[Fwd: SPECIAL REPORT: Let's Pass Ted Kennedy's Health Plan]

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SPECIAL REPORT: " Let's Pass Ted Kennedy's Health Plan "

Tue, 1 Sep 2009 18:51:31 EDT

Leaontomson

ObamaBrigade

 

 

 

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*August 31, 2009 at 19:45:35*

 

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Let's Pass Ted Kennedy's Health Plan

 

 

 

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/By Roger Hickey (about the author

<http://www.opednews.com/author/author38813.html>) /

 

opednews.com <http://www.opednews.com/> *Permalink

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/*For OpEdNews: Roger Hickey - Writer*/

 

*Let's get a few things straight:*

 

* *Until last year, Senator Edward M. Kennedy's health care bill

(co-authored with with Rep. John Dingell) was a bill known as

**Medicare for All*

<http://kennedy.senate.gov/newsroom/press_release.cfm?id=B30A5C7B-35AC-4CC9-8192\

-1B1E50FC8356>*.

Not expensive private insurance for some, but Medicare [a public

insurance plan] for All. *

* *Senator Kennedy encouraged candidate and then President Obama to

make health care for all his first priority -- during the campaign

and as he took office. *

* *And Ted Kennedy remained in charge as his HELP (Health, Education

and Labor and Pension) Committee wrote -- and then passed -- **a

new health care bill with a strong public insurance option*

<http://help.senate.gov/Maj_press/2009_07_15_b.pdf>* for those who

want it.*

 

*I feel the need to remind people of all this because conservatives, and

especially Republican Senators, are trying to promote the idea that if

only Ted Kennedy were still actively involved in the health care reform

effort, he could have gotten the Democrats to fold and embrace a

weakened “bi-partisan†compromised health reform strategy. And some are

urging that the best tribute we could construct to the great man's

memory is to pass such a watered-down health bill that could win the

support of a large number of conservative Republicans. *

 

*Media Matters* <http://mediamatters.org/research/200908260029>* has

done a good job of tracking and responding to the crocodile tears of

Republicans, keying off of a **Politico obituary*

<http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0809/26443.html>* that repeats the

conservative spin that “without Kennedy, Democrats were less willing to

make the concessions needed for true [health care] compromise.†But

whatever Politico's role, their journalism certainly picked up on the

boldly outrageous statements of important conservatives. One by one,

Media Matters' quotes Republicans from Orin Hatch to John McCain,

lamenting that Kennedy's passing has deprived them all of a “reasonableâ€

Democrat who would have won Republican votes by getting rid of the

public plan or making the cost of “reform†dramatically smaller.*

 

**

 

**

 

*Let's get another thing clear: *

 

* *Republicans don't want a deal. They want to kill health reform.*

 

*Democrats, especially a few in the Senate Finance committee, have for

months been reaching out to Republicans with the hand of hopeful

bi-partisanship. And in recent months, conservative Republicans have

made it clear that if Democrats (like Finance Committee Chair Max

Baucus) are going to continue to reach out the hand of compromise, they

are ready to bite it off.*

 

*As cable television covered this weekend's memorials to Ted Kennedy,

when the talk got around to health care, there was almost always one

pundit (usually one without much expertise about health care), who could

be counted on to repeat the conservative talking points: “It will take

somebody with a liberal reputation like Teddy Kennedy to negotiate a

deal with Republicans -- and convince the liberals to accept the

compromise.†*

 

*When someone occasionally reminds the discussants that even the Finance

Committee Republicans, like Grassley and Enzi are refusing to make a

deal -- as pollster **Geoff Garin*

<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/28/AR2009082803169\

..html>*

did in Sunday's /Washington Post/ -- one of these all-purpose pundits,

like Cokie Roberts, quickly shift the arguments from Republicans to

conservative Democrats. /Newsweek/'s **Jonathan Alter*

<http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32493718>*, who professes to personally

support single-payer heath care, has regularly gone on **MSNBC programs*

<http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32493718>* to tell liberals they need to

give up on the public insurance option if they want to get the support

of enough Democrats to pass health reform without Republican support.

The generic pundit argument is that liberals need to learn to compromise

-- by cutting back the total cost of the package and ditching the public

option in order to get the insurance reforms -- like requiring insurance

companies to cover all applicants -- and the great step forward of

requiring everyone to have insurance. *

 

*Let's get a few more things straight:*

 

* *The public insurance option is consistently /very popular/ in

every poll, including the most recent ones, when you ask if people

should have the option of choosing a public plan which competes

with private insurance companies (which are very /un/popular). *

* *The public insurance option is popular even among the supporters

of conservative Democrats. *

* *The House will pass a very progressive health plan -- with a

strong public option and enough funding to make health insurance

affordable for most Americans. *

* *Support for a public plan is growing, not shrinking, in the US

Senate. Most Democratic Senators, including members of the Finance

Committee -- like Baucus (yes, see his White Paper), Bingaman, and

two of the strongest supporters of the public option, Rockefeller

and Schumer -- have already endorsed a strong public plan.

Additional Senators would not vote against it. And Baucus and the

rest of the Finance Committee Dems are about to acknowledge the

reality that the Republicans have rejected bi-partisanship. That

means Democrats can pass a bill like Kennedy's HELP bill. *

 

*OK, but aren't conservative Democrats worried about the high cost of

health reform -- and won't they demand a smaller, cheaper bill? And

won't they oppose a public plan?*

 

*Let's get a few /more/ things straight:*

 

* *Individual mandates are the key demand of the insurance

companies. Without that part of the deal, they will fiercely

oppose the insurance reforms the pundits say are easy to pass --

the prohibitions against discriminating against people with

pre-existing conditions, for example. *

* *But without subsidies that make insurance policies affordable –

for middle class voters as well as the poor -- Democrats (even

conservative Democrats) don't want to require their voters to buy

health insurance if those policies are not affordable. Without

that part of the package likely to disappear if the whole package

is cut -- everybody involved in passing health reform will suffer

voter backlash. *

 

*Once fiscally responsible Democrats realize they don't want to make

large cuts in the size of the program, they start to understand that the

public insurance option is their best tool for keeping the total costs

of the program under control. *

 

*Blue Dog Democrats in the House have already made a deal that accepts a

pretty large health reform plan -- and a public option. Senate Democrats

are coming together around a health reform program that is big enough to

do the job. And they are embracing a public insurance plan that controls

costs -- and keeps the private insurance industry honest. *

 

*In other words, Democrats are coming together around the kind of health

reform very much like Senator Ted Kennedy's HELP bill. *

 

/*For more on health care, see **Glenn Greenwald*

<http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/08/29/moyers/index.html>*,

or check out Institute for America's Future's **latest report*

<http://www.ourfuture.org/Jost>/*. *

 

*Follow Roger Hickey on Twitter: **www.twitter.com/rogerhickey*

<http://www.twitter.com/rogerhickey>* *

 

*http://www.huffingtonpost.com/roger-hickey*

 

*Roger Hickey is Co-Director of the Campaign for America's Future. He

was a leader of the campaign to stop the privatization of Social

Security, and he is a founder and member of the steering committee of

Health Care for America Now. In the late (**more...*

<http://www.opednews.com/author/author38813.html>*)

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/*The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the

author

and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.*/

 

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**Contact Author* <http://www.opednews.com/populum/contact.php?sid=38813>

 

 

------

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Kennedy voted down reforms, voted more power for the FDA, and was

an outspoken advocate for big pharma. His healthcare reform

amounted to paying for more of the same out of our pockets. He

was most definitely a victim of his own work. Without him and his

powerful influence he would quite possibly be be living today if

he did his own research.

 

 

 

The web is a most powerful tool for alternative modalities had

taken the time to educate himself. Dr. Simoncini's cancer

treatment has proven most successful on soft tissue cancers and

especially brain cancer.

 

 

 

As Dr. Mercola says, " Take Charge of Your Health. " That means

not depending on the Allotropic experts whose drugs killed the man.

 

 

 

 

 

Posted by: " donna.neversurrender "

donna.neversurrender

<donna.neversurrender?Subject=%20Re%3A%5BFwd%3A%20SPECIAL%20REP\

ORT%3A%20%20%22Let%27s%20Pass%20Ted%20Kennedy%27s%20Health%20Plan%22%5D>

dcinelli1 <http://profiles./dcinelli1>

 

 

Wed Sep 2, 2009 5:44 am (PDT)

 

 

 

 

 

-------

SPECIAL REPORT: " Let's Pass Ted Kennedy's Health Plan "

Tue, 1 Sep 2009 18:51:31 EDT

Leaontomson

ObamaBrigade <ObamaBrigade%40>

 

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*August 31, 2009 at 19:45:35*

 

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Let's Pass Ted Kennedy's Health Plan