Reid pushes ahead on health care, public option included
It wasn’t long ago that Republicans and even a few Democrats were proclaiming the death of health-insurance reform. “The Congress will not pass this,” Rep. John Boehner concluded a month ago. “It`s really time for the president to hit the reset button. Let`s stop all of this, and let`s sit down and start over in a bipartisan way to build a plan that Americans will support.”
That was then.
WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Monday that health-care legislation that comes before the Senate will have a government-run health-insurance plan that states will be able to choose not to carry.
Mr. Reid told reporters that, under the legislation, states would have until 2014 to “opt out” of the public option. He cast aside questions of whether the measure can attract the necessary 60 votes to avoid procedural delays.
“I believe we clearly will have the support of the [Democratic caucus] to move to the bill,” Mr. Reid said.
It’s still a long way from done. But that’s clearly the direction this train is headed.
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253 comments Add your comment
Paul
October 26th, 2009
5:30 pm
If it’s moving, it’s not a train wreck.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: Ate Up With Envy mmm, mmmm, mmmmm!
October 26th, 2009
5:34 pm
Reid gets health care voted down, including public option.
FrankLeeDarling
October 26th, 2009
5:40 pm
fact of the matter is most people want this,even the few republicans I know think it’s a good idea.
It will pass and America will be better for it.
#1 Foxy Lady
October 26th, 2009
5:42 pm
Once again, President Barack H. Obama – WINNER on health care.
Conservative haters – LOSERS!
josef nix
October 26th, 2009
5:42 pm
Well, as Granny used to say, “it beats a slap in the face.”
pat
October 26th, 2009
5:55 pm
I guess they just love to fail. Reid is only slightly less of an idiot that Nasty Pelosi. My dog has crapped smarter things.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: Ate Up With Envy mmm, mmmm, mmmmm!
October 26th, 2009
6:02 pm
Dis is why it will dye-
In a statement, Ms. Snowe said she “deeply disappointed” that Mr. Reid would include a public-health-insurance plan in the bill. Ms. Snowe has argued for a public plan “trigger” that would spur the creation of public plans on a state-by-state basis only if private insurers didn’t provide affordable coverage to a large enough proportion of a given state’s population.-WSJ
The democrats have not the courage to vote on this without their human shield RINOs to hide behind.
Njoy the headline cause dats all ya gonna git.
Paul
October 26th, 2009
6:06 pm
#1 Foxy Lady
[[Once again, President Barack H. Obama – WINNER on health care.
Conservative haters – LOSERS!]]
I don’t think the Blue Dog Democrats’ll take kindly to your characterization of them.
josef nix
October 26th, 2009
6:09 pm
PAUL
“I don’t think the Blue Dog Democrats’ll take kindly to your characterization of them.”
That memo hasn’t arrived yet!
Redneck Convert (R--and proud of it)
October 26th, 2009
6:09 pm
Well, I’m against this guvmint health care. Sure, we got a Christian duty to help people, only it ain’t giving them health care. Our duty is to make sure they get a good Christian burial. If they die, they die, but I’m willing to chip a couple bucks in to see that a good Baptist preacher puts them in the ground proper, so they don’t go with all those sins hanging on them.
Anyhow, I reckon that’s the Republican health care plan, but it’s a good one. People got to take Personal Responsibility while they’re living. If they make a Bad Choice and don’t save up enough for doctors or the hospitle or don’t get a job with health insurance, well, that means they didn’t take Personal Responsibility. But after they’re dead we got to help them out.
That’s my opinion and it’s very true. Have a good night everybody.
Dusty
October 26th, 2009
6:17 pm
CONSPIRACY, I say!!! By the time I get things lined up here at home and post a NICE comment, Bookman runs off to a new subject!!! Bah & humbug! Nobody reads the old stuff. I tell you, it’s gotta be a liberal thing, ’specially since RedNeck is ready everytime to load us with trailer trash.
Yep, I PROTEST!! Where’s that teabag???
josef nix
October 26th, 2009
6:18 pm
DUSTY–Hey, check out downstairs–more going on there than here. Norm’s home!
RW-(the original)
October 26th, 2009
6:28 pm
Jay B’s starting to sound like Chadly’s name choices. If that means they both have Swine Flu I’m getting the vaccine.
……..assuming the government ever gets it
Kamchak
October 26th, 2009
6:34 pm
Paul
Has there been any development in the search for a cyber-security chief? I’ve only found onearticle dated Sept. 10th 2009 asserting that the position would be filled within two weeks.
josef nix
October 26th, 2009
6:36 pm
RW
“……..assuming the government ever gets it”
Oh, ye of little faith! Didst thou not get the memo?
“Once again, President Barack H. Obama – WINNER on health care.”
josef nix
October 26th, 2009
6:37 pm
K’chak
That’s two weeks Ima Gonna time…let’s do the time warp again!
Normal
October 26th, 2009
6:39 pm
Josef, having gourmet fish sticks tonight. It’s amazing what you can do with the little boogers.
Don’t have much to say about this topic except that I think the public option is the only way it will work.
Paul
October 26th, 2009
6:40 pm
Kamchak
Not that I’ve heard.
Y’know, I used to run meetings with the first item being ’status of outstanding items.’ Then kept on it until something was done. Seems to me this White House doesn’t. Whether it’s that or the AF Lt Colonel getting discharged and hearing it’s gonna get fixed…. or a host of other examples. It’s like Attention Deficit Disorder Administration.
C’mon, Administration, follow up. It isn’t that difficult.
DoggoneGA
October 26th, 2009
6:41 pm
“except that I think the public option is the only way it will work.”
Yeah, I think so too…but if they go with the “opt out” option I think there might turn out to be a Supreme Court case in the offing under the “equal protection” clause.
RW-(the original)
October 26th, 2009
6:41 pm
Oh that memo.
RW-(the original)
October 26th, 2009
6:44 pm
“except that I think the public option is the only way it will work.”
Well it is pretty hard to have government health care without a government option.
jconservative
October 26th, 2009
6:45 pm
The prediction here is that a bill will pass but will have Snowe’s trigger instead of Reid’s opt out.
The difference is really a matter of the “automatic”. Snowe’s trigger says you are OUT unless you vote yourself in. Reid’s opt out says you are IN unless your vote yourself out. In both cases states have to do something in their legislatures.
That is enough of a difference to create a bare knuckle fight.
DoggoneGA
October 26th, 2009
6:46 pm
“C’mon, Administration, follow up. It isn’t that difficult”
The problem is…you don’t really know if they are or not. None of us is really privy to what is going on “on the inside” – we only know what the media chooses to report, which may or may not be accurate.
Taxpayer
October 26th, 2009
6:47 pm
I think the president has hit the reset button several times. The problem is that the Republicans just pick right up where they left off. Just sayin’ No! Don’t they realize that the “Just say no to drugs” campaign only applied to the illegal ones.
Dusty
October 26th, 2009
6:48 pm
Paul,
ADDA?? Do you think ritalin would help? Something certainly is in disorder in Washington.
Maybe Obama will appoint one of his children to be the Disorder Czar. Or Michelle. She can do hoola hoops. That oughta help.
F. Sinkwich
October 26th, 2009
6:49 pm
So what?
You liberals own the house, senate, and the white house. Do what you want. Why do you feel the need to quote any Republican?
Tell the conservatives, tea partiers, whatever to just shove it. Do it and stop the whining.
And reap the wrath.
You’re welcome.
Paul
October 26th, 2009
6:50 pm
josef 6:37
[[That’s two weeks Ima Gonna time…let’s do the time warp again! ]]
Lets!
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6827163268088648679#
I Report (-: You Whine )-: Ate Up With Envy mmm, mmmm, mmmmm!
October 26th, 2009
6:50 pm
If a health care bill contains: (a) an individual mandate; (b) an employer mandate; (c) plenty of new tax increases; (d) no tort reform; (e) few of the substantive ideas Republicans have been pushing for a while; (f) potentially a government-run insurance program – is it any surprise that almost all Republicans are opposed to it? Isn’t that what makes a Republican a Republican? This reads to me like another critique blasting Republicans for not being…Democrats.- RCP
60 votes in the Senate, all they can do is blubber and whine.
About us, bwahahaha, what cranks.
Paul
October 26th, 2009
6:53 pm
Dusty
Gotta come up with a new acronym. ADDA’s too close to ABBA.
Sacrilege.
Kamchak
October 26th, 2009
6:57 pm
Paul
I agree, the position needs to be filled. I also believe that the day of the announcement will be the day we begin to be bombarded with the term Cyber Czar.
josef nix
October 26th, 2009
6:58 pm
PAUL–
OOH! And when you put the lyrics into THIS context!! TOO apropos!
Paul
October 26th, 2009
6:59 pm
Kamchak
Heave help us all………..
Paul
October 26th, 2009
6:59 pm
Kamchak
Heaven! Heaven! Not that short guy from Fantasy Island!
josef nix
October 26th, 2009
7:01 pm
“Rabbi, is there a proper blessing for the Czar(s)”
“Certainly, Leibish. May G-d bless and keep the Czar(s)–far away from us!”
–Fiddler on the Roof
Paul
October 26th, 2009
7:01 pm
josef
Pres Obama and the far left Congressional Democrat power brokers?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZwFDDdt-bY
Paul
October 26th, 2009
7:04 pm
josef
Or maybe the Obama/Pelosi/Reid Alliance and the Blue Dogs?
Gov Option Done Deal!
October 26th, 2009
7:06 pm
RGB–
I didn’t realize that in addition to quoting crap studies like IBD’s totally non statistical study that has been torn apart by everyone who analyzes polls and a study which won’t reveal its’ methodology you are an infectious disease clinican as well and apparently you know about vaccine p;roduction methodolgoy that no one else on planet earth knows about.
And since you are critical that the government went with chicken egg production for H1N1 vaccine, will you share your method of DNA based rapid production for viral vaccine because until you reveal it, no lab anywhere on the planet including NYU Medical that has made the seeds for the vaccine production knows how to make VIRAL vaccine by other methodolgy.
Not only am I waiting to hear how you do it, but the Nobel prize committee and a few thousand angel investors or waiting.
We have DNA based methodology for bacterial vaccines, but not viral as of 10/26/09. It’s really an honor to have an infectious disease clinician as bright as you to share your delusions.
So in the words of the Director of NIAID at NIH who ran the vaccine development program in the NYT today “We had no choice but to go to chicken egg production.” That’s because apparently Dr. RBG is the only individual on the planet who knows how to make viral vaccines another way.
The world is anxiously awaiting your sharing how you do that with us.
Further Georgia has actually used only about 5% max of its supply in most counties. Fulton County, the largest county has continued to sit on their Medimmune mist on day 18, offering it now to ages 2-24, vaccinating almost no one, and refusing to vaccinate 24-49 with Medimmune although every other county in Georgia started doing that last week. Hospitals are sitting on shots because their care takers are too dumb to take the vaccine.
No schools I know of have said a word about vaccine except to tell students to stay home if they have cough and fever, and stupidly don’t tell them they are contagious shedding virus for 7 days after the day they become asymptomatic.
Bring your new method of making viral vaccine other than chicken egg here. We all can’t wait to see it. Dr. Tom Frieden can’t wait to see it, and Dr. Tony Fauci can’t wait to see it.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: Ate Up With Envy mmm, mmmm, mmmmm!
October 26th, 2009
7:10 pm
democrats are the smallest most petty freaking people in all the history of the world-
Make no mistake: because of the gross mishandling of this war by past civilian leadership, there are no great options for its handling today…….
Bin Laden and his deputies in Northwest Pakistan haven’t gone far, and to keep them on the run, we must prevent the Taliban – with long-standing ties to Al Qaeda-from once again providing terrorists with an unfettered Afghan safe haven, just across a border that many there view as mere abstraction.-John Bandaid Kerry
Um, isn’t that exactly what Bush did the last 8 years?
First of all, we can’t draw down large of numbers of troops today in order to shift to a narrow counterterrorism mission. Second, we simply don’t have enough troops or resources to launch a broad, nationwide counterinsurgency campaign, nor do we need to.
OK, so check this one out, dimwits, 7 years of babbling about Bush not committing enough resources to the “real” war, what’s the freaking thing they do but draw down resources?
Afghanistan is lost to the terrorists, a dead man walking, and if they think an election is going to help them with the Islamic fascists and their pogrom of reprisals, guess again, all you are doing is identifying who will be hung in public.
Stupid little you, for trusting the United States.
F. Sinkwich
October 26th, 2009
7:10 pm
GODD,
I wonder if it’s possible to limit posts to 50 words or so. Or maybe just staying on topic.
Thanks in advance.
md
October 26th, 2009
7:10 pm
Considering Ms. Snowe is from a State that currently has a public option, and said plan is failing miserably, might be a good idea to study why their plan failed. We need changes, but is this what we are going to get:
“TARREN BRAGDON, MAINE HERITAGE POLICY CENTER: What happened is we set up this plan that was very, very heavily subsidized, and people flocked to it. And then, because people got something for very little cost, utilization went through the roof. And so premiums just skyrocketed, up 74 percent.”
“SEN. SUSAN COLLINS, R-MAINE: I opposed the public option for philosophical reasons. I don’t think that the government should be competing with the private sector.
I also am aware of what happened in Maine with the public plan. And it did not live up to the promises, a lot of the same promises that are being made now.”
“SNOWE: It certainly is the basis for understand that the public approach experience — it has been an expensive option in the state of when Maine. It has not been able to meet its goals because it has been so expensive. It has not been able to insure as many people as originally protected.
So it is an experience that we have to consider as we move forward in examining the public option approach that has been proposed by so many here in Congress.”
These folks have lived it already, and it didn’t do so well. May be time to slow down and figure this out before the entire country ends up like Maine.
Gov Option Done Deal!
October 26th, 2009
7:10 pm
And all you Re;pubo children get this straight. Bill Frist crippled Medicare Part D in 2003 in a deal he struck with Billy Tauzin Pharma’s lobbyist. It forbid Medicare to bid on pharmaceuticals competitively the way every single hospital in Atlanta does via consortium.
It sure is like trying to teach a brick wall how to talk to get Repubozs to own the crippling of Medicare. And if the 20% reduction to physicians isn’t fixed soon, a lot of patients will be dropped just like Medicaid which few physicians actually accept because you lose money just doing lab alone. They won’t reimburse you the cost of lab.
F. Sinkwich
October 26th, 2009
7:11 pm
Maybe that applies to I Report too.
Just saying.
Curious Observer
October 26th, 2009
7:11 pm
Well, I guess an opt-out public option will suit the South and some Western states just fine: it will drive many minorities and others too poor to afford private insurance into states that choose not to opt out. Of course, the privately insured who remain will continue to absorb the cost of emergency room treatment for the uninsured.
Meantime, states like Georgia can proceed to save tons of money on Medicaid and other forms of aid to the poor. It sounds like a win for the conservatives–maintain the status quo and get assured of reelection, without being bothered by that nasty liberal vote.
Kamchak
October 26th, 2009
7:13 pm
I wonder if it’s possible to limit posts to 50 words or so. Or maybe just staying on topic.
Twitter, twitter nothing slicker,
Shallow as a bumper-sticker.
F. Sinkwich
October 26th, 2009
7:14 pm
That’s better, GODD, but it would also help if you were cogent.
Thanks.
mike
October 26th, 2009
7:15 pm
I think it is a little early for Jay’s sneering. The fact that Reid is going to push the public option does nothing to the validity of Boenher’s point, which was that the particular reform package on the table wouldn’t pass.
The article cited by Jay demonstrates that this shift by Reid is not based on any greater support for the option. Let’s see if there are the votes for this updated bill before we start unfurling the “Mission Accomplished” banner.
Paul
October 26th, 2009
7:16 pm
Report/Whine
Well, when one considers Sen Kerry’s words in that context, is there any rejoinder but ‘oops’?
Gov Option Done Deal!
October 26th, 2009
7:17 pm
Ms. Snowe is NOT from a state that has a public option whatsoever. She is from Maine where most people want a public option. And Ms. Snowe’s state has a high proportion of people with no access to health care.
Maine does NOT have a viable public option at all. That’s pure BS.
What Maine set up is nothing like a viable public option proposed in the Senate HELP and the 3 Congressional committee bills. What you done been smokin?
Snowe is so damn dumb she doesn’t even understand the difference between the crap fest they had in Maine and the coops that died in Maine and in every other state where they were tried.
Back to homework for Mr. md.
“These folks have lived it already, and it didn’t do so well”
Nope, what they had wasn’t anything like the HELP committee’s bill. No state has had a viable public option. That’s why we’re passing one.
And hell you can’t go much slower than the fact that anything that passes doesn’t begin to take effect until 2013. That’s 4 friggin’ years and many provisions of all five bills wouldn’t take effect until 2015 and that’s 6 friggin’ years. You want to sit around and let patients die in droves because they are dropped from insurance for six effin’ years?
F. Sinkwich
October 26th, 2009
7:18 pm
Thanks for your input, Kamchak.
Although I think everyone who read that lost at least 5 IQ points.
mike
October 26th, 2009
7:19 pm
“Dr” Chad yelled:
“And all you Re;pubo children get this straight”
Oh please, “Dr”. Give us more demonstrations on how adults behave. A lot of us are operating under the misunderstanding that it is children who call people silly names and it is adults who can actually have a civil discussion.