-Opt
Strong Public Option ONLY !!!
MAKE THE CALLS !
I agree. I'm glad they put SOME type of public option in there. But I live in Texas, a state that would be nutty enough to opt out and then brag about how awesome and independent they are. Yee haw. If it comes to that, I'll be loading up my U-Haul for sure.
All you folks that think a public option is going to solve the problem are dreaming. Employers will just use the public(government) option as an excuse to eliminate health care programs.
I have worked in the private sector and for the gov both at the state and fed levels. Occasionally the gov does do something that right but always manage to somehow screw it up later. And remember that there are no rewards or bonuses paid to gove employyes for saving money. Just look at your social security statement and how much you have paid in; and don't forget that your employers pays in additional fundsa at a higher rate than you. Compound that at say 4% which is a reasonbly rate if you are in your 50's and you will be suprised how much that has cost you. BUT THE SYSTEM IS BROKE AND THAT'S A PREVIEW OF WHAT WILL HAPPEN WITH A GOVERNMENT OPTION
And for those that don't have coverage and are required to purchase it, the costs may be prohibitive. I don't recall the exact numbers, but a recent article in the Dayton Daily News put the cost for a family of four with income of $63,000 at something like ten to twelve thousnd dollars a year for the public option. While there are some tax credit those will not be available until around 2012.
I DO AGREE that we do need reform, but I would rather see this done without direct government invovlement and I do not want to pay for illegals. The taxpayer of this country cannot pay for everyone that comes into this county.