Stabenow: Government option only one part of necessary health care reform

[Bozita]

Source: Detroit News

Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Stabenow: Government option only one part of necessary health care reform
Catherine Jun / The Detroit News

Detroit -- With scores of households besieged with health care costs and millions without health insurance, national health care reform is necessary, with or without the inclusion of a government-run option, Sen. Debbie Stabenow said this morning.

"Doing nothing does not mean things get better," Stabenow told a room full of medical educators, students and doctors at Wayne State University School of Medicine.

At the invitation of the university, the senator spoke in a conference center at the midtown campus about the raging debate over the health care reform bill.

Attendance to the event was by invitation only.

Stabenow, a vocal supporter of a contentious public option, said many home foreclosures and bankruptcies in Michigan were spurred by a family medical crisis, highlighting the need to provide affordable health care coverage to everyone, including those who don't have employer-provided options.

Read more: http://www.detnews.com/article/20090818/POLITICS02/908180389/Stabenow--Government-option-only-one-part-of-necessary-health-care-reform

---

She needs some encouragement.

[PassingFair]

1. Everyone is bitching about the "BlueDogs", but it is these DLC vermin...

that will throw us over the rail.

Check your DLC rep or senator's position at
www.standwithdrdean.com

MOST DLC rascals are in the "Don't Know"
category.

Just sitting it out, waiting to see which
"safe" ones will be needed to TANK PROGRESSIVE
legislation.

:puke:

Stabenow will be getting a call from me.
She has expressed that she is PRO Public
Option, it is NOT a good sign if SHE is
wavering....

[Tx4obama]

2. I feel like everyone is reading words that are invisible to me...

I have read Obama's statements, Sebelius' statements, and now Stabenow's
All three have basically said that 'the public option is ONE PART of necessary reform'
They have NOT said they are against the public option.
Again, THEY HAVE NOT SAID THAT ARE AGAINST THE PUBLIC OPTION OR THAT THEY ARE NOT GOING TO CONTINUE TO PUSH FOR IT.
Why is everyone taking what they are saying and looking at it as something it is not?
I am very confused to why this is even an issue.
Even Ed Schultz on the Ed Show used Sebelius' 'one sliver' comment as an example of her backing down from the public option --- All that Sebelius was saying was 'the public option' is ONE PART/ONE SLIVER of what needs to be done. It ALL needs to be done!
I feel like everyone must be reading words that are invisible to me --- has the world gone crazy? :)

[grantcart]

3. All the people who do not have sex on a regular basis

are unable to see the following sentence in the OP


"Stabenow, a vocal supporter of a contentious public option"


So just check in on the thread from time to time and see who is having a hard time hooking up.

[Psephos]

6. that's (unintentionally) *quite* ironic

given this:

http://www.wxyz.com/news/story/Stabenows-Husband-in-Prostitution-Bust/lglcv04t20ij1aYfyRfpNQ.cspx

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/04/02/alycia-martin-alleged-pro_n_94706.html

[dflprincess]

4. The public option that is in HR3200 will not be an "option"

until 2013 (per the CBO). It also allows for some pretty hefty out of pocket expenses depending on your income (currenlty the income limits are 4x the poverty level, but Pelosi has said those could be lowered). There will still be a lot of people who have health insurance but won't be able to afford health care.

The only real solution, the only thing that will give access to health care, not just access to insurance, is a single payer plan. The DLC and the Blue Dogs are selling us out to the for profit insurers and all we're getting is faux reform.

[Tx4obama]

5. If you had been listening to Obama last year on the stump...

If you had been listening to Obama last year on the stump then you'd know that Obama was not going to go the single-payer route.
On the campaign stump Obama did NOT say he would push for single-payer if elected president, he said that IF we were starting from scratch then single-payer would be the best way to go -- he stated that since we aren't starting from scratch that single-payer now wasn't a viable option.

We will probably get the public option along with several other choices to chose from by Christmas, I believe.
Sen. Weiner has a good idea too of opening up Medicare for 'everyone' by dropping the age down from 65 to 55 this year and then down to 45 next year, then 35, etc.

[Lasher]

13. That's right, that was his position during the campaign.

But he also said everybody would be included in discussions. Single payer advocates were excluded.

[dflprincess]

14. And he said he was opposed to a mandated program

now he's all for it. He can change on that he could have changed on single payer - he chose not to. He tells us the insurance companies are crooked (we need a public option to "keep them honest") but he doesn't explain why he's so determined to protect them, even if it means sacrificing reform.

I get very tired of the argument that anyone who voted for Obama must agree with every bad idea he has just because he expressed the bad idea on the campaign trail. We didn't have a whole lot of options about who to vote for (or against) last November. A vote for Obama was not a loyalty oath.

And if you think a public option is going to up and running by Christmas you're ignoring what Obama has said ('years' to get it going) and the CBO estimates.

[Tx4obama]

16. I wasn't clear, I meant we'd get the BILL with the public option by X-mas. n/t

[Lasher]

18. But that doesn't appear to matter.

I have seen here that a public option wouldn't be operational until 2012. The way things are looking that would be when Obama is defeated by a Republican that same year and after Republicans regain control of Congress next year. And when Republicans have control they don't dick around with an naive bipartisan bullshit.

[Tx4obama]

19. Hahaha! President Obama WILL WIN in 2012 :)

[Tx4obama]

20. Yes and No

He said everyone such as: Doctors, Nurses, the Public, Drug/Insurance Companies, Congressmen, the President, etc. would have a seat at the table.
He never said that he would have a chair at the table for single-payer advocates -- He said single-payer WAS NOT A VIABLE OPTION

[ProudDad]

30. No, he said that Single-Payer was the best way to go

but that he didn't believe that there were the votes for it...

Just as there weren't the votes for Medicare when Lyndon Johnson started working for it...

But he GOT THE VOTES...

It's called leadership (and blackmail and using ones power for good)...

Obama is channeling Hoover when he should be channeling LBJ on this issue...

[ProudDad]

29. The single most bullshit, disingenuous thing he said on the stump...

"IF we were starting from scratch then single-payer would be the best way to go"

Uh, hate to tell you this Barack but NO ONE BUT TAIWAN "started from scratch" but the ENTIRE FREAKING CIVILIZED industrialized WORLD has decided that Health Care is a right, not a privilege for the affluent or the lucky and has Universal Health Care. Most are some form of single-payer (Sweden, Spain - Taiwan, who had the luxury of comparing the world's systems and creating the best of all worlds), some are HEAVILY regulated, non-profit "private" plans (Germany), some are hybrids (France, Switzerland - The Swiss VOTED theirs in 'cause the free market was KILLING THEM!)...

I HATE THAT FUCKED UP STATEMENT...such a god damn cop-out!

[defendandprotect]

7. So you see them SUPPORTING single payer . . . public option . . .MEDICARE FOR ALL????

Or, how about calling Democrats out to demonstrate in favor of single payer . . .

why let GOP fascist rallies go on with no response?????

[Tx4obama]

17. Well....

I can see a situation where Medicare might be expanded to include more age groups... but other options would be available too: private insurance, a public option option, co-ops, etc. I think that in the end will we have several choices to chose from and everyone will be able to pick what they want.

Supporting a single payer does not mean not supporting the other options.

[dflprincess]

21. It's not an "option" if you're not allowed to opt for it

which is the case with HR3200 as it limits who can get into the public option for a long, long time. The uninsured need access to health care now - not access to health insurance at some date in 2012 or later.

[Tx4obama]

22. Two years is not 'a long long time'. People have been working for this for DECADES! n/t

[dflprincess]

24. 2013-2009 = 4 years

If you need health care now, it's a very long time. 18,000 Americans die every year because they can't get the care they need. You tell the 72,000 who will die waiting for a public "option" to kick in that 4 years is not a long time.

As it is, the CBO estimates that only 10 million people be on the option by 2019. Again, it's not an option if you can't choose it.

[Tx4obama]

26. Stop whinning...

First of all in your other comment you said: "....not access to health insurance at some date in 2012 or later. "

Everyone knows we won't have a bill until the end of the year, so you can't count 2009.

So, we're talking about 2010 and 2011 to get everything set up and then 2012 we should be set.

Your four year statement was fuzzy math!


Patience is a virtue :)

[dflprincess]

27. It took 11 months to get Medicare up and running after LBJ signed the bill

and that time they were "starting from scratch". Also, the CBO is where the estimate of only 10 million being covered by the public plan by 2019 - there's nearly 50 million uninsured today.

I cannot understand why so many are anxious to defend a bill where the main purpose is to protect insurance industry profits. Did you watch Countdown tonight? The insurance companies think that for every dollar paid in premiums they should only be paying $0.65 in claims and that we should be paying the additions $0.35 out of our pockets and there are plenty of their Congressional stooges who are ready to go along with that. (In the '80s $0.90 - $0.95 of every premium dollar went to claims).

The public "option" as written is not an option and it is not being set up to give the crooks any real competition nor is it being written to actually provide access to health care.

You may be willing to accept this sop, I am not. They'll shove this faux reform on us and expect us to shut up about health care reform - even though nothing has changed and access will get worse.

[Tx4obama]

28. How about a chill pill...

First of all there isn't a final bill yet.
Secondly, I don't believe the CBO. They can't have any exact figures yet since they don't know what the final bill will consist of.
Thirdly, all of this PRE-complaining is a waste of time.

Obama 2012

[dflprincess]

32. Yeah, let's wait until Congress passes and Obama signs a bill that strengthens the grasp

the health insurance companies on us to complain. That will do us a lot of good. Because we know we can trust our elected officials to put our needs ahead of the campaign "contributions" they receive from the industry.

Past experience shows the CBO cost and time estimates are accurate, if they weren't no one would bother having them look at bills. It will be interesting to see what happens when the estimates on HR676 show a single payer system is more efficient and more accurate.

[defendandprotect]

23. Certainly they are NOT behind single payer/MEDICARE FOR ALL . . .

to suggest otherwise is to be in denial --

There is no government support for these programs -- otherwise they would be calling
Democrats out to demonstrate for it!

Why would anyone support "for profit" health care -- ???

Especially run by corporations?

Nor is there any onus upon a "people's" government to support such "for profit" systems -
nor insurance companies, nor private organizations.

Co-ops, of course, would be a greater fraud on the American public!

However, if anyone wishes to support corporate health care which is pretty basically
organized crime . . . then, yes, they should be free to do so.

Every other nation has successful programs which cover all citizens --

We are not reinventing the wheel!

MEDICARE FOR ALL puts everyone in, no one out -- and it's ready to go now.

[dflprincess]

25. +1

[ProudDad]

31. Why should the for-profit insurance companies

be allowed in the business at all???

As Rep. Weiner asked again today, "what value do the private insurance companies bring to the provision of health care services?"

The answer: Not One God Damn Thing!!!

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

9. I agree with your assessment and have thought the same thing.

However, their statements could have been more contextually clear.

[PSPS]

8. "the raging debate over the health care reform bill"

At the invitation of the university, the senator spoke in a conference center at the midtown campus about the raging debate over the health care reform bill.

Lazy journalism at its finest: Shills paid to mob meetings and scream idiotic non-sequiturs so that nothing can be discussed by the "real" attendees has now become a "raging debate."

[Wednesdays]

10. K&R

:kick:

[Yuugal]

11. "with or without the inclusion of a government-run option"

She is waffling. If these pseudo-dems back away from the public option they can carry the pile of steaming corporate crap they create to victory without me.

[Hugin]

12. x-lation: "Whether or not we get the public option, we're sure to get Romney Care."

Look, if I had WANTED Romney Care, I would've voted for Romney.

[damntexdem]

15. Not sufficient, but necessary.

Yes, health insurance reform must go much further than a public option; but it is not worth the paper a bill would be printed on without a robust public option.

[DU GrovelBot]

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