Ted Kennedy Throws His Support to Public Plan Option for Health Care Reform
By Susie Madrak Friday May 22, 2009 9:00am
This is certainly great news. With Ted Kennedy finally behind the public plan option, he'll be able to bring a lot of people to our side of the table - and of course, he considers this his legacy:
Liberals pushing for the creation of a federally run health insurance plan won a major victory Thursday when Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) strongly indicated his commitment to the policy, one of the most controversial elements of healthcare reform.
Kennedy has co-sponsored a resolution introduced by Sen. Sherrod Brown (Ohio) and 26 other Democratic senators that declares the healthcare reform legislation the Senate will consider this summer must include a public plan option people can choose instead of private insurance. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) also co-sponsored the resolution.
Though purely symbolic, this show of strength by 28 Democratic senators sends a clear signal to liberals that a public plan, one of the left’s top priorities and a component of President Obama’s healthcare platform, will be part of reform.
Kennedy’s unequivocal support for the public plan marks a return of sorts to the front lines of the battle for healthcare reform.
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Thank you Senator Kennedy; You put your self on the line for us, and we shall never forget. Help us help you, win this fight.
I read that no tax dollars will fund the public plan. People will have to pay premiums for this public plan. Look familiar? That's what happens in the lousy Medicare Part D that does not help the middle class.
Let us get single payer universal health care. Sign this petition.
http://www.change.org/actions/view/i_demand_c...
Get those money sucking insurance companies out
of the loop. They are incentivized to deny care.
Medicare works just fine without middle people
jamming the system.
Thank goodness. Kennedy has been one of the most dogged advocates for public health care. It's a bit alarming to see the decades-old footage of him saying the same things on health care, since this has been an issue for a looong time. But Kennedy helps, as always.
Welcome back to the fight, Ted. Let's get this done!!
i am a'waitin' the blowback from the medical industry employees (see, all the other congress members) after this
Dear FSM,
Please keep Teddy alive for a while longer. If anybody can get single payer back on the table it's him.
Amen.
....may Ted be favorarably marked with the Noodly Appendage's Marinara Sauce Stigmata...
a standing ovation to Sen Kennedy
and a don't let the door hit your ass
to all the bluedog dems who don't work
for a public plan choice.
we have other democratic contenders who
will work for the public interests and
can replace these bastard bluedogs attempts
to stop the public plan choice.
Now, if we could just get those Senators to come out in support of HR-676....
BTW, it's going to take a good bit of vigilance to make sure that poison pills to the public plan, like the one Schumer is trying to insert, don't get foisted upon us.
The biggest problem still remains the Health Care Industry (Insurance) knows we're going to get sick from one thing or another (pollution, stress, overwork, accidents, toxic foods etc) and the cost of Medical Treatments is out of control. The Doc's love to take credit for patching us up for another day or year etc, but their bill collectors show NO MERCY when it comes time to collect.
It's about time COSTS are addressed.
was $150,000 she died anyway and the bill collectors didn't say "sorry for your loss this will be on the house don't worry about it we'll take care of it."
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/...
They must think we are all a bunch of idiots who don't pay attention to these obscene salaries taken by the medical corporate insurance CEO's.
We MUST take the profit out of the health care equation. Especially in light of the hard economic times that are coming around the bend.
Thank you, Senator. Even though he is a Senator for Massachusetts, it always felt to me like Teddy was "our" Senator, the voice of the common people. It's nice to see a true public servant who doesn't operate like everything's peachy because at least he gets good health care.
I work in the health care industry. A mental health crisis unit to be specific.
I also coordinate involuntary mental health referrals from law enforcement for our county.
Number one: INSURANCE IS THE PROBLEM. That's the long and short of it.
Read this, do more research and you'll see that insurance is the number one reason people don't get proper health care and is at the root of almost all medical horror stories.
On the flip side, people without insurance can get emergency care but not preventive care. That's why we need universal health care for everyone in this country.
Insurance dictates to health care providers what treatment they can and can not provide. Health care providers go against the best interests of the patient because they know they won't get paid if they provide the care they want to in defiance of the insurance company.
Insurance companies make their profits by taking your money and denying as many claims as they can. If they can't deny they downgrade as much as possible. It kills people. It kills people who pay a small fortune for insurance.
People who don't have insurance get treated in ERs. People who do have insurance sit there and wait while the staff haggles with the insurance company.
The insurance company is not on your side and you are not in good hands.
Yep - I worked for 2 insurance companies in the past. They are without doubt the problem. My doctor has said for years that she would love a single payer plan - the clinic has to pay as many people to do billing as it does to do health care.
Also - just got news on my insurance for the next school year. As of July 1 the few bucks per month I got from the stimulus package will be stimulating Blue Cross. And since we are not getting raises either, and all my utility rates are going up and the cost of licensing my car, I will be falling behind financially for the next 12 - 18 months.
Write, call, email and otherwise contact your senator and demand a public health option. Both of mine are for it already, but I want the numbers to be overwhelming.
go to the White House web site and let Obama know what you want and expect. Once you do that, you will get regular updates everytime he initiates any measure to further his insurance-based plan, such as "Let Congress know they should support my plan". Whenever you get one of these emails, instead of contacting your congress critter, hit the rely button, and tell him (his staff) that there is no way on earth you can support his plan, then enumerate your reasons why. I've done this a couple of times now, including an admonition for him to do something for the American People for a change and to support HR-676. I signal my how voting will be influenced, should we be sold a bill of goods that only benefits the criminals and gangsters who run the insurance and HMO rackets. He needs to hear from millions.
... we're told how "controversial" it is despite polling that shows massive public support.
Is it "controversial" because there are large amounts of people against it, or because there are large amounts of money against it?
Go Ted.
..that between 66 and 73% (and growing) of Americans want a single-payer system and are willing to fully fund it, the controversy exists only in the heads of the politicians who have been purchased by the insurance, HMO and Big Pharma
racketscorporations.Mr. Moore said it best; "take the profit out of health care".
If we continue to have an adversarial relationship with the people that approve funding for our health care --- (and they are not the doctors) ---
we will always be the losers!
he also had one of the best counters to the rightwing's term 'socialized medicine', calling it christianized medicine.
its good to use that when debating this with the rightwing, especially when they are xtian fundies.
somebody tries to show even the least of Christianly virtues, the Xtians themselves are usually the first ones lining up to name and curse the miscreant as a filthy, bleeding heart liberal. My bet is that if Jesus showed up in their much-awaited Second Coming®, most of them - at least the clergy - would be slitting each other's throats in their rabid competition to see who would be the one to nail Him back on a cross.
“I do suspect that a version will be there,” Baucus said. “Now, by saying that, I don’t want to frighten people, particularly on the industry side. … All I’m saying is, there are ways to skin a cat. There are ways to find a solution.”
max baucus, senator from montana, is a fucking slug. no, he is worse than a slug, he is on par with the slime trail left as a slug slugs sluggishly across the floor. fuck max baucus.
of course he doesn't want to "frighten" the "industry side", they are his cash hose. he knows who butters his bread, who pays for his lack of conscience. he doesn't want to give ANY impression that he is interested in reforming healthcare that might jeopardize the "health" industries bottom-line, as he knows that hurts his pathetic and corrupt bottom line.
his number one campaign contributor is Schering-Plough Corp (global health care company), and he has rec'd the following from the death-profiteers:
Insurance $545,225
Pharmaceuticals/Health Products $493,313
Health Professionals $492,641
http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/indust...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mc8ueX-_tE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ak0qNHE5hto&fe...
do you care about healthcare policy? well, consider max baucus, senator from montana, to be actively working with insurance and other disease-profiteers to kill any real health reform.
max baucus cares more about his job, his money and his power than he does about the health of his constituents, and the country.
fuck max baucus. fuck him.
yeah...but he'll scream about homosexuals destroying marriage all through his next campaign and his constituents will put him right back in office.
"fuck max baucus. fuck him."
Isn't that how mini-max baucuses are created? Do we want that?
election reform with public funds only would be nice, too. Then all these greedy creeps wouldn't be so damned beholden to the corporate oligarchs for their elitist lifestyles.
Maybe Kennedy can introduce some legislation for election reform, too, as I doubt he'll be running again.
He's a prostitute.
Ted Kennedy has been fighting for healthcare fairness his entire career.
He is a true American political hero. I fear, he may be the last of his kind.
I rue the DayS when his brothers were murdered and he was almost 'suicided.'
TX-Gov: $11 mil from stimulus to repair Perry's mansion
AUSTIN, Texas – While Gov. Rick Perry is criticizing Washington bailouts, state lawmakers are planning to use $11 million in federal stimulus money to help rebuild the badly burned Texas Governor's Mansion.
Approximately $10 million in state tax money will also be spent on a renovation, which is expected to cost about $20 million, officials said Thursday.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/5/22/734343/-TX-Gov:-$11-mil-from-stimulus-to-repair-Perrys-mansion
Gender identity is a hate crime? I guess ignorance of the law is no excuse.
Pardon me while I take some time to become confused about my sexual identity.
So what...once Hannity, Boss Limberger, and the rest of the lunatic fringe start in on this, most of the Senate D's will cave in faster than you can spell Harry Reid...who would have thought, in light of Obama's victory, that the biggest hurdle to implementing a truly progressive agenda, would be the spineless Senate Democratic Conference?
Ted Kennedy is a hero just like his brothers Joseph, John and Robert.
Michael Moore also said on Hardball (with Tweetie Mathews) that universal health care is "Christian Healthcare", since Christ would want health care for everyone. Tell the conservatives to put that in their pipe and smoke it.
They'll probably respond with something about going to a revival for healing direct from God.
I am glad to see Sen. Kennedy step up to the plate. Hopefully he will help some members of congress to grow a backbone.
The U.S. spends about 16% of GDP on health care and leaves people uncovered, whereas Europe, Canada and Japan spend around 11% of GDP and cover everyone, with good quality.
What needs to happen is that success in health care reform needs to be defined as reaching parity (11% GDP) to the cost structures in these other countries, with comparable coverage and quality of care. Easiest way to do that is copy a system employed abroad.
However, currently there is opposition to comparative analysis to single payer systems, and no defined goals in health care, namely, to reach a 11% of GDP costs, while covering everyone, and while maintaining quality of care. Since so many other countries meet these targets, there is no reason this country can't also reach these goals, that is, no reason except a desire by our politicians to rip off the American public on behalf of their corporate clients.
I think it was Elizabeth Edwards on the daily show May 20th that said 1 out of 700 dollars spent in health care is for the pay of one of the health care CEOs. I forgot the health care corporation involved.
I am 65 years old and have experienced private and now govt. healthcare with medicare. I have worked for govt., private non-profit, and for a for profit insurance company. I think that is a lot of experience. So who would I want making decisions with me about my medical care? I will take the govt. worker any day. I have much respect for the overall caring of people trying to right by their clients in govt. programs. I have been one. Are there some occasional jerks, yes, but overall they are well motivated people and there are channels to challenge when there are problems.
In private health care it is all about saving money for the company and the shareholders, not the customer. Employees are rewarded for saving bucks for the company regardless of the effect on customers. Their only check is not pushing it so far and so obvious that the customers rebel. Any deception or deciet is ok to move that line in the interests of profits. I have a relative currently working for a private health insurance company who is very upset with how sneaky and dishonest the company is in saving money for it's profits at the expense of the customers.
I look forward to seeing a single payer govt. run program (or at least a govt. option) someday if I live long enough. Healthcare is simply not compatible with private for profit companies in my opinion and experience both inside and out.
One small step for the Senate, hopefully one chance for Americans!
Single payer is logical, fair, and what we need. While I would have preferred Senator Kennedy to push for all publicly funded, privately delivered medicare for all, a public plan is at least a start on the way to "compassionate healthcare". The insurance companies must not be allowed to game the system. They now provided healthcare for the 60% of the population that consumes 20% of the healthcare costs. If they can work the system to cherrypick the healthier patients and the public plan could be left with really sick people, overewhelmed by costs, and could fail,it will take years to get any reform again. I am not a doomsday thinker, but a pragmatist. I have spent hours, weeks, and months trying to chase down my provider reps from the insurance companies to try to get fees that they have dropped inappropriately (and I think illegally) to rates less than my costs. Most physicians agree that the insurance companies are not treating their clients or their providers ethically. I will help the 28 Senators who are standing up for America. Maybe, we can all live to old age if they help us get the healthcare that we deserve.
Reform is so awesome! I love reform! I can't get enough of it! Reform everything! and then reform it again!!!
Now it's more important than ever that Al Franken is sworn in.
They're going to need senate vote they can get.
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN2...
...which, means that any insurance-based plan is just 65-or-so-million more chances for the insurance companies to say, "Screw you, it's not covered. But, thanks loads for all of those premium payments".
Mostly, the insurance approach is looking like but one more privatization scam to transfer more of our tax money into corporate coffers. One more reason to support HR-676.
If I didn't have oustanding health insurance from work, I would be dead in 6 months.
I am in outstanding shape, at my optimal weight, and have outstanding bloodwork numbers. Does not matter!
I inherited 3 major forms of heart desease (father died at 43), and would be toast if the republicans and Ben Nelson's had their way. No matter how well I take care of myself, I need surgery every 2-4 years for some new complication.
This is not a game. These psychopath's in Washington should be tarred and feathered if they don't get insurance parasites out of the equation of people's health.
I am often impressed with Kennedy's stands and actions. He is with the future and never compromising.
Thank you sir. Americans deserve better and you recognize that.
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