I am standing at the corner of Flabber & Gasted

Waxman is a real pol in the GOOD way.

Although I would like single payer, we're not going to get there in one swell foop.

"The amendment also includes a liberal priority: reducing premiums many uninsured people will be required to pay for health coverage. The change would lower the premium from 12 percent of a household's total annual income to 11 percent."

This idea of mandating coverage paid for out the pockets of consumers is the single most compelling reason to offer a publicly operated, genuinely not-for-profit coverage option.

Without a real public option, we're making it a civil crime to refuse contributing to the profits of private insurance operators and leaving no choice in the matter. If you're against profits, you're a criminal.

Does that sound like a reasonable "choice"?

Why should consumers be penalized as criminals for refusing to be team members in the quest for profits by insurance firms? Personally I'd rather just pay more taxes.

i hope only for a decent health care reform bill that has a decent public option. this, my friends, is just sputnik.

to put ourselves on the moon of real health care in this country we'll need the APOLLO program of "public option" morphing into "universal single-payer" and a lot more...

so, henry, you go, girl, but yer just the beginning...

This is not a compromise I support. It still feeds the insurance companies and does not provide true coverage and care to the vast majority of Americans. I'd also like to see if there is coverage for "family planning/birth control", abortions (not as a family planning strategy) for the benefit of mothers, fathers and children and the larger community. Without coverage for these services, I would not vote for this bill. Those Congresspeople who have received financial contributions from insurance companies and others with a substantial investment in the current policies should provide full disclosure and be excluded from undue influence on the final bill. I don't know how that would be done, but there has to be transparency on who and why they stand in the way of authentic systemic "reform".

Ask each one why their coverage should be any different than what all Americans can receive. Take the employers out of the equation: Universal, single-payer(not insurance companies) healthcare for all, with an emphasis on prevention and promotion of healthy lifestyles.

Unless these factors are part of the bill, I would not vote for it. Let the system collapse of its own weight so those who listen to the defenders of the status quo can personally experience the consequences of their lack of awareness. It seems that until it hits home, people do not get that we are all part of the solution.

I am committed to Oneness through Justice and Transformation
peace,
st john

The legal bribery of these blue dogs by the ins. industry is paying off. Millions in campaign donations and suddenly these Conservadems are focused on HC reform costs...though they pad the pork for their own districts and turn a blind eye to defense spending and vote yes for tax cuts for the extremely wealthy.

The public must tolerate what should be labeled criminal activity by these bought and bribed dogs who do what their paymasters tell them instead of their constituents. It's infuriating.

The progressive caucus are all that's left to act as guardians for a strong public option to make it through these negotiations...wonder how much they get in donations from the ins industry because they do a blanket donation I'm sure.

Example: To dismantle medicaid in Mo, Gov Blunt instituted "Spin Down", which means the limit on income for this ins coverage is $600/mo. Any earned income over that amount must go toward paying your HC bills. So if your income is $832/mo then your spin down is $232/mo. Now making "payments" on medical bills doesn't count. Medicaid only pays when you pay out of pocket $232 in a particular month...then after that amount is paid Medicaid will pay additional bills.

So if your medical bills in one month come to $233...Medicaid will pay that dollar over your spin down amount...but ONLY after you pay your spin down. Most low income people cannot afford to pay their monthly spin down amount EVERY month so it ends up being emergency ins only and seldom used as the poor struggled to pay their $50-60/mo doctor bills.

This is how a public option can be poisoned to the point that it is no reform at all.

For reasons Ezra Klein explained earlier today, the Energy and Commerce Committee was the key bottleneck in the House; odds are that the ultimate House bill will be noticeably better than the one that gets out of E&C.

And if the House passes healthcare reform, it will put the Senate Dems on the spot. Might even put a bit of pressure on Max Baucus to stop regarding Mike Enzi's opinion as relevant.

Waxman's working his magic, but real test will come in the House/Senate conference committee.

Methinks Hammerin' Hank will need to add a couple of rusty nails onto his gavel for that showdown.

Single payer would stop all this politicking as well as lobbyist raping pillaging oF Americans. It is simple & efficient. Already in place with VA model and m'care model.

agreed to allow their liberal colleagues to cut billions from existing government-funded health care programs

Does this mean that they are cutting Medicare payments to doctors??

While I'd like to see a single payer solution, realistically I don't see it happening for many years. The insurance industry (companies, brokers, claims processors, third party administrators, etc.) employees way too many people to suddenly put them out of work, especially during this Great Recession.

However, if the mandates drive profits into the insurance companies, then what is to stop someone from creating their own not-for-profit mutual insurance company to compete and steal those mandated individuals away from the Insurance Giants?

Re: Cutting billions from existing government health care programs. Is my life saving Medicare one of those programs?

The change would lower the premium from 12 percent of a household's total annual income to 11 percent.

And this helps how? Say you're a family making $30,000/year (which is right in the area where people can't afford health insurance") and you're supposed to pay $3,300 of that for health insurance? Trust me, on that level of income, taking out that much is going to mean a whole lot of people still won't be able to pay for health insurance - and there a many making less than that. How many meals a month are these people supposed to skip to be able to afford this? Hell, how about the family making $50,000 a year? Where do they come up with $5,500 extra dollars????

It might help if some of these congressional morons - from the Democrats especially! - went out and found out what it's like to not be a member of the upper middle class.

What we need is to cut out this health insurance bullshit altogether, and establish affordable single-payer health insurance paid by taxes. Of course, in the best Congress and Administration money can buy, that's got the chances of a snowball in hell.

Let's find some Ways and Means to put some Energy into Educating Labor so that Commerce can keep on rolling.

Eh, it's Friday. So sue me.

Making history is a good place to start.