Republican “Public Option” Gimmick
Two of the dullest tools in the shed — Senators Tom Coburn and David Vitter — have offered an amendment that’s supposed to derail the public option. Their amendment would require all members of Congress to register for public health care if the public option becomes law.
The theory was that those elitist Democrats would be afraid to actually use this lowly socialized health program themselves, since they’re only pushing it for the riffraff.
Surprise! So far, Senators Sherrod Brown, Chris Dodd, Al Franken and Barbara Mikulski have added their names as cosponsors of the amendment.
Aetna has — unintentionally of course — just come forward with an excellent case for health coverage reform. As much blood money as Aetna “earned” in 2009, they realize they can “earn” even more next year. All they have to do is raise their premiums even higher and throw 650,000 sick people onto the garbage heap.
Aetna CEO Ron Williams said:
“The pricing we put in place for 2009 turned out to not really be what we needed to achieve the results and margins that we had historically been delivering. We view 2010 as a repositioning year, a year that does not fully reflect the earnings potential of our business. Our pricing actions should have a noticeable effect beginning in the first quarter of 2010, with additional financial impact realized during the remaining three quarters of the year.”
With millions of angry, desperate, armed and dangerous Americans out there, why isn’t this pukebag in somebody’s crosshairs?
And now let’s hear it for Comcast. They may be one of the villains on other issues (i.e. Net Neutrality), but they’re on the public’s side when it comes to health care reform.
Comcast CEO Brian Roberts has sent Obama a letter saying “enactment of comprehensive health care reform legislation is, in my judgment, critical to putting this country on a path of sustained growth and prosperity.”
Supposedly a lot of large employers are in favor of health care reform since it’ll reduce their own expenses. Let’s hope more of these companies start coming out publicly in favor of it.
Labels: Aetna CEO Ron Williams, Al Franken, Barbara Mikulski, Chris Dodd, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts, David Vitter, Sherrod Brown, Tom Coburn
posted by Tom Harper @ 5:51 PM
14 Comments:
Gee, what a shock. Health insurance corporations are against reform, non-health insurance corporations are for reform. He who has the money makes the rules. In other news, Kate Winslet is hot.
Can we simply send every CEO and admin jerk to DC, move out the non-evil citizenry, erect a giant, hermetically-sealed bubble and unleash malaria in there?
You said:
Supposedly a lot of large employers are in favor of health care reform since it’ll reduce their own expenses. Let’s hope more of these companies start coming out publicly in favor of it.
Getting employers out of the health care mess would be a big plus, we do not need four parties involved in the business of going to see a doctor. 1st party you; 2nd party doctor; 3rd party insurance. I always found going to see HR at my place of employment about medical insurance claims, a little too much information for them to know about me or my family.
No we're talking bipartisanship. Sen. Franken sure has proven himself to be a great American.
I can't think of anyone with more entrenched privilege than Queen Elizabeth and, when this issue was debated by the British Parliament in the 80's, she came down squarely on the side of nationalized health care.
It's kind of foolish to assume that universalized health care will only benefit or only appeals to the unwashed.
Well... while I can't really abide by Comcast gobbling up NBC, this is good to know that their CEO does have some priorities that actually involve the greater good.
Unlike the AETNA pukebag, apparently.
Tom, sorry for the following rant, but this stuff just ticks me off... ! Heh! Because I no longer do this kind of stuff on my blog, and because I still have it in me now and then to rant, I guess I'll subject you all to it here.
Thanks to Coburn and Vitter for trying to shoot their pathetic party in its big clumsy foot.
Democrats are no more elitist than Republicans. The meme that they are has been going around for long-enough now that it has become like folklore. Which right-wing think-tank or propagandist shouter started that crap? Was it Rush Limbaugh? The Heritage Foundation? People who spout the "Democrats are elitists" line are fools who don't realize the extent of their own projection.
In my book, people who take advantage of what the system offers but then want to deny it to others are the real elitists. "Gee, what I have is great! But if you want something as great as this, you can't have it and don't deserve it. It's mine." They have all these great toys, but they don't like to share them, or to play with the other kids.
More lefty pols like Brown, Dodd, Franken and Mikulski will come on board, dispelling the GOP meme-ist garbage on this issue. Like the GOP Senators do, all the Dem Senators indeed take advantage of the great health package offered to them. The difference between them and their heads-in-dark-places GOP counterparts is this: they want everyone to have the same advantage, and the Republicans don't want that. And for something as essential as access to health care? Come on...!
If we on the left are elitists, then Republicans who spout and believe right-wing talking points are "meme-ists", and little more. Gotta poison the well of public opinion, right? Otherwise, people will use their critical thinking skills and work to achieve things for the common good. Heavens, we certainly can't have that now, can we!
There are actually a few Democratic politicians out there who care about "the riffraff". On the right-wing side of the aisle, people who end up with serious or terminal medical conditions and end up dying because they can't afford care become "riffraff" who need to "pull themselves up by their bootstraps". Some Republicans actually try to demonize people who have dire health issues as being lazy.
Bad things do happen to good people, but I guess in the minds of many Republicans, when such bad things happen to you, it is your own fault.
What they like to call "Obamacare" is actually access to health care for everyone. What I like to call "Republicare" is not for everyone, and as people in the insurance industry are allowed to make more and more money, fewer and fewer people can afford their product. And that is just the way the right-wingers seem to want it. At least that is what they say. I hope nobody ever has to face a catastrophic illness without adequate coverage; if it happens, it can be an opinion-altering experience.
They not only don't like people who aren't white Christian males in at least middle-class economic standing... they also apparently don't like people who are seriously or terminally ill, unless they can use those people for attempts at political gain (see the Schiavo case).
They like to call us lefties the "racists". Heh... I like to call them "sickists". They simply don't like people who are sick, and the thought of their money going to pay for some of the care of sick people nearly kills them.
If there was a cure for the disease of being without empathy, we might not have to endure all this b.s. from the right-wingers, most of whom seem to be spouting talking points from their rich puppet-masters without really thinking.
Comcast...LOL...they're just afraid that if everyone is going totally broke on healthcare, they'll cancel the cable. And they'd be right.
Randal: Malaria won't do it. Now, take a few level 4 pathogens...let's say, Ebola, the Lassa, Marburg, throw in a little Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, and bingo, you've got the perfect cocktail. Just have to wait for them to all die, then send the Hazmat team in with pressure washers filled with bleach.
I'm with Holte - frankly, it's not one iota of my employer's fucking business what my or my family's medical problems are, as long as I'm still showing up for work.
I thought the 650k figure was upping of the rates so that people would have no other recourse but to drop coverage. I didn't realize it was to rid themselves of the unwashed masses. Thanks for that piece of info.
This is like the amendment Franken offered during the week, to confuse them about the whole raping of women and they accused him of going behind their backs and being sneaky. These idiots don't think, when they start with this stuff, that this is what people all across the political spectrum want.
I read this morning in our newspaper, now the insurance companies are getting into the business of insuring the medical marijuana facilities. They just can make bank anywhere these companies. I did get a referral letter to get med mj but now I see they are getting a little too big, I'll stick with my own guy and at least buy local grown and support a local business.
Bee- I could go for that. That's right up my alley, but I think I'd want it crossed with HIV so it would act slowly. As for clean up I'd go with napalm.
imagine the freedom from REAL health care reform for working people.
how many people would like to start their own business but can't/won't because they will then be uninsured?
My guitar teacher is a healthy young fella, but he's really in harms way because he keeps getting turned down for insurance because he had asthma... when he was fucking 11.
How may people stay at the same job because they really, really need the benefits?
I could go on, but that would be just pointing out the obvious.
I wonder if Vitter's plan covers diaper rashes?
Randal: Sounds like a plan.
Holte: We don't need that third party. And you're right about "too much information."
Lew: I guess it stunned the wingtards when a few Democrats actually took them up on their phony "bipartisan" gimmick.
Thomas: That's good to know about Queen Elizabeth.
Snave: Good rant.
I think the "elitist" soundbite started with Spiro Agnew and George Wallace in the 1968 election. Agnew talked about "effete snobs" (among other phrases) and Wallace talked about "pointy-headed intellectuals."
Like you said, if they didn't have memes and soundbites they'd have to try presenting logical arguments, and that's way beyond their abilities.
I also think liberals need to present their views more clearly and more dramatically. Everybody is one tumor or heart attack or car accident injury away from bankruptcy, whether they're insured or not. That's how liberal politicians should present it, instead of letting the Right frame the whole issue in terms of "Freedom!" vs. "lazy parasites!" and "government takeover!"
Bee: I'm sure that's Comcast's reasoning. But I'm surprised more industries don't take the same approach. The health care crisis is costing employers money and robbing them of customers, i.e. their products can't be purchased by somebody who just died from an untreated illness.
Jess: Yup, those unwashed masses are jeopardizing the bottom line. And since they're already born, who needs 'em?
Demeur: Right, add a little HIV and napalm to the recipe.
Mike: You're right, this probably is keeping a lot of people from starting their own businesses. Having asthma at age eleven is a pre-existing condition, LOL (not that it's funny or anything). That's the exact kind of corporate sharks we need to get rid of.
JR: His own policy covers it, no doubt. At taxpayers' expense.
Snave made a good call with "Republicare".
Republicare: Relax; you're in the Good Hands of your compassionate Good Neighbor's corporate Death Panel, conveniently located between you and your Doctor.
I am hearing that the Democrates caved in and we may not have a real and viable public health care option. Just goes to show you, they were bought and paid for.
Comcast is a lot of things, none of them all that good.
Amazing as always
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