Congress Set to Begin Effort to "Overhaul" Health Care

Talon · #1 (**permalink**) 06-01-2009, 06:17 AM

Brace yourself for more fearmongering, as Democrats ready the battering rams.

Deliberations begin tomorrow (Tuesday 6/2) in Ted Kennedy's Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. The Senate Finance Committee meets later in the week:

Quote:

Congress set to tackle health care overhaul
June 1, 2009
AP
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090601/...ealth_overhaul

WASHINGTON – It's go time for President Barack Obama's promise to enact a sweeping health care overhaul this year.

First up as Congress returns from a weeklong recess: Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, partially sidelined by cancer, is convening his health committee's Democrats on Tuesday to begin weighing his proposals to extend health care to all.

Later in the week, the tax-writing Senate Finance Committee meets behind closed doors to work on legislation to achieve the same goal.

"This is where the rubber finally meets the road," said Jim Manley, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. "Both committees are getting ready for what is expected to be one of the most important debates of this legislative session"...

...Obama used the Memorial Day week to get his campaign volunteers behind his health care goals. He held a conference call with supporters to urge them to demand action from their lawmakers and get them on-board for a national health care campaign kickoff set for Saturday.

Leaders of progressive groups, including Howard Dean of Democracy for America, scheduled a news conference for Monday to unveil their plans for supporting the president's goals.

Obama is promising a plan that ensures choice, reduces costs and covers the 50 million Americans now without insurance.

Kennedy would achieve those goals by requiring all individuals to buy insurance, creating a new public insurance plan that would compete with private insurers to cover middle-class Americans, and providing subsidies to people with income up to four times the poverty level to help them buy care, according to an internal committee briefing paper.

He also would bar health insurers from denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions, and would create a new voluntary nationwide insurance program, funded by payroll deductions, for people with disabilities or chronic illnesses.

The briefing paper doesn't specify how the overall plan would be paid for - costs for achieving universal coverage are estimated as high as $1.5 trillion - but says the responsibility must be shared. Kennedy spokesman Anthony Coley said the proposals in the briefing paper weren't final.

Reduces costs? Then, what's all this talk about "the responsibility must be shared"? This sounds like costs are going up, not down.

.daniel · #2 (**permalink**) 06-01-2009, 06:22 AM

This is gonna cost Obama a lot of his political capital. Almost all of his policies are opposed by the majority of the American public.

Sly · #3 (**permalink**) 06-01-2009, 06:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by .daniel

This is gonna cost Obama a lot of his political capital. Almost all of his policies are opposed by the majority of the American public.

If that were true he never would have been elected.

algranny · #4 (**permalink**) 06-01-2009, 06:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by .daniel

This is gonna cost Obama a lot of his political capital. Almost all of his policies are opposed by the majority of the American public.

Anytime headlines state "congress begins overhaul of anything" we should all be concerned. When has congress EVER completed a task that has benefited the public overall. I'm sure Jeffrey Emmaul is looking for some money to come his way.

Cal Dirty · #5 (**permalink**) 06-01-2009, 06:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sly

If that were true he never would have been elected.

--Depends. Are we talking about the pollicies he used to get elected, or the ones he changed to afterwards? Anyone who thinks they are going to get the healthcare reform he promissed in the campaign has got to be blind, def, dumb at this point. It will be reform that big medical writes. We will be worse off by the time this is said and done.

Smartmouthwoman · #6 (**permalink**) 06-01-2009, 06:57 AM

Heaven help us all if he overhauls healthcare like he overhauled GM!

Hopefully, he'll be advised to use restraint. Throwing out a program that works for the majority of the population just doesn't make any sense.

Quote:

Nearly 46 million Americans, or 18 percent of the population under the age of 65, were without health insurance in 2007, the latest government data available.

Meaning 82% of the population HAS health insurance.

Something about not throwing out the baby with the bathwater...

.daniel · #7 (**permalink**) 06-01-2009, 06:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sly

If that were true he never would have been elected.

21% support Obama's plan to bailout GM as part of the bankruptcy plan, 67% oppose.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/publ...plan_67_oppose

Only 42% support universal healthcare, with 44% against it, as long as their own coverage doesn't change. If everyone is forced to buy it (which is what Senator Kennedy's version is) it goes to 60% against,and only 27% supporting.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/publ..._has_to_change

49% want gitmo to remain open, as opposed to 38% that want it closed.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/publ...mo_prison_camp

75% do not want gitmo detainees in the US, with only 13% supporting.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/publ..._united_states

31% think people should have to buy health insurance, 56% do not.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/publ...alth_insurance

Talon · #8 (**permalink**) 06-01-2009, 07:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by .daniel

Only 42% support universal healthcare, with 44% against it, as long as their own coverage doesn't change. If everyone is forced to buy it (which is what Senator Kennedy's version is) it goes to 60% against,and only 27% supporting.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/publ..._has_to_change

This is why Obama and Congressional Democrats will resort to fearmongering to ram a Kennedy-like plan through this year, just as they did with the porkulus bill. I wonder if we'll be hearing Barry utter the C-word (catastrophe) again?

.daniel · #9 (**permalink**) 06-01-2009, 07:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Talon

This is why Obama and Congressional Democrats will resort to fearmongering to ram a Kennedy-like plan through this year, just as they did with the porkulus bill. I wonder if we'll be hearing Barry utter the C-word (catastrophe) again?

Oh, I am sure we will hear it many, many times.

TheHat · #10 (**permalink**) 06-01-2009, 07:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Talon

Brace yourself for more fearmongering, as Democrats ready the battering rams.

Deliberations begin tomorrow (Tuesday 6/2) in Ted Kennedy's Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. The Senate Finance Committee meets later in the week:

Reduces costs? Then, what's all this talk about "the responsibility must be shared"? This sounds like costs are going up, not down.

They are gonna push this as a tribute to Senator Ted Kennedy.

Watch.

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