Took my mom to the ER tonight

[Mind_your_head]

She had/has diminished lung function and was coughing up all kinds of nasty stuff.

She's got medicare.

I've got nothing.

Don't get me wrong, I love my mom. But if I had the same thing that she has, I'd be dead or bankrupt.

I don't have Medicare.

Medicare for ALL is the only thing that makes any sense. REALLY!

[scheming daemons]

1. So... it's Medicare-for-all or NOTHING-at-all?

Sorry... this bill goes a long way toward helping you.


You'd never get Medicare-for-all right away... Hell, THIS bill only passed 220-215. Medicare-for-all would've been dead on arrival.


We got to get our foot in the door. This bill did that.

[Barack_America]

2. I believe the plan is "don't get sick until we have Medicare for all"?

[Birthmark]

5. Why not?

How many Americans need to be in favor of something before Congress finds the backbone to pass it.

All I can say is that I hope lobbyists can vote as disproportionately as they contribute. The Democratic Party is going to need it.

[Barack_America]

6. Well the public option is strongly supported by the public...

...and yet that was not enough to sway even the Blue Dogs to give us a real version of that.

Single payer is not supported by the public so, yeah, not a snowball's chance in hell at the moment, unfortunately.

[Birthmark]

8. Single payer? No.

But 2/3rds favor a strong public option...so where is that strong PO? It's on the cutting room floor where insurance lobbyists wanted it, that's where it is. To hell with 2/3rds of America and what they want.

[Barack_America]

9. Simple. When the far left withdraws support in favor of hopeless single-payer.

That only strengthens the position of the Blue Dogs/insurance whores interested in weakening the proposal at hand.

[Birthmark]

10. You do realize you're speaking nonsense, don't you?

Almost everyone on the "far left" would have been reasonably satisfied with a strong public option.

[Barack_America]

11. Even the small number of holdouts had an effect.

Sorry to say.

Every Blue Dog vote that had to be courted weakened the bill.

[Birthmark]

14. Courted?

Honest, that is not the only means of persuasion, particularly in politics. There's horse-trading, promises, even intimidation if all else fails. Some bills are more important than others and when a bill is this important intimidation is perfectly justified.

[truedelphi]

7. Ditto your sentiment on the lobbyists and their voting ability. n/t

[Barack_America]

3. Hope your mom is okay.

And I agree with you in principle, just not politically-feasible policy.

[Mind_your_head]

12. Thank you.....YES. I think all-in-all she's going to be okay.....

but it's ONLY b/c of Medicare that she got the chest x-rays (3 of them ) and the resperatory therapy (RT).....she's a lovely 86 y/o!

MEDICARE is *grand*....*very grand*, in fact! It should be the benchmark for all!

[boppers]

4. Medicare kind of sucks, actually.

That's the whole reason for add-on plans.

Medicare for ALL who cannot afford better, but allow people to Opt-Out or seek other treatment... that sounds a tad better.

[Mind_your_head]

13. Medicare DOESN'T *suck*

It's been a HUGE benefit to those who "lived in the right era".

[boppers]

15. It sucks if you're 92, have prostate cancer, and require $1,800 injections every three months.

It's (medicare) been a great thing for many people, but by no means is it perfected.

Oh, and FWIW, I use "suck" in the same way that Linus Torvalds says that "all operating systems suck" (which includes his own work on Linux).

Suck is not an indictment of failure, it's a statement that flaws are not to be ignored, and improvement ideas are welcomed, because complacency is the enemy of improvement.