Snowe to Support Baucus Bill

[Crabcake Johnny]

Let's not get ahead of ourselves. Good Lord, it just made it out of one committee.

 

[Winter_123]

Let's not get ahead of ourselves. Good Lord, it just made it out of one committee.

Quite so. As I said in the original post "a little drama has been created here."

On the other hand the train is beginning to pull out of the station. Where it is going we dont know completely. Anyone trying to influence the outcome would do well to not be caught running to far behind trying to catch it.

 

[TXINSURANCE]

There was an assertion that Olympia is merely a windbag and I rose to defend her personal honor. She is a very high integrity American.

I would never call her a windbag. Agreed.

I have said for over year (or more) we will end up with GI with or without a mandate. It looks like we will end up with GI with a token mandate and minor penalty that has no real offset to the GI. Americans will be screaming about their rates which are going to rise like you have never seen before when GI hits with such a small mandate.

I was listening to POTUS XM this morning they had a very intelligent woman discussing the failures of GI on a state level and how this is doomed to repeat itself on the national level (rates rising, carriers folding, etc., etc.,).

The issue that upsets me more than anything is the lack of creative and viable counter plans from the right. Federal risk pool, federal back stop, etc., etc., The only counter plans have been nothing short of modified status quo.

We will get horrible reform if not good counter ideas are brought to the table. And that ship has sailed...

 

[Winter_123]

The only counter plans have been nothing short of modified status quo.

.

Yep, but there is also the issue that the dems will not accept any simple proposals as being sufficient. It must be ungodly complex in order to be effective and the more complex the plan the more they crow about having solutions. Then they wake up one day and they have so many bills and plans and solutions that no one knows what they are or how they could possible work or be affordable.

Without getting to the issue of whether I agree with it or not, the republicans have proposed guaranteed issue, selling across state lines, and a $5000 per year subsidy/credit and then to let the free market work. I consider that to be more than "modified status quo" but the libs want more and they especially dont like the idea that those proposals can be easily explained because if people really cared they would come up with something more complex. Yes, the republican proposal is expensive but so is everything else that is being talked about.

So I agree in part that there have not been viable, credible alternatives presented by the republicans but I also think that the mood among libs is to not accept anything that is not higlhly convoluted and which mushes the federal government into everything and then tries to figure out how it would work.

Also, the dems were elected because they said they did know how it would work, and that it was what the people wanted, and that they had all the votes they needed. Now, the repubs or other critics are supposed to feel bad because we don't have solutions. Not good.

 

[ins.dave]

"Is this bill all that I want?" Snowe asked. "Far from it. But when history calls, history calls."

OMG.
She actually said this?
Ad nauseam indeed.

 

[somarco]

It will be interesting to see how many earmarks make it into the final bill. IMO earmarks, not what is in the bill itself, will drive the vote.

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

Yep, some Senator's gonna want 2.6M for a Pocahontas museum.

 

[Paradigm]

When will we all realize that health insurance reform is being designed to fail from the outset. GI with a weak mandate will cause weeping and gnashing of teeth over time due to rate increases. This will lead to the only viable solution after the failure of the mainline insurance carriers; single payer national healthcare. This was always their plan; it just that they have realized it will take incrementalism because Americans are still freedom loving.

The parallels between this debate and the socialists of this nation rebranding themselves as progressives are starting and the more you watch these politicians and spokesmen the more one realizes they want an America that looks like Europe of today not like it did when Ronald Reagan was President. I personally weep for the future of our republic daily.

 

[Winter_123]

When will we all realize that health insurance reform is being designed to fail from the outset. GI with a weak mandate will cause weeping and gnashing of teeth over time due to rate increases. This will lead to the only viable solution after the failure of the mainline insurance carriers; single payer national healthcare. This was always their plan; it just that they have realized it will take incrementalism because Americans are still freedom loving.

The parallels between this debate and the socialists of this nation rebranding themselves as progressives are starting and the more you watch these politicians and spokesmen the more one realizes they want an America that looks like Europe of today not like it did when Ronald Reagan was President. I personally weep for the future of our republic daily.

True but the dynamics are not limited to just GI. This whole gig is being set up upon the premise that insurance carriers and insurance carriers alone are responsible for cost containment and of course costs are going to rise regardless of whether we have GI or not. So even if we do not have a public option there will be a trigger if costs are not contained or reduced. You can see where that is headed.

Of course Medicare and Medicaid are public options that do not involve, for the most part, any insurance carriers and their costs just continue to climb. Maybe the solution is to give those programs over to the carriers so that you can make them the fall guy. Or maybe not.

For the libs who want to argue that gouging by carriers is a piece of the problem, I have no quarrel with that so save your powder there.

 

[Paradigm]

I will say quite frankly and emphatically that covering pre existing conditions by means of GI is anathema to the very concept of insurance. Insurance is about renumeration in the event of uncertain risk not in the event of certain risk.

As a libertarian I do not believe you have any rights other than life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. There is no guarantee of success, health or happiness. These are largely up to you.