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  • DEAR DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE

    Filed at 11:57 am under by dcobranchi

    Yes, I really was serious. No more money until after the Senate passes a bill with a real public option. Snowe’s trigger would be a billion dollar gift to the deservedly hated insurance industry. If the Democratic Party wants to commit electoral suicide, I don’t feel it necessary to assist the suicide with my dollars.

    UPDATE 3:20 p.m. Harry Reid has just announced that the bill put forward to the floor will include the opt-out public option!

    9 Responses to “DEAR DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE”


    Comment by
    Audrey
    October 26th, 2009
    at 8:42 pm

    Baby steps, baby steps.

    It does seem to be getting closer. I have fingers crossed, knock on wood, salt over shoulders, etc. for you guys.


    Comment by
    dcobranchi
    October 26th, 2009
    at 9:16 pm

    It’s going to be very interesting to see if Reid and Obama really do have 60 votes. If they don’t and this is just some kind of Kabuki, then I seriously doubt I’ll be be busting my ass in ’10.

    The goal was originally single payer. Then the compromise became the public option. Now the compromise squared is opt out. Cubed is strike three for me.


    Comment by
    Audrey
    October 26th, 2009
    at 11:54 pm

    Stranger things have happen, Daryl. I never thought, in my lifetime, that the US would elect a black man president. I also never though, in my lifetime, that the US would go universal coverage (or anything similar).

    Rare that it is, I’ve been wrong before. It could happen again. 🙂


    Comment by
    Nance Confer
    October 27th, 2009
    at 6:24 am

    And it will only be available to those who don’t have some other kind of insurance.

    So if your employer provides crappy, expensive insurance — no public option for you.

    Nance


    Comment by
    dcobranchi
    October 27th, 2009
    at 6:34 am

    I’m not sure of the particulars, Nance. But it wouldn’t make any sense (politically or logically) to allow just any plan no matter how crappy or expensive to preempt eligibility for the PO. There will have to be some kind of limit on what the premiums are. I know for a fact that the HELP version defined what an acceptable plan would include at a minimum. No way of knowing, yet, what the current Senate version says.


    Comment by
    Alasandra
    October 27th, 2009
    at 6:45 am

    Boo hiss for the opt out. Living in MS and with relatives in AL you can be sure those two state will opt out. And my Brother in Law who lives in AL really needs the public option. Although the idiot is against it. He lost his small plumbing business because of medical bills and still owes us money.


    Comment by
    dcobranchi
    October 27th, 2009
    at 7:22 am

    I’m not keen on it either. But it’s not necessarily a given that MS and AL will opt out. Opting in (or rather, not opting out) won’t cost the state anything. Opting out, OTOH, will cost legislators votes from the affected folks. It all depends on local organizing vs. the bribes contributions that the insurance companies will throw at legislators.


    Comment by
    Nance Confer
    October 27th, 2009
    at 9:19 am

    I wonder if it will work like the stimulus money. The Governors had the choice to opt out but the legislators could — and did — override the Governors.

    And, yes, Daryl, a limit on crappiness would make sense. We’ll see.

    Nance


    Comment by
    JJ Ross
    October 27th, 2009
    at 11:33 am

    Not an expert but experienced in putting public policy through the legislative sausage grinder — I’m thinking get it past filibuster first, improve real-people provisions, repeal antitrust and regulate insurance industry to greatest degree currently possible, leave what’s yet a bridge too far for folks to finish fighting over in state houses, as (per Nance) a conservative versus libertarian food fight that may minimize progressive losses in 2010 and 2012.