WH willing to deal on Public Healthcare Option

[Falkenhayn]

WSJ

White House Open to Deal on Public Health Plan

By LAURA MECKLER and JANET ADAMY

WASHINGTON -- It is more important that health-care legislation inject stiff competition among insurance plans than it is for Congress to create a pure government-run option, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said Monday.

"The goal is to have a means and a mechanism to keep the private insurers honest," he said in an interview. "The goal is non-negotiable; the path is" negotiable.

His comments came as the Senate Finance Committee pushed for a bipartisan deal. To help pay for the package, the committee planned to announce an agreement Wednesday with hospitals and the White House for $155 billion over a decade in reductions to Medicare and charity-care payments for hospitals, according to a person familiar with the agreement. That will help pay for the legislation, expected to cost at least $1 trillion over 10 years.

One of the most contentious issues is whether to create a public health-insurance plan to compete with private companies.

Mr. Emanuel said one of several ways to meet President Barack Obama's goals is a mechanism under which a public plan is introduced only if the marketplace fails to provide sufficient competition on its own. He noted that congressional Republicans crafted a similar trigger mechanism when they created a prescription-drug benefit for Medicare in 2003. In that case, private competition has been judged sufficient and the public option has never gone into effect.

Mr. Obama has pushed hard for a vigorous public option. But he has also said he won't draw a "line in the sand" over this point.

The deal with the hospitals follows a similar agreement with brand-name drug companies. And insurance companies were talking to Senate negotiators about cuts worth at least $100 billion over 10 years, according to two officials with knowledge of the negotiations.

Congressional negotiators and the White House hope to lock in support from the industry groups, which are backing a health bill in general terms but have opposed past efforts.

Hospitals and insurers hope to gain some degree of control over cuts to their federal payments. In principle, a health-care overhaul could benefit both groups by raising the number of Americans who buy and have health insurance.

"They've made an assessment reform is going to happen, so it's better to be part of that than not," Mr. Emanuel said.

However, insurers, and most Republicans, strongly oppose creation of a government-run insurance option, saying it would ultimately drive them out of business. Most Democrats support a public option.

The president and his aides already have signaled a willingness to consider an alternative to a public plan under which a network of nonprofit cooperatives would compete with for-profit insurance companies. That is the leading idea in the Senate Finance Committee.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, meanwhile, has put forward its own version of a government-run plan, closer to what most liberals and the White House favor.

On Monday, Mr. Emanuel said the trigger mechanism would also accomplish the White House's goals. Under this scenario, a public plan would kick in under certain circumstances when competition was judged to be lacking. Exactly what circumstances would trigger the option would have to be worked out.

Some Democrats pushing for a vigorous public plan say the trigger idea isn't good enough. Sen. Charles Schumer (D., N.Y.) said in an interview, "If it's not there on day one, those of us who support a public option have a real problem with it."

Some things shouldn't fall off the radar. Palin's crashed, Franken's seated, and the President just concluded an arms reduction treaty with Russia. Isn't the power of the WH waxing right now? What's the strategy here?

[Einhander Sn0m4n]

What's the strategy here?

Milking the bribeslobbying. I wonder if the shitbirds realize just _how_ pissed off we the people are at them, organized religion, and very most especially the corporate bastards who stole everyone's money and ruined the economy.

[Darth Wong]

It's possible that it's no "strategy" at all, and that people inside the Obama Administration sincerely buy into a lot of the bullshit about how a public insurer would be a bad idea. That "free markets forever" bullshit runs deep in American political thought.

[irishmick79]

It's possible that it's no "strategy" at all, and that people inside the Obama Administration sincerely buy into a lot of the bullshit about how a public insurer would be a bad idea. That "free markets forever" bullshit runs deep in American political thought.

I think they're tacitly recognizing that the Health care lobby has effectively swayed enough votes in congress to make a public option very difficult to pass. A study at fivethirtyeight.com estimates that the money from the health care lobby has effectively swayed 9 votes in the senate. The guy built a model and tried to estimate how many senators would support the public option without health care money involved, and came away with an estimate of 47. Currently (according to their estimate) only 38 senators publicly support a public option. If you're starting with 47 votes in the senate, negotiatons are doable and you can make a push if you need to. If you're starting with 38, that's a pretty steep uphill climb.

[Broomstick]

^ What he said is probably close to the truth.

Politics is ugly when you're up close. A lot of people will settle for some progress rather than none at all. There must be room for compromise, etc., etc.

Me, I would like to see a national health system for the US, but meanwhile I'll settle for what I currently have, which is a heavily subsidized policy through a state/private partnership. It's not ideal, and the pirate health insurance company involved is cutting some of the benefits, but at least if I break my leg or something I can get care and probably not wind up homeless. It's based on my income, so if my income goes up I'll have to pay more but, again, I'll settle for that, I can live with it.

And I think that's the thing - the Obama administration is trying to figure out what is possible today in today's world.

[Darth Wong]

The thing that drives me crazy about these subsidized private insurance policies is that the insurance company is still making money off them. In effect, the whole idea is effectively a giant corporate handout.

[SirNitram]

Or, it could be Rahm blowing smoke out of his ass so rancid, Obama smelled it from Russia: (I blame the likely temporary accuracy of the link on Politico.) Link

Obama sticks with public option

By POLITICO STAFF | 07/07/09 11:32 AM

A day after his chief of staff suggested the White House could live with a public option-free health care reform bill, President Obama released a statement (from Russia!) reaffirming his support for a government-run health care plan:

"I am pleased by the progress we're making on health care reform and still believe, as I've said before, that one of the best ways to bring down costs, provide more choices, and assure quality is a public option that will force the insurance companies to compete and keep them honest. I look forward to a final product that achieves these very important goals."

Rahm apparently does not understand his place in the totem pole.

[irishmick79]

Or, it could be Rahm blowing smoke out of his ass so rancid, Obama smelled it from Russia: (I blame the likely temporary accuracy of the link on Politico.) Link

Obama sticks with public option

By POLITICO STAFF | 07/07/09 11:32 AM

A day after his chief of staff suggested the White House could live with a public option-free health care reform bill, President Obama released a statement (from Russia!) reaffirming his support for a government-run health care plan:

"I am pleased by the progress we're making on health care reform and still believe, as I've said before, that one of the best ways to bring down costs, provide more choices, and assure quality is a public option that will force the insurance companies to compete and keep them honest. I look forward to a final product that achieves these very important goals."

Rahm apparently does not understand his place in the totem pole.

Could also be a trial balloon, to see what kind of response he got from the right and senators who are sitting on the fence.

[Broomstick]

The thing that drives me crazy about these subsidized private insurance policies is that the insurance company is still making money off them. In effect, the whole idea is effectively a giant corporate handout.

Yes, I agree. However, since it is the ONLY insurance my family can obtain right now I really have no choice but to live with it.

[Glocksman]

The thing that drives me crazy about these subsidized private insurance policies is that the insurance company is still making money off them. In effect, the whole idea is effectively a giant corporate handout.

Yes, I agree. However, since it is the ONLY insurance my family can obtain right now I really have no choice but to live with it.

It took realizing just how dependent my own health care is on my continued employment with my current employer to convert me from a lolbertarian to someone whose views are approximately in line with reality.

IOW, it took my heart valve and pacemaker to make me appreciate just what a realist Ted Kennedy is, at least when it comes to health insurance.

[Glocksman]

The thing that drives me crazy about these subsidized private insurance policies is that the insurance company is still making money off them. In effect, the whole idea is effectively a giant corporate handout.

Yes, I agree. However, since it is the ONLY insurance my family can obtain right now I really have no choice but to live with it.

All bullshit aside, I'm only half kidding when I offer to publically ally myself with you upon condition that you marry me.

Seriously though, I understand where you're coming from and to be honest, that point is one of the few I make that carries any weight when I debate UHC with my more 'right wing' relatives.

IOW, they are not heartless per se, but they don't realize just how close people who'd be harmed by strict 'free enterprise' policies are to them.

Then again, the modern Republican Party has made its living off of the detachment between regular people and the Republican governing class.

[JediToren]

IOW, it took my heart valve and pacemaker to make me appreciate just what a realist Ted Kennedy is, at least when it comes to health insurance.

I've certainly noticed that those who are against public health care are the sort who still carry around the naiveté of their teenage years, when we were all invincible. When you've been lucky enough that life has yet to deal you a bad hand, it's easy to maintain the fiction that if you are a good honest person and you eat right, exercise, and don't do anything wrong, nothing bad will happen to you, and that anyone with health problems just brought it on themselves.

Unfortunately it often takes a tragedy for these people to grow up. Anyone with a disability or chronic illness has probably encountered people who think "it can't happen to me," and you hear people who believe that if you just worked hard enough or went to church more you would get out of that wheelchair or that your lifestyle brought this on.

I've often heard that that disability rights activists have a harder time getting the able-bodied community to join in their cause than other minorities (not sure if its true). I suspect that it's because no one likes to be reminded of how fragile they are and how easily they could end up disabled through no fault of their own.