Baucus sez his bill is what the president asked for

[Stinky The Clown]

Do you see it that way?

[mikelgb]

1. Yeah, the President of Blue Cross.

[BlooInBloo]

13. (snarfe)

[spanone]

2. no. the President wants a public option.

[WeDidIt]

3. I'd say a lot of presidents asked for this bill.

Every one of them a CEO of an insurance company.

[WI_DEM]

4. In his speech to congress the president asked for a public option to be included along with co-ops.

[derby378]

5. Does Baucus still think Bush is in office?

He needs a nap, bless his heart.

[John Q. Citizen]

6. Obama would sign it in a NY minute.

[AndyA]

7. President Obama has stated he wants a public option.

The Baucus bill is written for the benefit of the corporations, not the American people. Baucus should hang his head down in shame for submitting this piece of crap. He is a WHORE for the health insurance industry, nothing less.

Baucus is a DISGRACE to the Senate and the good folks who voted for him and trusted he would do right by them. He has FAILED his constituents. Baucus should resign.

[HillbillyBob]

20. No Baucus should be hanged from the nearest thing that will support

his worthless ass.

[tularetom]

8. Baucus needs to be removed as committee chairman

He couldn't even deliver a bill that anybody on the committee favored.

[Skidmore]

9. Look at all the time Baucus wasted sucking up to the Rs.

Who is next in line in seniority for that committee chairmanship.

[bkkyosemite]

12. He could care less about the Rethugs. He has been kissing up to the Insurance Industry who bribed

him with 3 million.......

BTW I tried 3 times to call Baucus' office and busy busy busy ...yea I bet.

[Winterblues]

10. I am pretty sure Obama signed off on this before it was brought forward.

Obama was having meetings with those Republicans in the gang of six and has pretty much said he would support any bill that met the goal of bringing competition to Insurance Industry. I suspect he feels the Co-Op idea will do just that. I don't know myself whether it will or not but we are going to have to accept it for what it is because this is what we are going to get...Obama will sign it and the House will go along.

[sui generis]

15. Obama doesn't need to "feel" anything about co-ops

ask any rural farmer how well healthcare co-ops work.

Obama is a flaming idiot - dumb as dubya, just not as inarticulate.

This is not leadership, Obama, or Baucus.

The background:

50 million people don't have access to reasonable healthcare without insurance

The fallacy about that number:

most of those 50 million are just out of college or young adults who won't even see a physician until they're preggers or need a shot of penecillin.

Most of the non-chronic non-acute medical expenses by the rest would be significantly LESS than 12 months of private insurance premiums.

Nevertheless we can give them access to CHEAPER healthcare if they're willing to pay an additional tax into THE PUBLIC OPTION. Innovate on that Baucus. Give them a tax incentive to continue coverage even if unemployed. Guaranty coverage. Don't call these premiums - allocate on a sliding income scale, not priors or chronic.

Why is this so fucking hard?

[AuntPatsy]

11. No he looked frightened..

[AlinPA]

14. I predict that Harry Reid will praise the bill in a news conference.

[saracat]

16. Yes.

[MarjorieG]

17. Maybe planned as vehicle to flush out true GOP cooperation, test limits. Public more okay with Dem

only health care bill.

[nc4bo]

18. Well, the Prez did ask for "something" and there it is. nt

[waiting for hope]

19. Let's see - the bill was written in part

by Liz Fowler - here's a tidbit on this fabulous person:

When Max Baucus circulated his draft plan earlier this week, the PDF documentation page (image) indicates that the "author" was ex-Wellpoint VP Liz Fowler. Fowler was hired in February as Senior Counsel to the Chair of the Senate Finance Committee, and famously boasted that "the reason that I have a lot of friends is ’cause I got to give away money.”

Okay - she was hired in February, the White House started meeting http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/22/obamas-private-health-car_n_243115.html">with Health Care Execs in early February ... coincidence? I think not.

On Edit:

Corporate Family Values in Indiana

The corporate hand directing legislation is so thorough that, in Indiana at least, it even extends to the dinner table. Here Evan Bayh, House Representative from Indiana, and Susan Bayh, member of the Board of Directors of Wellpoint Health, sit down for nightly meals to discuss the events of the day. Evan could mention the latest proposal for health care legislation while Susan might offer details of a recent diatribe against the role of the public sector in health care. This power couple has profited mightily from their relationship. February 3, 2006 was a particularly good day. Evan had just passed legislation which allowed seniors to extend long-term medical care offered by private companies, while Susan exercised stock options to buy 20,001 shares of Wellpoint stock. Joyous dinner table talk indeed.

Susan Bayh is not just any private health care executive and Wellpoint is not just any private health insurer. Bayh is a leading voice in opposition to public health care. "Traditional Medicare," she argued in a recent BusinessWeek article, "pays for quantity rather than quality, and all of the pilot programs that were intended to help government change that . . . have failed." Bayh spoke against any public option, but claimed to support reforms that provide coverage to everyone through private insurance plans to ensure that "everyone is in the pool." The acceptable role for the government, according to Bayh, is to enforce requirements that people purchase private health insurance. No surprise then that Evan Bayh has followed his wife's lead by declaring opposition to single-payer (HR 676) and describing himself as "agnostic" on the issue of the public option.

~Snip~

Private Health Care Lobby Dictates Terms in Health Care Reform

Do we really need to ask here what is going on?