Like a particularly confounding cockroach, it’s back … and proving harder to squash than ever.
When the white hot glare of public accountability shone on the so-called health care reform debate in Washington last week, “socialized medicine” (a.k.a. government competing in a marketplace it regulates) disappeared from view just long enough to get the Trojan Horse through a critical committee vote.
Now, like Lazarus, it’s suddenly back.
“This issue is alive, and we’re looking at it,” Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Montana) told the Wall Street Journal this week.
Wait, what?
From the WSJ:
Several factors explain why compromise versions of a public plan are gaining traction. For one, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office concluded the cooperatives proposed by the Finance Committee “seem unlikely to establish a significant market presence in many areas of the country.”
Also, private health insurers stepped up attacks on the Finance Committee bill, fearing it would saddle them with too many unprofitable customers. The committee had embraced cooperatives in part as a nod to insurers’ concerns about a public plan, but the attacks led Democratic senators to look less favorably on the industry.
In August, when critics swamped town halls, the public plan was a symbol of excess. But now issues such as the proposed mandate that nearly all Americans buy insurance — which would be enforced by financial penalties — are bigger hot potatoes.
Translation?
If you throw enough Marxism at the masses, they won’t be able to object to everything at the same time.
Ain’t it great to be an American?
By Skidmarks October 20, 2009 at 1:00 pm
ERIE, Colo. — First it was a 4-month-old Grand Junction boy who was denied health insurance coverage because, at 17 pounds, he was considered overweight. Now comes word that a 2-year old Erie girl has also been denied coverage because she doesn’t weigh enough.
Aislin Bates weighed 6 pounds, 6 ounces at birth. She now tips the scale at 22 pounds.
The company, UnitedHealthcare’s Golden Rule, sent the family a letter, which says in part, “We are unable to provide coverage for Aislin because her height and weight do not meet our company standards.”
- http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/21343449/detail.html
By Lenny October 20, 2009 at 1:34 pm
More pointless and clueless Folks babble.
By larry October 20, 2009 at 1:58 pm
Skidmarks,
I recall 3 weeks ago that you made the claim on this blog that the “CDC” reported that 90,000 patients die every year in America due to malpractice.
Please back up your “claim” with a reference.
By vinnie October 20, 2009 at 2:33 pm
How many dialysis units and neonatal icu’s will the “gubmint” shut down over the next 15 years?
By Donna October 20, 2009 at 3:18 pm
Try to call customer service at one of these health insurance companies. Go through a voice mail procedure that has countless numbers. Then when you get a human, if you are lucky enough to wait that long, you will have to repeat all those numbers again. Why, then, do they make you touch type all the numbers to begin with? Could it be to avoid paying for health care? I tried an experiment. I tried calling my insurance company, but not the customer service number–the number that you call to buy health insurance. Guess what? Got a human on the first try and no typing long series of numbers into the phone. She was nice enough to transfer me to the proper place with no waiting!! How can they be so cold and cruel to people? The elderly and sick probably give up before they get help with paperwork problems. I know the public option will be awful, too, but I would change just because I hate my insurance company so much because they don’t care about people, just profit.
By Just another Joe October 20, 2009 at 4:43 pm
Vinnie
Give me a break. You should be asking how many policy holders in good standing that will be denied coverage to use neonatal and dialysis units. What makes you believe that the government will close these units down? Provide your reasoning.
By Skidmarks October 20, 2009 at 5:47 pm
Preventable hospital-caused infection deaths:
http://www.safepatientproject.org/2007/05/cdc_publishes_sobering_stats_o.html
By larrie October 20, 2009 at 8:14 pm
Thanks for the link, Skidmarks.
However, I don’t believe it is fair to say that all hospital acquired infections translate into “malpractice.”
I’m no infectious disease specialist, but a majority of really sick people end up in the hospital. It goes to reason that multi-drug resistant bacteria would therefore be more prevalent in the hospital setting.
By scooter October 20, 2009 at 8:24 pm
All the noise this summer was bought and paid for. Those people were either paid by the crazy right wing or have no thoughts of their own. Those were NOT regular people with a sincere idea. Health care is a must and the public option is something that Congress has, why can’t we?
By vinnie October 20, 2009 at 8:48 pm
just another joe,
It’s hard to predict what will be in the final health bill. There’s a lot going on behind locked doors. But Rham Emanuel’s brother, Ezekiel, has written extensively about the need to ration health care.
Ezekiel has a degree in oncology and has been actively involved in crafting Obama’s health care policy. Ezekiel has repeatedly asserted that American’s spend too much health care dollars on the elderly and the young.
End stage renal disease patients on dialysis therapy have a 5 year mortality approaching 100%. Care will be rationed under any government scheme, like it or not. I doubt any policy authored by Ezekiel is gonna wanna throw more money at numbers like that, especially given our completely bankrupt system.
The wealthy will get their care overseas in private hospitals in countries like Israel. The rest of us with family members suffering from a complex disease state will probably resort to bribery to pay off the “health administrator” who will determine whether our family member will receive the necessary subspecialty care.
By drayton October 20, 2009 at 8:52 pm
So, scooter, you telling me that any patient(under the “public plan”) with incurable brain cancer would be flown to Duke Medical Center for palliative brain surgery like Teddy Kennedy-on taxpayer’s dime?
Get real!
Even Congress and the President have REFUSED personally to embrace the “public plan” for themselves and their families.
By Just another Joe October 21, 2009 at 7:19 pm
Vinnie
Thanks for your reply and the source of your comments.