Obama calls for adding public option to ObamaCare

[DonViejo]

Source: The Hill

-snip-

The pitch from Obama comes after he abandoned pursuit of a government-run insurance plan to compete with private insurers during the long legislative battle over healthcare because of opposition from some Democrats in Congress.

“Public programs like Medicare often deliver care more cost-effectively by curtailing administrative overhead and securing better prices from providers,” Obama writes in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

“The public plan did not make it into the final legislation. Now, based on experience with the ACA, I think Congress should revisit a public plan to compete alongside private insurers in areas of the country where competition is limited,” writes the president.

The new embrace from the president also comes amid what appears to be a concerted push by the Democratic Party to rally around the public option.

-snip-


Read more: http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/287256-obama-calls-for-adding-public-option-to-obamacare

[still_one]

1. one step at a time, and this is what Hillary will announce tomorrow with Bernie, when he officially

endorses her

[sulphurdunn]

8. In this country,

if you're willing to settle for half a loaf you better demand the whole damn thing or you'll be lucky to get crumbs.

[still_one]

14. Since they didn't have the votes, there would have been nothing. I understand the myth

that some propagate, but the fact is Medicare for all, the public option, or single payer would NOT have passed. Bayh, Lieberman, Nelson in Nebraska, Nelson in Florida, Lincoln, and other blue dogs made it very clear they would absolutely NOT vote for a public option, Medicare for all, or Single Payer. The votes weren't there.

They had a finite amount of time to pass something, and while it has flaws, it also allows people who could not get insurance to get insurance. It expanded Medicaid, though unfortunately the SC ruled that could not be mandatory, so some individual states decided to let to screw their citizens with less means.

The ACA was a very important first step

[tonyt53]

15. i could not agree more. Baby steps. Got to learn to walk before you can run.

[1StrongBlackMan]

76. Damn it ... Haven't you listened? Incrementalism is evil ...

It is far better to demand the whole loaf and get nothing; than, take what you can get!

{Sarcasm}

[merrily]

53. The final vote was by reconcilation though. And speaking of myths, the reality was a lot more

complicated than a few Senators not wanting to vote for it. That bill had pretty much lost the public option before it ever left Rahm.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/09/04/white-house-to-release-logs-after-settlement-interest-group/comment-page-2/

But, your version is the one most likely to become the historical "reality" because, as we've known since ancient times, the victors get to create write history and the people dd not win that one. (They win very few anymore.)

[SammyWinstonJack]

57. Wonder if you'll get a response from that one....nah....

[merrily]

58. If I do, I probably know already what it will be. I've seen it here scores of times.

Always believe the version government and/or the DNC tells you and every syllable of it, too!

Because when government wants you to believe a different version, it will tell it to you.

[1StrongBlackMan]

77. I don't understand your point ...

would you have preferred that the ACA NOT been passed through reconciliation?

And what is the relevance of the link?

Finally, with all due respect, your "That bill had pretty much lost the public option before it ever left Rahm" line is true; but not for the reason you suggest (corruption), but rather for the reason your conspiratorial mind rejects ... THE BILL DID NOT HAVE THE VOTES.

[merrily]

92. I've forgotten: Did you ever discuss actual issues with me without resorting to personal insults

that you either made up or imagined and then imputed to me? And, have I ever given you reason to expect me to give you a substantive response to one of your insulting posts? If so, do you recall what in hell I could possibly have been thinking when I did that?


Have a great day!

[LanternWaste]

89. Thus, no country every having lost a war has since written history?

"as we've known since ancient times, the victors get to create write history..."

Thus, no country every having lost a war has since written its own history since? Or (and I find this a wee bot more likely) history is fundamentally more complex than the profound wit and wisdom found on bumper-stickers and trendy t-shirts, regardless of how inconvenient that may be to a simplistic premise.

[merrily]

93. Not a claim I made.

[George II]

22. Correct - one step at a time. What his and Democrats' objective was in 2010....

....was getting the groundbreaking legislation passed. Almost everyone who voted for it back then admitted that it wasn't perfect but the important thing was to get a good plan passed that could immediately help millions of Americans, then work on some of the things that would need fixing.

I think the worst thing now, though, is that it's taken this long to start address those drawbacks. But under the Congressional conditions the last few years (republican majorities in both houses) trying to address them would have been pointless.

With this proposal, it could very easily help win Democratic majorities in the House and Senate so something can be done about the ACA next year.

[wallyworld2]

116. I guess

It's better late then never

The struggle will be for Democrats preventing republicans from destroying it and making the option worse than the already terrible for profit plans.

[AntiBank]

2. good to see

[bigwillq]

3. Cool.

[forest444]

50. Definitely.

But where was this President Obama in 2009, when we had the best chance of actually getting this through.

Because as things stand today, Bitchy Mitchy would rather give up his Ping May loot than let anything even resembling a public option have a floor vote.

[1StrongBlackMan]

79. How was 2009 the best chance of getting the P/O through? ...

Because as things stand today, Bitchy Mitchy would rather give up his Ping May loot than let anything even resembling a public option have a floor vote.

This is probably true ... but President Obama is setting the table for his successor, HRC, like all good out-going Presidents.

[PatSeg]

4. Wow

Didn't see that coming!

[Old Codger]

17. It is

An election year.....

[PatSeg]

18. True

and Obama has become more outspoken now that his term is ending.

[Old Codger]

27. My basic reasoning

On this is since it is election time and and campaign promises are pretty worthless I will wait and see, have heard this one before... deja vu all over again 2004 campaign..

[PatSeg]

28. Yes

So much of what we've heard during election seasons becomes a distant blurred memory come January.

[Sherman A1]

30. Precisely

I have heard this all before and am more than a bit cynical now.

[PatSeg]

41. I've learned not to take a lot of

it too seriously. I am an idealistic, but I am also a realist and I know there are some things that aren't likely to happen. Even if we took back the House and the Senate, each district or state has its own priorities, not to mention the excessive amount of corporate cash in politics.

[Sherman A1]

56. You are correct, however

The single payer option has never been "sold" to people and businesses correctly by pointing out that it is far, far cheaper to have Medicare for everyone than to run this bizarre system of business/individual provided private insurance that we have.

The people generally want it, it's simply a matter of a powerful sales message to overcome the resistance of the Insurance/Pharma Industry. If the Iraq War can be sold to the public, this can be done as well.

[PatSeg]

71. This is true

I've rarely heard a politician really sell single payer adequately and we know that insurance and pharma companies had a big part in passing the ACA the way it is now. Their influence reaches both side of the aisle.

Not only would Medicare for all be cheaper, but it would be more effective as well. Personally, I was astonished by the efficiency of the program. Can't say the same for any private insurance I've had over the years. Even hospitals and doctors are often disorganized and inefficient. Single payer would set limits on what they could charge patients and set certain standards for care. Medicare often cracks down on abusive practices which improves the quality of our health care.

[Dustlawyer]

61. I think Obama is only saying this because the ACA is starting to fail.

The cost of the plans have gone up a lot and many more doctors are refusing to take ACA plans. It is a reality. I am grateful the ACA passed as it helped me personally. I have to get and pay for a double upgrade on my employer health insurance. My healthy 22 year old daughter's policy was costing me $1,200 a month because she had to be double upgraded because I was. Her ACA silver plan was $350 a month. Then it kept going up and up. Finally she qualified at her job, Costco, and received much better coverage for $330 a month.

Meanwhile the ACA policy from Blue Cross canceled my ex-wife's PPO and changed them all to HMO's in mid year last year. None of her doctors would take it. I think the doctors organized to try to kill the ACA by not taking it.

[geardaddy]

72. The ACA helped me personally, but...

Blue Cross of MN is not continuing individual and family coverage as of next year. So, I have to look for something else.

[1StrongBlackMan]

83. I swear, DU must be the absolute epicenter of ...

ACA bad outcomes. It seems that everyone that opposed/was critical of it, has had a negative experience with it.

imagine that!

[Dustlawyer]

101. You misunderstand me.

I think the ACA is great as far as no pre-existing conditions etc. The problem is that insurance companies are doing what they do, Jack up the rates. Doctors hate it and so refuse to take it. Most of them have Fox News on in their waiting rooms.

The ACA is starting to fail, that doesn't mean it hasn't been good, but it is under attack with higher premiums , less coverage, and fewer doctors you can see with it. That is reality. Time to push for Universal health care.

[1StrongBlackMan]

102. The P/O is the next step in the direction.

[Silver_Witch]

97. Sadly try!

I hope we are both wrong and that change is coming

[Old Codger]

114. My doubts

Are pretty deep on any and all campaign promises, they have been the basics for many many joke and we have all been guilty of laughing at them but they are not really that funny.. The real truth is that almost all politicians will say whatever the must to get reelected....the ones running today are no different....A few years ago the Washington state supreme court said that it was in fact perfectly acceptable for politicians to lie in campaign ads...

[Silver_Witch]

123. I know all to well

And pander as well.

[joshcryer]

103. It was always going to happen.

Next are cost controls.

[PatSeg]

113. Yes, I knew it was inevitable

It just caught me by surprise.

[bluestateguy]

5. Just like to thank Joe Lieberman and Blanche Lincoln for killing this policy off

Where are they now? Well, not in Congress.

[calimary]

52. And Ben Nelson, too.

He's no longer in Congress, either. He held out for delaying the implementation of several key provisions til 2014, and that's the only way they got him to vote for it. Schmuck.

[joshcryer]

104. Yep.

Lieberman was such a sorry "Dem."

[TrollBuster9090]

6. I think we've seen this "pitch" before.

It's like deja vu all over again....

*Shrug* Oh well...here' hoping they actually MEAN it this time.

[bullsnarfle]

62. I was thinking that too...

only more like Lucy with the football.

[Auggie]

7. More of this. Make it a debate issue. Make it so even corporate media can't censor it.

[annabanana]

9. The public plan did not make it into the final legislation because of Joe Lieberman

Congress is worse now.

[TrollBuster9090]

10. It wasn't just Lieberman. There were half a dozen blue dog Democrats who

half a dozen blue dog Democrats who submarined it, including Ben Nelson and Evan Bayh. Bayh's influence was particularly egregious, given that his wife was making millions from the private healthcare insurance lobby. And, while I supported Obama, and still do (more than ever), his defense of the public option that he campaigned on was nowhere to be seen once the negotiations started.

Luckily, though, I think things have changed this time around. The 'centrist' Democrats have hopefully been shaken up by the support shown to Sanders and Warren, and need to worry about pleasing their base, and not just their donors.

[BumRushDaShow]

13. Max Baucus, who chaired the Senate Finance Committee

was chief among the blockers and most vocal (followed of course by Lieberman).

[joshcryer]

110. This is totally false.

Baucus was incensed about how it went down. Yelling "I want a public option, too!" The public option was actually the least controversial thing in there.

He gets the blame, but in reality it was on the Republicans.

[BumRushDaShow]

117. I actually watched almost all the hearings

gavel to gavel - from both chambers (various committees). And I also closely followed all the iterations of "the bill" (you can see my posts here on DU in exasperation of the media using the term "the bill", where they kept reporting that whatever version of the sausage that got leaked to them, was somehow "the final version" (forget that the stuff had to be reconciled by both chambers so they could vote on the identical "bill&quot . And I continued to follow this through to when they voted on and passed the March 2010 reconciliation piece that amended the initial December 2009 PPACA (that I also watched the vote on while Democrats battled with Bart Stu-PID and the 17 "anti-abortion" Democrats who were threatening to block the whole thing until the Hyde Amendment crap and a special EO from Obama, was supplied to them).

Baucus controlled the Finance committee and shut the door on the Public Option. Meanwhile Lieberman was basically the one prancing and strutting around like a baffoon basking in the glow of his contrarian "independence" by threatening to block it if it appeared.

The issue with the Republicans is already well known since not one of them voted for any of it except ONE guy - who was the first Vietnamese-American elected to congress (and was from Louisiana). I think he only served 1 term after that.

[seabeckind]

33. Soon to be re-Senator Bayh

[TrollBuster9090]

51. Yep. I'd rather have Bayh than a Republican. BUT....

BUT...somebody needs to remind him that he's on PROBATION with the Democratic Party base.

[joshcryer]

111. Obama couldn't rock the boat.

He barely had the votes as it was.

You point out the private insurance lobby and at the same time suggest Obama wasn't pushing it.

Yet it was in the language a weak before the vote. There was a loud and public discussion about it. The controversy was rampant.

[rurallib]

11. hopefully for only a few months more

[OnyxCollie]

43. Speaking of Lieberman...

Lieberman 2006: I Will Help Obama "Reach to the Stars"
http://crooksandliars.com/2008/08/31/lieberman-2006-i-will-help-obama-reach-to-the-stars

"As far as I'm concerned (Barack Obama) is a 'Baruch,' which means a blessing. He is a blessing to the United States Senate, to America, and to our shared hopes for better, safer tomorrows for all our families. The gifts that God has given to Barack Obama are as enormous as his future is unlimited. As his mentor, as his colleague, as his friend, I look forward to helping him reach to the stars and realize not just the dreams he has for himself, but the dreams we all have for him and our blessed country."

[1StrongBlackMan]

85. I suspect this announcement is, more, to ...

set the table for President Obama's successor, HRC, in terms of for her G/E campaign (a sincere thanks to Bernie) and for her Administration's agenda.

[Moostache]

12. Good on him....about damn time!

I have been and will remain critical of the ACA until we get to universal healthcare as a right and not a continued privilege or for-profit racket of private insurers stealing a living as middle men inserted between doctors and life-saving treatments or between doctors and ready access to diagnoses.

Improving the ACA should be a cornerstone of Democratic Party politics until we cross the rubicon and arrive at universal coverage consistent with the rest of the industrialized world!

[yardwork]

16. Good!

[GreydeeThos]

19. Single payer is still our goal

History over the last few years has shown the insurance companies blew it. They were completely focus on profit, and failed to attract customer base.

I say toss the insurance companies out and bring in Government policies that work.

[Hoyt]

20. Public Option is the quickest way to single payer right now. N/T

[1StrongBlackMan]

88. Yep ... But first, the public had to be shown that the gop ...

"the sky will fall if we don't repeal the ACA" lie was a lie ... despite all the negative stories that the gop (and DUers) are putting out there.

[Hoyt]

90. Exactly. I think that is why we might be able to enact a Public Option now. Heavy lifting is done,

and Obama took the heat for it. The hundreds of pages necessary to get the ACA through, and all the fear, are over. Now it's a relatively easy thing to go to voters and say we support a Medicare buy in. You don't have to take it, but some people want and need it. I think GOPers will have a hard time opposing a good campaign.

If the Public Option is as good as we hope, most of us will eventually take it, leaving a relatively small percentage who can afford more expensive private insurance or think the government is poisoning them through vaccines. Of course, Medicare has it's share of problems, but we are never going to have health care that tickles all of us pink.

[1StrongBlackMan]

96. Yep ...

but incrementalism is bad, bad, bad! ... except in the real world where it is the only way to achieve big goals.

[TexasBushwhacker]

21. This is great

I would also like to see people over 50 (55? 60?) be able to buy into Medicare. We need to start thinking more about jobs disappearing. An older person may continue to work full time (rather than part time) just so they can get insurance.

Even though insurance premiums through the ACA marketplace are more reasonable than they used to be, they are still age based and pretty damn expensive if you're over 50. Unless I was willing to go with very high deductibles and out of pocket limits, my premiums at age 59 would be around $800 without a subsidy. That's more than my rent!

But if older Americans could have access to Medicare before age 65, they might want to work reduced hours. Add those hours up and it means new jobs for other folks.

[freebrew]

74. Just rejected from ACA...

Mrs. freebrew doesn't earn enough $$$ to qualify.

ACA has never helped us here in MO.
'cause the Rs won't let poor folks benefit here.

'cause we get little or no help from DNC?

[joshcryer]

105. So R governors don't expand Medicaid...

...and Dems get blamed, how?

[freebrew]

126. MISSOURI...

Dem governor.

For allowing this exception in the first place?
For not pursuing single-payer?
For folding to pressures for no reason.
The Rs weren't voting for it, no matter what was in the bill.
So, why try to appease them?
Which is what we were told were the reasons for not pursuing.

Dems folded under pressure from the insurance lobby.
Just like they did in BC's first term.
Then the insurance industry used that failure to raise rates.

[joshcryer]

128. The SCOTUS shot down Medicaid expansion.

There wasn't no exception. States were required to do it. SCOTUS said it violated commerce clause.

[wysi]

24. I've just been reading his JAMA article...

It's very interesting, and JAMA provides an in-depth editorial analysis as well.

http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2533698#

[freshwest]

121. Thanks for this wonderful piece from the genius Barack Hussein Obama.

We've been blessed by this good compassionate man.

[Skittles]

25. NOW you're talking

yes INDEED

[Amimnoch]

26. I wonder what the game plan is?

We might take back the Senate, even then it will be a very close majority either way, but I just don't see the numbers to take the House.

The ACA, as it was barely passed and we had much better numbers in '09. The main obstacle was the Senate. The Insurance lobby only needed one ally to swing the vote to block the government option, and they found their ally in Lieberman.

As much as I LOOOOOoooooove the idea of winning the public option, I can't help but feel it's chasing a political carrot this cycle.

[Ash_F]

32. 2024 in all likelihood

Gotta start now

[Quackers]

29. Good! Been waiting for this. nt

[Ash_F]

31. "a concerted push by the Democratic Party"

That is why dissent in needed in the party. You push the leaders, they don't push you.

[Skeeter Barnes]

34. Will there be a sit in for the public option? I doubt it.

A public option would probably save more lives than a gun ban would.

[seabeckind]

35. Hmm, do I see some Sander's footprints?

While Hillary adopting the public option might look like a flip-flop from her incrementalism,

bowing to the wishes of the sitting president would not.

I think we are seeing quite a bit of the Bernie influence inserting itself into this race.

The establishment knows that they need the Bernie people. And they most definitely need those Obama independents from 2008.

Whether they will take the next step -- driving a stake thru the heart of the neoliberalism reaganomics????

Stay tuned.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

36. No, you don't. The public option was an Obama idea in 08

Unless he can magically retroactively influence people, this remains an Obama idea.

[seabeckind]

37. And there it sat, the seed, awaiting some moisture.

And now, some seven years later....

the blossom.

[Bluenorthwest]

44. The idea itself did not origniate with Obama, he advocated a public option by saying

'any bill I sign must contain a strong public option to help contain costs'. But later he said this: "I didn't campaign on the public option," Obama said in the interview.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/22/AR2009122202101.html?hpid=topnews

The idea of a public option within a state-based health insurance exchange was initially set forth in a proposal known as CHOICE. This was part of California’s Health Care Options Project (HCOP),1 an initiative to update and develop ideas and options on how to expand coverage in California, and was funded by a federal planning grant to the state Health and Human Services Agency. The CHOICE proposal2 built on the model of managed competition, with its array of competing private managed care plans. However, it added a new option, the public option, to the exchange, to broaden the array of choices available to individuals and families. The public option was also designed to compete with private plans in the exchange and to serve as a policy compromise between a single-payer system and managed competition among private plans.

The CHOICE proposal was developed by a group of health care leaders3 who convened at the University of California, Berkeley, during 2001–02, under the direction of one of the authors, Helen Halpin (Schauffler). Under the CHOICE proposal, nonelderly Californians could enroll in the private managed care plans or the new public option offered through the exchange. CHOICE would allow any willing licensed health care provider to participate in the public plan, and would pay providers Medicare rates. It was designed to grow the pool of people purchasing in the exchange as quickly as possible.
http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/29/6/1117.full

[joshcryer]

106. If the 2008 presidential candidates Edwards was first to propose it.

But both Obama and Clinton adopted it.

They just didn't have the votes.

[joshcryer]

107. All the top three candidates proposed it.

And it originated with Edwards in that race.

Regardless it's a party plank now. It's a Democratic idea.

[ozone_man]

42. I think you do.

Now if he would just put some Wall Street criminals behind bars, and end our endless wars, my opinion of his presidency would be positive.

[The Wizard]

38. had he done this in 09

Democrats would still control congress. Many stayed home in 2010 because they felt betrayed by democrats aho were bought off by the insurance lobby. If Obama used the bully pulpit to pitch for a public option voters who've been exploited by health insurance would have been more hopeful for meaningful change in health care insurance reform.

[Dawgs]

67. ^^^ THE PROPER RESPONSE TO THIS NEWS ^^^ nt

[underpants]

80. It would have never passed

Not then anyway. The Dems got this through a very narrow window of time and relied (I'm sorry to say) on appeasing the current medical business world.

[The Wizard]

122. you make it sound like

legislation to the highest bidders.

[underpants]

124. Most are

[joshcryer]

108. No, people stayed home because of defeatist bullshit.

Not because they wanted to improve.

[Hekate]

39. Was it late last year or early this year that Obama redefined lame duck presidency....

...by saying he was going to leave nothing on the field in his final year in office?

He's a good man.

[longship]

40. Published in JAMA no less!

That is a prestigious journal, one of the top medical journals on the planet.

This is big news.

[LiberalLovinLug]

45. Heads will explode....with a wimper

You just know the usual suspects in the GOP and Fox News's eye's will bulge, froth at the mouth, turn red and stomp their feet at this announcement.

But IMO since they've been screaming about how Obamacare is a socialist plot ever since it came out (even though its a wrapped gift to private insurers)...its like crying wolf. Republican base voters can't really get any madder about the Gobmint trying to shove greater access and choice in health insurance down their throats.

[Cary]

46. On the way to a single payer system

That is the only answer. Medicare for all.

[BlueEye]

47. Let's put the public option on be Party Platform in 2016!!!

Makes sense to me.

[billhicks76]

48. Nice

That would restore a little faith.

[JEB]

49. Baby steps to the emergency room. Fuckin' A.

[merrily]

54. NOW, he's worried about what he characterized as a sliver during the town meetings of 2009?

Let's see.

While on the 2008 Presidential campaign trail, he characterized a strong public option as the only way to keep costs down.

While campaigning for Obamacare during 2009, he said it was only a sliver.

Now, he thinks it should happen? When does he think Democrats will again have the House, sixty senators in the Dem Caucus and the White House simultaneously?

[MadDAsHell]

55. To call doubling down on (and mandating) employer-sponsored coverage "not perfect" is...

the understatement of the century.

The President literally took the world's shittiest health insurance system, almost entirely dependent on employers, and said you know what would make this better? MANDATING this shitty coverage system across the board.

How does the Democratic Party complain for decades about a health-insurance system that is tied to employment, and then rabidly support a doubling down on that system in 2010?

[Scuba]

59. Medicare for All, including dental, optical, hearing aids and mental health services.

And yes, we can afford it. Hell, we already pay for it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_total_health_expenditure_per_capita

[IronLionZion]

60. Because red states opted out of the Medicaid expansion

Republican governors deliberately try to kill state Medicaid programs with funding cuts or limiting payments to providers as a way to reduce the providers who can take it, just so they can say Medicaid sucks and government is bad for you. It's the same reason why Canada's negative stories about their famous single payer plan are mostly out of Alberta, a conservative province.

A national public option would be a good thing if we can get enough liberal Dems elected into Congress to vote for it. Especially since people have seen that the PPACA didn't kill our economy the way Repubs claimed it would.

And what many on the right are too stupid/hateful to even think about, is the family doctor shortage is in rural areas, not the urban areas. A guaranteed payment system like a public option or single payer or whatever is an incentive for family practice doctors to serve in rural areas.

[riversedge]

63. Many have argued that the ACA will open the door to Universal health care--This is what Repugs

feared and why they are trying so had to demolish ACA. Slow but sure progress is aggravating--but the ACA would not have passed years ago with the public option included IMHO.

[Dawgs]

69. Um, we were within support from one or two Senators.

We could have had it in 2009 if Obama would have pushed for it.

[riversedge]

70. I was angry and disappointed at the time also. But, Obama could not

politically live with a defeat on the aca. It had to pass at the time or nothing would pass. time to add to it now.

[Dawgs]

73. I didn't say that he should have made it a requirement for passage.

It's just that he should have fought much harder than he did for it.

[joshcryer]

109. It was in there literally a week before the vote.

It was pushed, and Baucus even proposed local coops when it got shut down.

We didn't have the votes.

[Sunlei]

64. excellent JAMA article, thank you President Obama for taking the time to publish this in public.

All the information in one place forever.
http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2533698#

[PaulaFarrell]

65. What's the point this late in the day?

He's got six months left in office. It would be impossible to achieve in that time.

[Hoyt]

91. Setting it up for next Prez.

[Javaman]

66. that would be nice, but I live in a reality based universe.

I will hope but won't celebrate until (if) it actually happens.

until then, just more politicking.

[Dawgs]

68. Yep. nt

[underpants]

82. He just introduced it

This begins the discussion.

[Javaman]

87. and again...

I will hope but I'm not holding my breath.

it's an election year and he's trying to pass this off to clinton to take up the issue.

she now seems open to that possibility for a public option, let's see what happens AFTER the election.

I'm ever the cynic and skeptic.

grand proclamations during an election year have virtually no meaning.

[joshcryer]

112. Get back Congress and it happens.

Simple.

[Javaman]

115. of course, but that takes...getting back congress.

no simple feat these days.

[yodermon]

75. Thanks Bernie!!! HE put Single Payer in the National Dialogue where no one else would do so.

You *campaign* on the ideal (single payer), and the govern from the compromise (public option).

I know this is not strictly what happened (i.e. Obama is "campaigning" on the compromise) but I don't think this would have happened without Bernie's influence.

[mpcamb]

118. Right! Thanks Bernie!

[heresAthingdotcom]

78. Bernie and Hillary will beat Trump in November....

go hillary....

[spud_demon]

81. And let the government negotiate drug prices! nt

[Triana]

84. Good. Next logical step, IMO. n/t

[arcane1]

86. "because of opposition from some Democrats in Congress"

With Dems like these...

[AllyCat]

94. And offer it to EVERYONE, not just those without

employer-based insurance. Having to buy the company insurance is going to bankrupt us all.

[Angry Dragon]

98. A little late Obama

[yurbud]

129. he's Lucy holding the football for our Charlie Brown again

and for some reason, I suspect that after the election we'll be flat on our back on the grass again.

[wryter2000]

99. I wish this idea stood a chance

As Chairman, Governor, Doctor Dean said ages ago, a public option would drive the insurance companies out of the business, and we'd have Medicare for all.

[bvar22]

100. AS Candidate Obama said in the 2008 debates,

(A robust National Public Option) "is the only way to keep them (The Health Insurance Industry) honest."
And as rising prices have indicated, he was right.

Where are they now?

Max Baucus
*The chief leader of the Democratic Opposition to Medicare for All,
who had doctors and nurses ARRESTED for daring to mention a Public Plan at the hearings on healthcare
was later well rewarded with one of the juiciest plums that a President can hand out...
He was appointed as the Ambassador to China. Old Max will be able to fill up a bunch of offshore accounts with the spoils of this appointment. It is literally worth many MILLIONS of Dollars.

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/5/13/baucus_raucus_caucus_doctors_nurses_and


Congresswoman Blanche Lincoln...
the most outspoken Democrat against Public Health care in the House was later rewarded with an Oval Office endorsement against a more liberal Democrat who supported a Public Option and Organized Labor during the Democratic Primary in 2010. She was actually campaigning as the Woman who killed the Public Option and saved America from "big government HealthCare".

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=6936981

[Helen Borg]

125. Oh really? ...

Now that there is no chance that it will happen, Obama is all for it!

[BlancheSplanchnik]

127. Worth another kick!!

[Earth_First]

130. (Checks calendar...)

Yep. Thought so!