On Tuesday, the Senate Finance Committee voted-twice-to reject the "public option," a government-run health-insurance plan that would "compete" with private insurance.

This vote may have some symbolic significance as a measure of the public's rejection of government-run health care. But in practical terms, it doesn't much matter. The creation of public health insurance was never the real heart of Obamacare. The real essence of Obama's agenda is the destruction of private health insurance.

Obama has launched a war on private health insurance, and the Baucus bill contains every essential element of that war.

The Baucus bill includes an "individual mandate" that requires everyone to buy health insurance-but not inexpensive, high-deductible catastrophic health insurance. Instead, it imposes a requirement for pricier comprehensive coverage that pays for routine costs like annual checkups. The bill then requires that insurance companies provide coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, and that they charge customers at high risk of medical problems the same rates as those with lower risks-which means that these extra expenses will have to be paid for by raising everyone else's premiums.

And then the Baucus bill delivers the knock-out punch: after forcing us into expensive comprehensive insurance plans and driving up the cost of those plans, the bill would impose a massive 40% tax on "gold-plated" plans-which turn out to include the health-insurance plans of many in the middle class. So that drives up the cost of insurance even higher.

You can see why it doesn't much matter whether or not we have a "public option" in the original bill. Everything else in the bill is designed to make private health insurance unaffordable-so that in a few years, people will clamor for a government-subsidized "public option," and the same politicians who destroyed private health insurance can make a big show of coming to the rescue of their victims.

The irony is that Obama is seeking to wipe out the private option in America just as many people are trying to resurrect a private option where it has been outlawed. In America, elderly patients have launched a lawsuit protesting their forced enrollment in Medicare, while Canadians are suing to demand their right to buy private health insurance, which is currently outlawed in Canada. As one doctor who runs an illegal private clinic put it: "What we have in Canada is access to a government, state-mandated wait list. You cannot force a citizen in a free and democratic society to simply wait for healthcare, and outlaw their ability to extricate themselves from a wait list."

And if I recall correctly, I don't remember Obama stating he wants privatized health care gone. He said people can keep their health care if they want it.

Originally posted by TheWake
reply to post by jdub297

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It is only said to be competing with private, and will probably over run private because its 100x better so I don't see what the fuss is all about.

"Oh NOES NOT AFFORDABLE HEALTH CARE."

This is just more hater propaganda prepare to see 40 S&F and 3 replies

The House reform proposal, for instance, would require many insurers to alter the plans they sell dramatically in order to meet government-defined standards of “acceptable health coverage.” Americans who refused to move over to a plan deemed “acceptable” by the feds would lose their insurance policies and have to pay a hefty fine.

Plus, if congressional Democrats follow through on the president's desire to create a new government-run insurance plan, millions of Americans could be jettisoned from their private coverage and onto this “public option.”
...
The Lewin Group, a respected health care consulting firm, estimates that 119 million Americans would lose their employer-based coverage if Congress created such a federal alternative to private insurance.

Originally posted by quetzelcoatl

He won't say it out loud LIKE THIS?

The plan I'm announcing tonight would meet three basic goals:

It will provide more security and stability to those who have health insurance. It will provide insurance to those who don't. And it will slow the growth of health care costs for our families, our businesses, and our government. It's a plan that asks everyone to take responsibility for meeting this challenge not just government and insurance companies, but employers and individuals.

Despite months of outward ambivalence about creating a government health insurance plan, the Obama White House. . . strategically expressed openness to health cooperatives and other ways to offer consumers potentially more affordable alternatives to private health plans.

Sensationalism aside, what "news" are we supposed to see here?

Obama said, "I continue to believe that a public option within the basket of insurance choices would help improve quality and bring down costs."

They say they’ll take their chance with Obama at the helm because he’s declined every public opportunity to remove the government option from the table.

If they're not willing to stop ripping off the public, they don't deserve to stay in business.

And I have heard all along that Obama wants the public option. I don't know how anyone could see his views as a "private push". He's right up front about it.

Sept 29

They say they’ll take their chance with Obama at the helm because he’s declined every public opportunity to remove the government option from the table.

Originally posted by jdub297

Originally posted by quetzelcoatl

He won't say it out loud LIKE THIS?

Uh, no. He DIDN'T say it in his speech. That's just an outright falsehood.

Here's the text:
www.reuters.com...

Read ALL of it. No "public option" anywhere in there!

Did you intentionally misstate that?

What is your motive for posting a false statement/link?

You didn't think I had the text, did you?

WASHINGTON (Reuters) Thu Sep 17, 2009 6:11pm EDT- Nearly 45,000 people die in the United States each year -- one every 12 minutes -- in large part because they lack health insurance and can not get good care, Harvard Medical School researchers found in an analysis released on Thursday.