Dec 09 2009

Public Option Out

( – promoted by Nightprowlkitty)

Breaking News… I missed the teevee versions, but its all the buzz… mcjoan has it on teh GOS front page …

Over 700 comments, very interesting commentary, at the orange rec list: Breaking News: Senate Dems Drop Public Option .

And a brief report at FDL.

Is it true? we dont know yet. go read mcjoan, she has most info.

NYT: Senate Leaders in Tentative Deal to Alter Public Option

But Democratic aides said that the group had tentatively agreed on a proposal that would replace a government-run health care plan with a menu of new national, privately-run insurance plans modeled after the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program, which covers more than eight million federal workers, including members of Congress, and their dependents. (See this earlier Prescriptions article about how the group of 10 has been thinking about this approach.)

A government-run plan would be retained as a fall-back option, the aides said, and would be triggered only if the new proposal failed to meet targets for providing affordable insurance coverage to a specified number of people.

The agreement would also allow Americans between age 55 and 64 to buy coverage through Medicare, beginning in 2011.

EDIT: Check out the essay by Jamess on what this loss means.

UPDATE 10:45PM: TPM has ‘White House health care team sends over a brief statement:’.

“Senators are making great progress and we’re pleased that they’re working together to find common ground toward options that increase choice and competition.”

Reading between the lines here in a statement from a team who knows President Obama has been accused of not standing firm enough for a public option, they think what happened in the meeting may strike the right political balance.

Yeah, good luck with that.

34 comments

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  1. how this is gonna come down, but several folks now saying KILL THE BILL.

    Anyway I thought DD needed some excitement. lol

  2. has it together! lol

    View from under the Bus.

    Things just got serious.

    • Edger on December 9, 2009 at 03:49
    • #

    Senate Democratic liberals are seeking expansion of two large federal programs, Medicare and Medicaid, in exchange for dropping a government-sold insurance option from health care legislation sought by President Barack Obama, several lawmakers said Monday.

    Under the potential trade-off with party moderates, near-retirees beginning at age 55 or 60 who lack affordable insurance would be permitted to purchase coverage under Medicare, which generally provides medical care beginning at 65. Medicaid, the federal-state health care program for the poor, would be open to all comers under 300 percent of poverty, or slightly over $66,000 for a family of four.

    — their full story is here

  4. I find these constantly watered-down social welfare attempts tiring.

    :::yawn:::

  5. see this diary

  6. msnbc

    Moderates cheer

    Moderates cheered a move away from the so-called public option and liberals demanded an expansion of the federal Medicare program in exchange. The public plan is now in the bill, but supporters acknowledged Tuesday that it may not have the votes to pass.

    “My worry is the public option is disappearing, or it gets very much weakened,” said Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va, representing liberals in the negotiations.

    In exchange for giving up on a new government plan, liberals were demanding a major expansion of Medicare and additional aid for low-income uninsured. Medicare would be opened up – at least for a few years – to uninsured people age 55 to 64. A bid to expand the Medicaid program for low-income people failed to win support.

    “That’s an example of not getting what you want,” Rockefeller said. Other alternatives to help low-income Americans are still on the table.

  7. carefully planned since Day 1, B.C.; that’s 2,000 years in the making! The final bill will be a reverse reconciliation wrapped around a conference compromise which will reflect true tripartisan input. Yes, you heard it, tripartisan, a whole partisan better than bipartisan!

    Now that’s change you can believe in!

  8. I had just read about it and came here.  Read yours and read Joy B.’s and commented.  Now, Joy B’s has been removed and my comment along with it.

    Had just received this earlier afternoon:

                 . —

    As we head into the final stretch on health reform, big insurance company lobbyists and their partisan allies hope that their relentless attacks and millions of dollars can intimidate us into accepting the status quo.

    So I have a message for them, from all of us: Not this time. We have come too far. We will not turn back. We will not back down.

    But do not doubt — the opponents of reform will not rest. So I need you, the members of Organizing for America, to fight alongside me.

    We must continue to build out our campaign — to spread the facts on the air and on the ground, and to bring in more volunteers and train them to join the fight. I urgently need your help to keep Organizing for America’s 50-state movement for reform going strong.

    Can you donate $25 or whatever you can afford today?

    https://donate.barackobama.com…

    Let’s win this together,

    President Barack Obama

    Then, had read the news here.

    What a grand, colossal showing by our representatives! Unless this is some of kind a a ruse (doubtful).

    Well, you know, we gotta’ have money for the “surge” dontcha’ know — whatever!

    I think now is the time to tell our reps. to “ditch” the bill — we’re not interested.  

    Bernie Sanders, was on Rachel Maddow, tonight, but I didn’t get to hear the program and the video is not yet out.  

    No one should have one single doubt about the “plans” for the American people!

  9. floated no reconciliation earlier today and now this.

    When will the American people just say no?  

    I am reminded of the scene in Out of Africa where Dinesen says after fighting a flood that is washing away the dam she had worked so hard to put in, “Let it go.  This water wants to live in Mobasa.”

    Let it go.  This nation wants to be third world.

    We are the laughing stock of the planet.  If it weren’t for our nukes and other war gear, we would have nothing at all.

    What am I supposed to pass on to my students that has the least bit of truth and sense in it?  I can’t even bear to tell them the truth.  It just makes everything look too crazy to bear.

  10. Canada manages univeral coverage at less than half the per capita spending the U.S. does with at least 50 million uninsured.  The weak as a mofo public option that was finally proposed would have done nothing to address the the overall costs of the health care system.  We’ve been hosed.  

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