My single disappointment with Obama is healthcare - can we turn him around?

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

Even in his great speech last night he referenced (Paraphrase) 'no family in America should go bankrupt because of the medical bills of their children'.

Sorry, but they shouldn't go bankrupt over the medical bills of the adults either. I am not interested in incremental steps towards providing universal healthcare. We ALL need it - young, old and in-between.

[ingac70]

1. No one has offered universal health care...

all I've heard is an offer of insurance. That doesn't guarantee health care, since the insurance companies decide who lives and who dies.

[calmblueocean]

8. I wish this could be repeated 100x.

A mandate to buy health insurance is not universal health care.

[flpoljunkie]

17. "Forcing" people to buy insurance would be a club used by the Rethugs on 'low information" voters

John McCain has already started beating that drum. Barack Obama understands this. His plan, like Hillary's opens the door to Medicare for all. This is what we need to work for--pressure our members of Congress to pass it. Nothing will change in Washington if we do not demand it--something Barack Obama also understands, as well.

[calmblueocean]

30. I agree. Here's what I don't understand.

If we have to have health insurance, why make people pay for it out of pocket? Why not just have the government pay for everyone's health insurance, and make up the cost through progressive taxation?

Making folks pay for health insurance out of pocket means that there will always be a class of people who just can't afford health insurance and thus can't get the benefits of health care. Which means our society can't get the benefits of their health care, either.

McCain has proposed giving people a $2500 tax credit to buy insurance on their own. Of course, everyone loses the power of group negotiation that way, and tax credits are a lousy way to do anything. 25% of the people who are due the Earned Income Tax Credit never even realize they can claim it. It seems to me that if we're stuck with health insurance instead of socialized medicine or true single payer, why can't the government just subsidize health insurance for all and pay for it the way we pay for everything else that benefits all of us, through progressive taxation?

[flpoljunkie]

42. I hope one day we will have Medicare for all, a single payer system, but not government run or

"socialized medicine" as the Republicans like to call a "single payer" system. Let them try taking way their mothers' Medicare, and see what happens. All the Democrats' plans open the door to Medicare for all, and I hope that it will one day be a reality, but if we can provide affordable health insurance for all Americans through private health insurance, that would be fine, as well.

It does disturb me that the senior senator from New York, one Chuck Schumer, recently said there was no money for universal health care. Money for the continued occupation of Iraq, but no money for health care for our own citizens or our own roads, bridges, and schools. We are apparently going to have to make our concerns known very loudly--even with a Democratic president and Democratic Congress.

I am ready.

[JoFerret]

34. And that is why Obama is not a great candidate.

just a good one.

[flpoljunkie]

40. Good enough and smart enough to be on the verge of winning the Democratic nomination!

[JoFerret]

48. This is true. Nonetheless

his so-called health plan is not the way we should be going as a nation. Attacking a better plan using the GOP words and tactics of an earlier time was not a great moment in electoral politics.

Many things can be popular without having democratic value.

[hokies4ever]

45. Republican and Independent support

would dry up for Obama if he endorsed a health care mandate like Hillary Clinton. Sometimes you have to realize that you need compromise with the American people.

[LWolf]

26. Not true. HR 676.

A decent candidate would get behind it.

[Bolo Boffin]

2. Obama's plan is still a great start --

but maybe one of the better things done at the convention will be the adoption of Hillary's plan. :)

[Ms. Toad]

22. Hillary's plan is worse.

Mandatory purchase of health insurance is a bad way of ensuring health care is available to all. At least Obama doesn't mandate it for everyone - only for children.

[JoFerret]

36. It's a weak start.

And a terrible opening gambit. A pander to the forces of opposition (big pharma dnt he insurance companies.)

[kevinmc]

3. Nobody has a plan that will do what is needed .... or they aren't talking about it yet ...

need to take what works from other Industial Countries and use it here.

[SeattleGirl]

4. I understand what you're saying.

I find both Obama's and Clinton's healthcare plans lacking.

We have to remember, though, that a presidential candidate's plan will not go through unchecked when they win the White House. I think our job is to push as hard as we can to get the best outcome that we can. It's not just up to the (Dem) President; it's up to us, too, to raise our voices and try as hard as we can to get what we want.

[mainer]

5. I agree -- and I hope we can turn him.

He seems flexible enough to change. Maybe with some good advisors he'll see the light.

[TexasObserver]

6. If Hillary would concede, Obama could hunker down and work out his plans.

He needs to hone his plans, accept some ideas from the plans of others, and get a plan the party is behind, not just for health care, but for everything.

[onehandle]

11. "If Gore would concede, Bush could hunker down and work out his plans." 2000

How'd that work out?

Not that I don't want Hillary to concede, but we shouldn't have to depend on "what might be."

Don't expect miracles from either candidate.

[JoFerret]

37. If everyone would bow down now

he could....

[onehandle]

7. Unlikely. A centrist has to balance between his base and his corporate friends.

Things will be better, but more so the same with either of the centrists.

[JoFerret]

38. Correct

In this case Obama is the more centrist. (Funny notion - more centrist than thou)

Total betrayal of dem values (and needs)

[izzybeans]

9. To make healthcare as unsustainable as our car insurance schemes?

[oldgrowth]

10. I liked Edwards plan best a good first step!!nt

[Secret_Society]

12. Maybe Edwards and Hillary could exert pressure on the platform

[shadowknows69]

13. I don't think he's set in stone on it

Otherwise why would he vow to have public hearings with all pertinent parties involved? I have confidence he will find the right plan to cover the most people.

[Benhurst]

14. Back to the future. Both plans are poor by 20th Century standards.

And did you see this?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/27/AR2007042702027.html


I fear, at best, we're in for another Nancy Pelosi.

As the French say, plu ca change, plu c’est la meme chose. Same old, same old.

[demodonkey]

15. I don't have Children; does that mean I don't deserve healthcare either? nt

[frickaline]

24. yeah I'm in the same boat nt

[tpsbmam]

16. I totally agree about the health care plan

Not buying the health care plans of either candidates. Nothing will satisfy me but universal, single-payer health care. But as others have said, it's a start and we do, indeed, need to keep fighting Washington to get affordable health care for EVERYONE!

[Android3.14]

18. This is a legit complaint

Obama needs to examine his plan and address the concerns of HRC supporters. The gesture would go far, and the worries are real.

[FlaGranny]

19. As far as I can see,

the only real difference in the 2 health plans is that one is voluntary and one is mandatory. Neither plan is what is needed, but both are a start. I find the wage garnishing a little hard to take, so therefore prefer Obama's plan.

[Ms. Toad]

23. Last time I checked,

both were mandatory. The difference was in whether it was mandatory for all - or only for children.

Neither is good.

[pokercat999]

20. Sorry they shouldn't have medical bills at all...

on edit: They shouldn't have insurance either. Not for their health care and they should have a government sponsored version of insurance for their home (like flood) and their car, in states that MANDATE Auto insurance.

[Liberal In Texas]

21. Let's get him in, and then we can start putting pressure on ALL the lawmakers for UHC for everybody.

Another reason we need a sea change not only in the POTUS job, but in congress as well.

One step at a time.

[blogslut]

25. To achieve actual Universal Healthcare, there must be a process

You know as well as I that the Insurance and Drug companies won't go gently into the night. They have a lot of money to lobby for their future existence. When we speak of Universal Health Care, we speak of the death of the health insurance industry. Those cats aren't gonna give it up without a fight.

Barack Obama is presenting a Universal Healthcare plan in a format acceptable to both the Congress and the Senate. There is no way that health insurance companies will accept their obsolescence without a fight.

[high density]

27. You need to become interested in incremental steps

This is not going to happen overnight. It's just not politically possible to do so and anybody promising otherwise is full of BS.

[Asgaya Dihi]

28. There's more than one thing I don't like about both

and health care is included in that. Single payer seems the way to go and neither is even suggesting anything like it.

Between the two though I kind of like Obamas better for a pretty simple reason... I don't like the idea of establishing the same health care systems which created this mess as a required by law solution to it. Whatever plans she has for it still has to pass through Congress and with this as a start I don't see much resulting from it other than corporate welfare and us getting screwed again. Obamas plan isn't great either but at least it doesn't establish the problem itself as a required part of the solution and by law.

If we get hooked more solidly into a bad system we're going to end up giving it years or decades to "see if it works" before we ever get angry enough to change it again, if we never get too hooked into it then change to a better way such as single payer seems more likely.

[LWolf]

29. Just one of the myriad "disappointments" in store.

I will never support Obama; his positions are too DLC, and I don't think he cares to listen to the left/liberal wing of the Democratic Party. He's made that abundantly clear during the primaries.

Candidates tend to run further left in primaries, and move to the supposed "center," which is really right-of-center, for the GE.

How can he possibly move any further to the right?

[kentuck]

31. No need to worry.

He will put Hillary in charge of the healthcare reform. :-)

[Czolgosz]

32. That's also my biggest disappointment with Obama (not thrilled with his record on legal remedies too

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

33. kick to keep this front and center. I think we'll be moving away

from pastors and flag pins and onto more substantive issues in the immediate future.

OBAMA! Universal Health care and it's all yours!!!!

[crankychatter]

35. do you like your HMO?

then "get it" that what's passing for "universal health care" is really just Clinton's invention from the 90s. A gift of monopolism to the mega-insurance and medical industries... the managed care corporations.

We need single payer. Entrenchment in Clinton's system will PERMANENTLY DELAY movement in the correct direction.

It's the justification for a status quo that is tantamount to CLASS GENOCIDE. They (the disease profiteers), will say "We have "universal coverage"" and use that as a tool to keep the scam going.

Like Dean's plan in 04, Obama's plan is the best interim step... pragmatic, practical, and PASSABLE, without enmeshing us inextricably in Clinton's corrupt idea.

[AllentownJake]

39. I work in Medicaid

We aren't going to get Universal Healthcare overnight. It's going to be incremental steps whether we like it or not. 1993-1994 shows what happens when we try to attack the current system overnight. Obama would love to have universal healthcare however the man is a realist and he knows we need to start the process than work there gradually.

[ShortnFiery]

41. Of course WE CAN!

Unlike HRC, Obama LISTENS and does not have a "self-righteous" demeanor. I BELIEVE that he will bring in people and will incorporate what is best for "the average American" BEFORE the corporate crones.

[frickaline]

43. This is such a glaring weakness of Obama, I'd really like to see him step up here

I'm not saying any of the other candidates have better plans, but that doesn't make me any more willing to accept his. All Americans should get this coverage, not just children.

[WA98296]

44. Yes, I believe his plan could get better and we can make sure it does!

[Samantha]

46. Are you referring to the lack of mandates?

I am adamantly against mandates and supported his plan over that of Edwards and Clinton simply because of that.

[QC]

47. It's not likely to happen, with the DLC's head economist making Obama's economic proposals.

Of course, if you can get the big corporations to demand UHC, Obama will get right on board.

[Vinca]

49. Neither candidate offers what Americans want - Kucinich's plan.

We need to get a Democratic president and an overwhelming Democratic majority in Congress and then pressure the whole lot of them to go for true universal, single payer, health care. It won't work without a supermajority in Congress. In fact, if Republicans are still able to filibuster, that will pretty much erase our hope of any kind of health care reform - insurance or otherwise.