CBO scores the Senate Health Bill

[Adam]

White House Health Insurance Summit agenda.

 

 

 

What a freaking joke

As we both said before, there is a simple fix for this, be more demanding!

[/dev/null]

White House Health Insurance Summit agenda.

 

 

 

What a freaking joke

What kind of beer is Obama serving at this summit?

 

[Magox]

What kind of beer is Obama serving at this summit?

 

Barry Light?

[keepthefaith]

As we both said before, there is a simple fix for this, be more demanding!

 

Here's the simple fix. Everyone is responsible for maintaining their own health and funding their own insurance policy (coverage of their choice from provider of their choice). If you want to be self insured, go ahead. Just don't expect anyone to bail you out if you can't pay.

[IDBillzFan]

White House Health Insurance Summit agenda.

 

What a freaking joke

What is missing on the agenda are time-slots. Generally when this much acreage is covered in such a short period of time, you would assign time limits to each topic to keep everyone focused. So keeping this in mind, the agenda should look more like this:

 

1. Discussion:

 

a. The President will offer opening comments, followed by Republican and Democratic Members chosen by their colleagues. - 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.(20 minutes each for a total of 60 minutes)

b. They’ll then move to discussions around four themes:

 

i. Controlling costs – introduced by the President 11 a.m. to 11:50 a.m.

Break for Lunch: 11:50 a.m. to 1 p.m.

ii. Insurance reforms – introduced by Secretary Sebelius 1 p.m to 1:50 p.m.

 

iii. Reducing the deficit – introduced by the Vice President 2 p.m. to 2:50 p.m.

 

iv. Expanding coverage – introduced by the President 3 p.m. to 3:50 p.m.

I give a ten minute leeway for each topic because there are few meetings in this world that ever stay on schedule, so there's an extra 10 minutes to account for transition between topics.

 

This should be a very productive meeting. I mean, the Democrats all by themselves have had an entire year to put a proposal together and haven't done jack, so it only serves to reason that 50 minutes to discuss something like reducing the deficit, especially when the topic is led by Joe Biden, will be PLENTY of time to address that issue, rigtht? Hopefully it will lead to another five-hour meeting in the future. In fact, I'd recommend having one five-hour meeting a week on this topic until, oh, say, early November.

[DC Tom]

White House Health Insurance Summit agenda.

 

 

 

What a freaking joke

 

It's a joke...but the first criticism in that is ridiculous. "Designed to preserve home-court advantage"? No ****! What administration wouldn't do that?

[Chef Jim]

Here's the simple fix. Everyone is responsible for maintaining their own health and funding their own insurance policy (coverage of their choice from provider of their choice). If you want to be self insured, go ahead. Just don't expect anyone to bail you out if you can't pay.

 

Make health insurance just like life insurance. It's your responsibility to protect yourself and your family. Any idea how many homes are lost due to a death or disability? Actually more are lost to disability but neither of them are mandated by the government. Allow people to choose which health plan they want and the earlier in life they get it the cheaper it is, they lock in the price until 65 when Medicare kicks in. No tying it to employers, no pre-existing conditions and if an employer wants to subsidize employees premiums to attract good employee's they would be welcome to do so.

[Adam]

Here's the simple fix. Everyone is responsible for maintaining their own health and funding their own insurance policy (coverage of their choice from provider of their choice). If you want to be self insured, go ahead. Just don't expect anyone to bail you out if you can't pay.

Not that I am criticizing you, but it is unrealistic to expect that you can take things away- by that, I mean that people can get things paid for NOW that aren't insured. I am not sure I feel all that good that things are so hard to take away in this country. Also, I meant the simple fix for everything- all politicians have to do today is stay popular- that is WAY too easy a task.

 

Make health insurance just like life insurance. It's your responsibility to protect yourself and your family. Any idea how many homes are lost due to a death or disability? Actually more are lost to disability but neither of them are mandated by the government. Allow people to choose which health plan they want and the earlier in life they get it the cheaper it is, they lock in the price until 65 when Medicare kicks in. No tying it to employers, no pre-existing conditions and if an employer wants to subsidize employees premiums to attract good employee's they would be welcome to do so.

One of the best idea I've read. So simple, I'm kicking myself for not thinking of it.

[keepthefaith]

Not that I am criticizing you, but it is unrealistic to expect that you can take things away- by that, I mean that people can get things paid for NOW that aren't insured. I am not sure I feel all that good that things are so hard to take away in this country. Also, I meant the simple fix for everything- all politicians have to do today is stay popular- that is WAY too easy a task.

 

It's far more complicated than I suggested, but a dose of self sufficiency in our society and among our beloved Congress would go a long way.

 

As for the meeting, I expect both parties to present many of the same ideas they have already expressed and neither side to yield much.

[Adam]

It's far more complicated than I suggested, but a dose of self sufficiency in our society and among our beloved Congress would go a long way.

 

As for the meeting, I expect both parties to present many of the same ideas they have already expressed and neither side to yield much.

It is so expected, isn't it. I have always believed that the democrats and republicans at the highest levels are in collusion to never get anything done, just to keep their bases separated and in line. Keeps a third party from emerging, because if a third party emerged, the donkeys and elephants would be decimated.....

[keepthefaith]

Make health insurance just like life insurance. It's your responsibility to protect yourself and your family. Any idea how many homes are lost due to a death or disability? Actually more are lost to disability but neither of them are mandated by the government. Allow people to choose which health plan they want and the earlier in life they get it the cheaper it is, they lock in the price until 65 when Medicare kicks in. No tying it to employers, no pre-existing conditions and if an employer wants to subsidize employees premiums to attract good employee's they would be welcome to do so.

 

 

Nice idea locking in the rate and giving a strong incentive to get and keep coverage. You gonna be anywhere near Washington on Thursday?

[Magox]

This is a preview to what we could be seeing sometime in the future.

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=206...rmq_I&pos=9

 

Greek police fired tear-gas and clashed with demonstrators in central Athens after a march organized by unions to oppose Prime Minister George Papandreou’s drive to cut the European Union’s biggest budget deficit.

 

“People on the street will send a strong message to the government but mainly to the European Union, the markets and our partners in Europe that people and their needs must be above the demands of markets,” Yiannis Panagopoulos, president of the private-sector union GSEE, told NET TV yesterday. “We didn’t create the crisis.”

 

Half a million civil servants, who held a one-day strike on Feb. 10, today joined forces with GSEE, which represents 2 million workers, after EU warnings that Papandreou’s government needs to bring in new taxes and make more spending cuts if it fails to rein in the largest budget gap of all 27 EU member states.

 

Air-traffic controllers, customs and tax officials, train drivers, doctors at state-run hospitals and school teachers walked off the job to protest government spending cuts that will freeze salaries and hiring and cut bonuses. Journalists also joined the strike, creating a media blackout.

 

We have to make serious cuts in Medicare and S.S in order to move to a more sustainable path to reduce our deficits, to try to avoid these sort of possible outcomes.

[DC Tom]

This is a preview to what we could be seeing sometime in the future.

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=206...rmq_I&pos=9

 

 

 

We have to make serious cuts in Medicare and S.S in order to move to a more sustainable path to reduce our deficits, to try to avoid these sort of possible outcomes.

 

So you're saying that if we don't, the Greek police are going to gas us?

[Magox]

So you're saying that if we don't, the Greek police are going to gas us?

That or they are going to kill us with their cholesterol filled gyros.

[Chef Jim]

Not that I am criticizing you, but it is unrealistic to expect that you can take things away- by that, I mean that people can get things paid for NOW that aren't insured. I am not sure I feel all that good that things are so hard to take away in this country. Also, I meant the simple fix for everything- all politicians have to do today is stay popular- that is WAY too easy a task.

 

 

One of the best idea I've read. So simple, I'm kicking myself for not thinking of it.

 

Even if you had thought of it health insurance cost are not locked in. The older you get the more expensive it is regardless of how long you've had the policy.

[IDBillzFan]

Damn I love the intertubes. Here's an awesome video of Democrats "crying" about reconciliation in 2005.

 

As I've said before, "Bush did it" does not justify a bad decision, but this administration has brilliantly swept its way into office by first blaming Bush for everything, and then using Bush as justiification for governing like Veruca Salt.

 

"Daddy, I want to spend like Bush did. I want to use reconciliation like Bush did. I want an Oompa-Loompah, Daddy! Get me an Oompa Loompa right now, Daddy!"

[Magox]

What we already knew.

 

At Thursday’s health summit, President Barack Obama is almost certain to highlight the importance of reining in skyrocketing health care costs.

 

But in his own health care bill, it’s a different story.

 

Obama has put off a tax on high-cost health plans until 2018 — long after he’s out of office, even if he’s a two-termer.And in doing so, he’s essentially neutered the last significant Democratic push to control health costs.

 

When Obama launched his health care project, the case for reform rested on two pillars. One was helping people who had no insurance or were otherwise struggling with the current system. The other was taking dramatic steps to halt the growth in costs. As the debate lurches toward a close, the emphasis in Obama’s plan now rests overwhelmingly on the first pillar — with only the most modest and preliminary measures being embraced for cost control.

 

“They thought [the tax] was a major part of their ability to slow the growth in private-sector premiums. And now, at least until after 2017, it doesn’t look like they will bend the cost curve,” said Ken Thorpe, an Emory University professor and Democratic health policy adviser.

 

In fact, the delay raises questions about whether the tax will ever return. Obama’s punted the decision to some future president and some future Congress that would have to let a brand-new tax come into effect on their watch.

 

Chalk it up to politics.

 

Some of Obama’s biggest supporters, labor unions, hate the tax because it hits their members with so-called Cadillac plans. Liberals don’t like it either. And Obama badly needs their support if he still hopes to get his $950 billion health care plan through Congress after Thursday’s summit.

 

Just to put things into context, why in the hell would they think that the public would be behind a health insurance bill that will raise taxes by over $2 trillion dollars over the next 15 years, raise peoples premiums, put added burdens on businesses and most likely lower the quality of care over time would garner any public support?

[DC Tom]

What we already knew.

 

 

 

Just to put things into context, why in the hell would they think that the public would be behind a health insurance bill that will raise taxes by over $2 trillion dollars over the next 15 years, raise peoples premiums, put added burdens on businesses and most likely lower the quality of care over time would garner any public support?

 

Because it's "reform". Don't forget the frightening number of boneheads out there who think any reform, no matter how ill-advised, is better than the status quo.

 

 

And will someone please clue our government into the fact that health insurance premiums are not health care costs? Please?

[Magox]

Because it's "reform". Don't forget the frightening number of boneheads out there who think any reform, no matter how ill-advised, is better than the status quo.

 

 

And will someone please clue our government into the fact that health insurance premiums are not health care costs? Please?

Cracks me up when I read Kathleen Sebelius and ratfaced Waxley point to the premium increases in California and say "You see, you see, we have to pass this health reform bill and stop the insurance company abuses, for the American people."

[DC Tom]

I just caught ten minutes of FoxSnooze on the attack against health care. One of their blonde MILF reporters asked the White House Office of Health Care Reform Director of Communications (the "Office of Health Care Reform" has a communications director? That says volumes right there) what she thought about the CNN poll that "shows 73% of all Americans" want Congress to scrap this bill and start over. The WHOHCRDoC was caught COMPLETELY unprepared by the question, and had to resort to five minutes of blather about how the American people want kids to stay on their parents' health care plans until they're 26, because that's what her polls say...

 

It was just embarrassing. I don't know if Fox made up the poll numbers or not...and it's not relevant. For a "director of communications", whose job by definition is to communicate information to the public, to knowingly go on a hostile network and go into a full-goose conner-like intellectual meltdown and completely flub the first question posed to her...just embarrassingly unprepared.