Obama Trims Sails On Health Reform: He Seeks to Rally Support by Promising Less

[Better Believe It]

Obama Trims Sails On Health Reform
He Seeks to Rally Support by Promising Less
By Ceci Connolly
Washington Post Staff Writer
August 2, 2009

Now, as lawmakers begin to flee Washington for a month-long recess, the White House team is retooling its message and strategy, hoping a more modest approach will reinvigorate Obama's signature domestic policy initiative and give him a first-year victory for Democrats to carry into the 2010 midterm elections.

Four congressional committees have approved bills, largely on party lines, that would require that every person carry health insurance, would offer credits to families and small businesses that have trouble affording coverage and would begin to realign financial incentives toward performance-based care.

A key fifth committee in the Senate is negotiating a more centrist bill, which could pave the way for a less-ambitious compromise.

By leaving the bill-writing up to Congress, Obama is better-positioned to claim success no matter which bill is adopted. Already, he has abandoned his opposition to the proposed requirement that everyone have insurance, known as an individual mandate, and signaled a willingness to consider financing schemes -- including tax increases -- that originally were not on his agenda.

Administration officials have also begun whispering a phrase used during the presidential campaign, speaking of putting the nation on a "glide path" to universal coverage rather than the insurance-for-all trumpeted by many Democrats. Though few remember, Obama never promised coverage to all 47 million uninsured Americans. A slower, phased-in attempt to cover everyone would help reduce the cost of legislation.

"Americans are asking what's in it for them, and I don't think the Democrats have responded as directly as we should on that," said Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). With so much attention focused on the legislative brawls and missed deadlines, he said, "it looks like we're drifting."

Please read the complete article at:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/01/AR2009080102403.html?hpid=topnews

[rocktivity]

1. The Corporate Media Wants to Torpedo Health Reform:

They Seek to Hold On To Their For-Profit Healthcare Ad Revenues by Undermining Confidence in Obama
This story was posted (and expertly dissected) yesterday.

:eyes:
rocktivity

[timeforpeace]

2. Insurance companies are the winners. Figures. "require... health insurance"

[dflprincess]

8. While we continue to pay more and get less

You'll notice that while they are insisting we buy the same lousy product we have now, not a whole lot is being done to actually guarantee us improved access to health care.

Even the public option allows for some pretty hefty out of pockets (now called "cost-sharing" to make it sound less like the rip off it is) and premiums can run as high as 11% of your gross income (what you pay of that would depend on how much your employer is picking up - because odds are you won't be eligible for public option for years).

I agree with a poster on another thread who observed that it's looking like the credit card "reform" was just a warm up for how we're going to get scammed on health care.

[OHdem10]

3. Promising less is just another broken promise.

[midnight]

4. The group that has been elected in the last three years

know that we want reform. Reform that is politically savvy for election time is not the kind we have been waiting for. There is absolutely no reason a reasonable person would expect less health care accessibility. Cost reduction comes not from phasing in accessability for all, but from removing insurance industry profits.

[Mass]

5. Sad to see that we still believe the same BS from the same reporters\nt

[riderinthestorm]

6. "Looks like we're drifting"?! Uh, yeah, cuz you are.

And the Rethug sharks are gathering around the drifting boat and are ready to begin striking a la "Jaws".

Are Dems really this despicably obtuse? Do they think everyone falls for their deliberate lies? Or do they live in such a bubble they cannot possibly conceive of how health care costs, problems, denials etc. strike into the heart of every American?

Cue "Jaws" music, shark circling close....

[Canuckistanian]

7. It's the American way

As General MacArthur said while leaving the Phillipines,"Ah, maybe I'll be back... I don't know.", it inspired the whole nation to.... I forget exactly.

But damn, he got the job done, didn't he?