Tainted Saints » Health Care

Robert Reich: Congressional Budget Office Approves Senate Finance Committee Bill That Omits a Public Option

Kat — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 22:08:18 +0000

The full Finance committee is scheduled to vote on the bill next Tuesday, which is backed by Republican Senator Olympia Snowe. In addition to scorning the public option, the bill also doesn’t “…allow Medicare to use its bargaining power to negotiate lower drug prices, or adequately subsidize millions of middle-class families who will be required to buy health insurance that will be hard for them to afford. In short, it’s a great deal for private insurers and Big Pharma but not such a great deal for middle-class Americans.”

Keith Olbermann: 1-Hour Special Comment Calls for Free Health Care Clinics in Six States

Kat — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 02:10:30 +0000

Olbermann tonight proposed massive WEEKLY free clinics in the state capitols of the following six Democratic senators on the fence about breaking a guaranteed Republican filibuster on a health care reform vote:

Blanche Lincoln (AR)
Mark Pryor (AR)
Max Baucus (MT)
Ben Nelson (NE)
Mary Landrieu (LA)
Harry “Total Tool” Reid (NV)

The Onion: Obama Health Care Plan Would Give Seniors the Right To Choose How They Are Killed

Kat — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 21:06:13 +0000

Just a little levity, folks…

What Will Be Included in Obama’s Backroom Version of the Public Option?

Kat — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 15:56:25 +0000

Hooray! Obama’s including the public option in the final bill to be presented to Congress! But I have a bad feeling that his definition of “public option” and our definition of “public option” are two entirely different things…

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-healthcare-obama5-2009oct05,0,4785377.story

Senate Finance Committee Panel Quietly Approves Amendment Allowing States to Drop Medicaid Patients After 2010

Kat — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 23:42:50 +0000

http://washingtonindependent.com/61990/senate-finance-panel-grants-states-flexibility-to-drop-medicaid-patients

EDITORIAL: Is the Word ‘Holocaust’ Sacrosanct, Reserved Only for the Genocide Committed by Nazis in WWII?

Kat — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:11:01 +0000

I adore Rachel Maddow. I watch her show on MSNBC every night, and continue to be amazed that she’s still on the air, and I agree with 98% of her perspectives on the issues.

One of the 2% exceptions occurred on her show last night. Representative Alan Grayson (D-FL) gave a biting, sardonic speech on Tuesday in the House about the Republican resistance to health care reform. “The Republican health care plan is this: Don’t get sick, and if you do get sick, die quickly.” Yesterday, in response to Republican demands that he apologize for his remarks, Grayson said: ”I apologize to the dead and their families that we haven’t voted sooner to end this holocaust in America.”

Last night, Grayson was a guest on Maddow’s show, and instead of asking him about the motivation for his speech, her primary focus was on trying to elicit an apology from him for using the word holocaust in reference to the 44,000+ Americans per year who perish due to lack of health insurance. I am neither oblivious nor insensitive to the roots of Maddow’s objection, given that she is Jewish, and holocaust is often used to describe the genocide of the Nazi concentration camps in World War II. But she did a disservice to Grayson and to her audience by detracting from a brave stand made by a lone congressman before his colleagues that is unprecedented thus far in this health care circus. Given that the word holocaust dates back to the 13th century, and literally means “a thorough destruction involving extensive loss of life especially through fire” [Merriam-Webster Online], using it to emphasize the shocking number of deaths EVERY YEAR that can be directly attributed to the outrageous cost of health insurance in this country isn’t beyond the pale. Hyperbolic, perhaps, but not inappropriate when you’re in a room full of vermin who are literally willing to say anything to ensure that true reform never happens.

Maddow owes an apology to Congressman Grayson and to her audience for allowing her personal feelings to encroach on his very important point regarding the opposition to reform.

Michael Moore: 13 Problems with the Proposed Health Care Bills

Kat — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 20:24:43 +0000

Really, this list comes from Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee. But who would pay any attention to a medical professional versus a self-aggrandizing muckraker?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-moore/why-the-current-bills-don_b_302483.html

FactCheck.org: Seven Falsehoods about Health Care Reform

Kat — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 23:04:56 +0000

http://www.factcheck.org/2009/08/seven-falsehoods-about-health-care/