AP sources: Dems reach deal to drop gov't-run plan

WASHINGTON (AP) -- After days of secret talks, Senate Democrats tentatively agreed Tuesday night to drop a full-blown government-run insurance option from sweeping health care legislation, several officials said, a concession to party moderates whose votes are critical to passage of President Barack Obama's top domestic priority.
In its place, officials said Democrats had tentatively settled on a private insurance arrangement to be supervised by the federal agency that oversees the system through which lawmakers purchase coverage, with the possibility of greater government involvement if needed to ensure consumers of sufficient choices in coverage.

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AP sources: Dems reach deal to drop gov't-run plan - Yahoo! Finance

An interesting development... I thought it was the "party of no" that was stopping this glorious march towards a cradle to grave nanny state.

I heard the Senate had some kind of Govt option, maybe I heard wrong.

The article is about the Senate agreeing to drop the public option out of their plan. :doh

American said:

I heard the Senate had some kind of Govt option, maybe I heard wrong.

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There was something I read that they may allow people to buy into medicare. When I find the article, Ill post it.

Awesome. And then hopefully there's no regulation in the bill of insurance companies against collusion. That way, we'll get a law requiring us to have health insurance with no protection against price fixing and fraud by the insurance companies. That way the People get screwed, and the rich get richer; just like the Republocrats always like to do. Make sure their friends get taken care of at the expense of the rest of the People.

Ikari said:

Awesome. And then hopefully there's no regulation in the bill of insurance companies against collusion. That way, we'll get a law requiring us to have health insurance with no protection against price fixing and fraud by the insurance companies. That way the People get screwed, and the rich get richer; just like the Republocrats always like to do. Make sure their friends get taken care of at the expense of the rest of the People.

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Yep pretty much. But this time its the Democrats screwing the people so the rich bankers, insurance, and investment folk get richer. They have to recover those multi-million dollar jobs that they lost in the past year or so.

I doubt far-left Dems will vote for something without a public option.

Here's an article from the Wall Street Journal that has some more information about it.

Senators Strike Health Deal - WSJ.com

Assuming the information therein is correct, I gotta say I don't hate the plan. There's some parts of it I don't really like so well, and it goes about things differently than I'd have liked to see it done, but I think it's better than any of the bills that's been proposed before.

The word you all are looking for is "smokescreen".

They can drop the public option all they want, for now.

When it gets to reconciliation, it'll go in, and stay in. They may include some nonsensical easy to trip trigger to make some limp dick Senator happy, but if any bill gets to the Messiah's desk, it WILL have the Screw the Public Option, guaranteed.

molten_dragon said:

Here's an article from the Wall Street Journal that has some more information about it.

Senators Strike Health Deal - WSJ.com

Assuming the information therein is correct, I gotta say I don't hate the plan. There's some parts of it I don't really like so well, and it goes about things differently than I'd have liked to see it done, but I think it's better than any of the bills that's been proposed before.

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But not better than doing nothing at all.

carlkay58 said:

Yep pretty much. But this time its the Democrats screwing the people so the rich bankers, insurance, and investment folk get richer. They have to recover those multi-million dollar jobs that they lost in the past year or so.

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They already did. The bailout funneled tons of our money to just those folk. Man, I wish we had more than just one political party in this nation.

Ikari said:

They already did. The bailout funneled tons of our money to just those folk. Man, I wish we had more than just one political party in this nation.

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Text from a history book, written sometime in the future:

During the period in which both parties were debating the health bill, they realized that they were very close to each other in ideology, in fact, so close, that in the following year, they merged into a single political party, known as the Republicrats. The new mascot became a donkey's ass sticking out of an elephant's ass.

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American said:

I doubt far-left Dems will vote for something without a public option.

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And yet, they will continue to blame the GOP for the failure of health care reform(tm).

on the issue of health care reform the 2 parties, red and blue, could not be more polarly apart

i'm very surprised any observer might see differently

don't forget the body of this bill

1. mandates upon individuals to buy for themselves that which they can't afford in the first place, fines if they don't, with threats of jail time at the end of that dreary, despotic road

2. half a T cuts to m&m

3. mandates upon already bankrupt states to pick up some 2B of the burden, unfunded

4. ten years of revenues vs only 6 years of benefits

5. weak enforcement against illegals

6. quarter T doc fix, off budget

7. higher premiums, according to cbo

8. cost curved steepened up---cbo

9. taxes on small biz, large biz, targeted industries

10. taxes on lower, middle and upper class

11. 20M americans still uncovered

12. the real cost, first 10 years of full implementation, 2014 to 2024---2.5T

13. rationing of services like mammograms and screenings

14. taxpayer money for abortion

15. no tort reform, no addressing defensive costs

16. no purchase across state lines

17. expansion of medicare, already a huge unfunded liability, to tens of millions

18. zeroing out medicare advantage

19. obama's secret deal with pharma banning importation of drugs

20. death to rural care

21. end of home care

22. the class act which will serve to attract the sick and elderly while chasing away the young and strong

23. a bill written in complete secrecy

24. reid has STILL not told AMERICA what's in it

25. without the pretty PO what's in it for the party except pails full of pain

American said:

I doubt far-left Dems will vote for something without a public option.

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Actually you're incorrect. Although a public option was probably the best plan in order to keep the insurance companies in check. This is actually better for us that want single-payer in many ways. By lowering the age of medicare it is the first step towards lowering it again and again, until we have a single-payer system, which is really what we should have anyway.

disneydude said:

Actually you're incorrect. Although a public option was probably the best plan in order to keep the insurance companies in check. This is actually better for us that want single-payer in many ways. By lowering the age of medicare it is the first step towards lowering it again and again, until we have a single-payer system, which is really what we should have anyway.

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Yeah! Now, the Medicare that's held out of our checks and matched by our employers will increase, along with the mandatory health care excise tax and mandatory policis that everyone will have to buy. That's pure genius!!!!

How ass ****ed are we going to be with these clowns running the show??:doh

apdst said:

Yeah! Now, the Medicare that's held out of our checks and matched by our employers will increase, along with the mandatory health care excise tax and mandatory policis that everyone will have to buy. That's pure genius!!!!

How ass ****ed are we going to be with these clowns running the show??:doh

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Which is exactly why we need single-payer. It would bring the overall costs down....but you guys always want to fight against that.

disneydude said:

Which is exactly why we need single-payer. It would bring the overall costs down....but you guys always want to fight against that.

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Yeah, Medicare works so well and is so cost effective, that we need to just switch everyone to it. More brilliance!!

you guys...

LOL!

medicare already bears 30+ trillion in unfunded liabilities

Medicare (United States) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

now secretive harry wants to EXTEND it to 20 or 30 mil americans

all while CUTTING it half a T over the next 10 years

no way, it'll never go

Much ado about nothing. This isn't going to pass like this. Harry is just trying to hide how bad he's failing by looking busy.

It's not out yet. The House still has a public option in the bill and many of the liberals will fight to keep it. I'm hoping all of this finally leads us to single payer once the conservatives screw up this bill and people see that their rates have gone up and up even faster. If there is no public option, the insurance companies will go crazy and rape all of our bank accounts even more.

formerroadie said:

It's not out yet. The House still has a public option in the bill and many of the liberals will fight to keep it. I'm hoping all of this finally leads us to single payer once the conservatives screw up this bill and people see that their rates have gone up and up even faster. If there is no public option, the insurance companies will go crazy and rape all of our bank accounts even more.

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You got that part right, but you're going to have a damn hard time pinning that on the Republicans. This bill is doomed to fail, everyone knows it and that's why the Republicans aren't putting their names anywhere on this piece of crap legislation. The truth is, that when this bill is passed, that nice little 40% excise tax is going to pull everyone's eyeballs out.