Specter: Schumer Has It Right On The Public Option

[kpete]

Source: Talking Points Memo

Specter: Schumer Has It Right On The Public Option
By Brian Beutler - June 25, 2009, 4:15PM

Speaking moments ago to a large and animated crowd of union organizers and health reform advocates in a brewing house just North of the Capitol, Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) said he supports a public insurance option.

"Schumer has it right about having a public component," Specter said.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has taken a lead role on negotiations over the public option in the Senate Finance Committee, and earlier this year proposed a compromise: the committee's health care bill should include a public plan, he said, but one that competes on a level playing field with other insurers. Such an entity wouldn't be able to use its sheer size to set prices the way Medicare does--but it could nonetheless incur savings in a host of other ways, and in so doing drive down the cost of health insurance in the private market.

Perhaps more importantly, though, the Schumer proposal is in line with the principles of the major reform campaign Health Care for America Now--and, as such, just about every major health care and labor organization in the country.


Read more: http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/06/specter-schu...

[valerief]

1. I want Senator Health Care and I want it NOW! nt

[MercutioATC]

2. It's not a bad plan. You DO know what it is, right?

[dflprincess]

6. It's not the worst idea they've had

but not allowing it to negotiate prices based on it's size is nuts.

Funny how the crooks worry about a "level playing field" when it's their profits at stake. You can bet that monoliths like United Health Group have used it's size to offer lower prices while driving smaller companies out of business and then raised the price as soon as they had rid themselves of another competitor.

[Jackpine Radical]

15. Level playing field? Try being a small independent provider when Blue Cross

tells you they're gonna cut your payments in half, and your choice is to either accept it or be removed from their list of approved providers.

[pattmarty]

16. That is one big thing that no one EVER hears about. It's always..........

............medicare cut this or that. The mega insurance companies do this shit every day, it just ain't reported on TV or in the press.

[ejpoeta]

3. how about we just open the federal employees health plan that the senators get

to anyone who wants in. it's good enough for them, so it must be good enough for the rest of us. how about it.

[MercutioATC]

4. That's what I've been advocating for months!

Good basic coverage and it's an existing plan so it'd be up and running quicker than if we had to invent a whole new framework.

[GinaMaria]

8. FEP would be a great plan for everyone

nice benefit package in terms of health care from what I've heard. It's administered through private insurance companies, correct?

[MercutioATC]

10. FEHBP. Yes, private companies.

PPOs, HMOs, PPVs, HSPs...most areas have 15 or so plans to choose from, which gives you a wide array of options.

It's worked for me for the past 18 years.

[GinaMaria]

21. A couple of questions,

You may or may not know the answer to, but they are rolling around in my head.

For the FEHBP do private insurance companies bid on the contract? Are they up for renewal each year? Does this keep the price down?

[MercutioATC]

24. Not tgo the best of my knowledge, but there are requirements that insurers must meet

...the most important (IMO) being that they cannot deny coverage for pre-existing conditions.

[bread_and_roses]

22. good for you. but it has not worked for a veritable host of others AND

I would sure like to know how a "consumer" of health insurance "chooses" between plans when not one of us knows what will happen to our health tomorrow?

"consumer choice" in health care coverage is simply a fraud. the companies lie anyway, deny routinely, cost MD practices huge sums fighting with insurers and coping with their monstrous paperwork, and drop sick people.

if none of that has happened to you, I am truely happy for you. but the evidence is overwhelming that it is the norm.

[MercutioATC]

25. I haven't heard many complaints from FEHBP members.

We choose based on known factors. I take exactly ONE prescription medicine regularly. My son has asthma, and has to get 6-7 prescriptions filled twice a year (on average). I wear contacts, my son does not. We both are relatively free from dental issues.

...so I can choose a plan that offers less vision and dental care and has slightly higher prescription copays to save some money on premiums. If our needs change, I can switch plans during open season each year to best address those needs.

I have had exactly ONE issue with an FEHBP insurer in 18 years (a refusal to authorize a particular medication) which was resolved with a call from my doctor. The can't drop me.

I understand that people have had issues with insurers, but expanding FEHBP to cover everybody would, for the most part, eliminate those issues.

[bread_and_roses]

23. you know, i think i misread you in my earlier reply

if so, my apologies. it's late, i'm tired, i've been reading about eight-year olds with face burned off in Afghanistan or Pakistan and looking at a photo of another small child with his/her whole head bandaged, US airstrikes, the media near black-out on what we're doing to people, and that after looking for some coverage on the thousands in DC for health care and not finding any, and i'm not fit for human company - even on line.

[MercutioATC]

26. No problem :)

I tried to explain why I appreciate having choices when choosing health insurance, but I realize that not everybody has the same priorities.

[bemildred]

5. I do not trust either one of those weasels.

The private insurers have had it all their own way for decades, and all they have done is find new ways to screw the sick and corrupt the Congress.

[Zorra]

12. Me neither, especially Specter. He's put the knife in at the last second

more than once.

[wtbymark]

7. a major cop-out

so he's saying the public option will be a for-prophit entity (BCBS redux)
no change - nothing to see here - move on

[AlinPA]

9. Specter will end up voting the republican party line. Don't trust him.

Joe Sestak:

"The Washington D.C. “establishment” has told us that THEIR standard-bearer for Pennsylvania Democrats should be a 45-year Republican Party member who stood “shoulder-to-shoulder” with George W. Bush on the President’s failed policies that we are now suffering from … and now the D.C. insiders are telling us we are to vote for this Republican."

Again, don't trust Specter.

[garybeck]

18. i disagree

Specter broke ranks many times when he was a republican. check the records. he was the only republican speaking out against wiretapping and other transgressions of the bush admin.

I don't buy the "he only switched parties to get re-elected." he has a history of going against the party. I can remember thinking several times, "why does the republican party tolerate this guy, he's actually saying something that makes sense."

I'm not saying to trust him. I'm just saying don't assume he's going to vote with the republicans on everything.

[Jackpine Radical]

19. IIRC he actually got elected on a healthcare reform platform back in about 1992.

Anybody recall how he stood on Hillarycare '93?

[DuaneBidoux]

11. This could be very good news for the public option.

[high density]

13. So the government throws away its buying power voluntarily?

No thanks Arlen. Dumbass. These companies have could have their own buying power but they choose to have a corporate circle jerk instead.

[NorthCarolina]

14. A crippled public option unable to use it's size to negociate pricing

will not result in real savings. This proves to me that they simply want to cobble something together that is essentially ineffective, and not detrimental to the dominance of the insurance companies, but that they can call a "public option"...then pat themselves on the back for a job well done. Schumer is the reason NC got bagged with Sen. Kay Hagan (who is against ANY public plan), he convinced her to run in order to stop a real progressive, Jim Neal, from a primary win.

[and-justice-for-all]

17. I want Universal health Care and I want it NOW!! nt

[defendandprotect]

20. Specter is still trying to cut $1 Billion from medicare -- MEDICARE FOR ALL -- !!!

[ProudDad]

27. HCAN is a sell-out

Schumer is too...

They're in bed with the insurance corporations, drug companies and the AMA...

And don't get me started on that scumbag Spector ... Dem/Puke/Dem ... Anti-worker, Anti-labor flip-flopping fuck!

Single-payer is the only way to guarantee Universal Coverage, Quality Health Care and Control costs...

That's what the CIVILIZED world has determined and patterned their health care system on single-payer. They ALL have better outcomes than U.S. "We're number 37, We're number 37!" of A.

Anything less is just shoveling more money into the failed "free market sick care" system that's screwing us over...

Check it out:

http://www.pnhp.org/facts/key_features_of_singlepayer.p...
http://www.pnhp.org/single_payer_resources/Myths-and-Fa...
http://www.pnhp.org/facts/singlepayer_faq.php
http://www.pnhp.org/news/2007/july/_health_insurance_fo...
http://www.pnhp.org/single_payer_resources/myths_as_bar...
http://www.pnhp.org/facts/myths_memes.pdf
http://www.pnhp.org/single_payer_resources/mythbusters_...

--------------------
W.H.O. Rankings:
1 France
2 Italy
3 San Marino
4 Andorra
5 Malta
6 Singapore
7 Spain
8 Oman
9 Austria
10 Japan
11 Norway
12 Portugal
13 Monaco
14 Greece
15 Iceland
16 Luxembourg
17 Netherlands
18 United Kingdom
19 Ireland
20 Switzerland
21 Belgium
22 Colombia
23 Sweden
24 Cyprus
25 Germany
26 Saudi Arabia
27 United Arab Emirates
28 Israel
29 Morocco
30 Canada
31 Finland
32 Australia
33 Chile
34 Denmark
35 Dominica
36 Costa Rica
37 United States of America
38 Slovenia
39 Cuba

Dominica! Goddamn Dominica does better than USAmerica!!! SH*T!!!

And Cuba can't even buy medicine or medical supplies thanks to the USAmerikan embargo!!! Their health care delivery system however is head and shoulders above USAmerica's...

http://www.photius.com/rankings/healthranks.html

USAmerica spends over $7200 per capita and with a life expectancy of 76.9 years, Cuba ranks 28th in the world, just behind the US. However, its spending per person on health care is one of the lowest in the world, at $186 per person...

We oughta' find out what Cuba's doing (rhetorical -- I KNOW what Cuba's doing and why they're so successful with so little) and do it here with some more money...