This is directed to those who say:
No public option, no deal
First, I have two observations:
- If you are unemployed or do not have very much money you are probably exempt from the mandate.
- If you make below 3x the poverty line you will qualify for subsidies that will pay for most, if not all, of your insurance costs.
Important: That is free insurance for people who need it. And sure, it does kind of suck that most of those subsidies are going to go to private insurance companies, but that is the tradeoff we have to make so that those companies can cease recision without failing. Because if there was no mandate there would be nothing stopping people from refusing to buy health insurance until they got sick. If that were the status quo all of the insurance companies would go out of business because they would be spending more on hospital bills then they would be taking in in premiums.
I know that you're upset. You have every right to be. You wanted a public option and now it looks as though there's not going to be one.
I know, I watched the whole thing happen. I was hoping for a public option, too. I was right there with you, rooting for the public option. I LOVE the idea of a public option, and I thought there was maybe a chance we could get one. That's why I called Senator Baucus so many times while the bill was stuck in his committee. I tried my hardest to pressure him into putting a public option into the bill, but it didn't work.
I knew about the mandates the whole time, too. I supported those as well because I knew we needed them to spread out the risk pool and to make it economically feasible to force health insurance companies to end recision.
I realized that we would need those mandates to be part of the bill, even if we couldn't get a public option. I knew it would be a big allocation to the health insurance companies if there wasn't a public option, and that is what you are so fervently ranting against right now.
I understand that.
But here's the thing
- Let's look at the most Robust public option to make it through the House. This is what you are fighting for, right? No public option, no deal? Well, even the most robust public option to make it through the House would have only been available to the 3-5 percent of Americans who would have been eligible for it. Is that what you were fighting for? Is that why we are holding this healthcare bill hostage right now? I don't think that makes any sense. Why weren't you screaming bloody murder back then when the house was drafting legislation? It's hard not to look at someone who is making the argument that we should kill the bill if there is no public option and think that they haven't been following the debate very closely.
- You're right about one thing. We never had 60 votes for a public option in the first place. And we don't even have fifty right now.
What's your point? Yes, I would love to get better Democrats in those seats. But those are the Democrats we have right now, and they are 1,000,000 times better than any Republican. And, btw, it's Republicans that we are going to be seeing in those seats in November the way things are going. Do you think that will be better? Im all for primarying Conservadems, but I think it is important to realize that this is the biggest majority we are going to be having for a long time. What legislative strategy would you have had Dem leadership pursue? Do you think we would have gotten anywhere with singlepayer? Be honest. Dem leadership came up with a VERY good plan that they thought they could push through congress. This plan is much better and much more expansive than the plan the Clintons tried to pass in the nineties. And they even tried to pass a public option even though they didn't have the votes! And you are spitting on their efforts!
And if you hate mandates SO much, then why didn't I hear you anti-mandate folks screaming about it when they were first being proposed? You know, at the beginning of the legislative process?
I have something that I want to end this diary with, but right now I'm just going to present you with a list, off the top of my head, of good things (REALLY good things) about the Senate Bill(the one you are spitting on):
- 871 billion dollar allocation towards healthcare reform
- The END of recision. No longer will health insurance executives be able to drop customers as soon as they get sick!
- SUBSIDIES for ANYONE who makes under 3x the poverty line! This means 30 MILLION people with have health insurance! LESS PEOPLE WILL DIE! How many people die EVERY DAY right now because they don't have health insurance?
- 10,000 Community Health Centers to service the needy with basic and dental car!!!
- NO MORE lifetime caps!!
- ENDING price discrimination!!
- Medicaid expanded to 133% poverty line (that's expanded public insurance!!!)
- Medicare advantage donut hole is closed over 10 year period(pee ess: this is a big deal!)
On the argument that mandates are somehow inherently bad:
I have heard many people gnashing their teeth over mandates recently. In this diary I've gone over a few of the reasons why mandates are necessary and not bad things for hcr. But here's the thing. The argument against mandates is essentially a Libertarian argument. So, every time you rip the mandates you are doing the Republicans work for them. You know what I mean? I mean, who needs Republicans when we've got folks like you to do there work for them here at The Daily Kos. In fact, it is the very exact argument I would expect to hear if a group of Libertarians all signed up at The Daily Kos at the same time and decided to debate Health Care Reform.
All you folks that are pushing that argument are just framing the argument in Libertarian terms. You are setting up the Republicans frames and playing right into their hands. It especially worries me when I see a diary hit the rec-list that says we should Kill the Bill if there is no public option. WTF?!
My final word:
Here's the most important thing here. If we can pass healthcare reform, 30 million people who do not have insurance will have insurance. Right now there are people dying because they cannot afford insurance. These subsidies will prevent those deaths!
I understand that you are angry that we are not imprisoning health insurance executives and burning down the large buildings their corporations are housed in. But we ARE regulating them with this bill! We ARE forcing them to end recision! We ARE building 10,000 Community Health Centers! We ARE subsidizing health insurance for the 30 MILLION people who cannot afford it right now! And we ARE doing much, much more than that with this legislation!
And you want to throw all of that away? NO! We have a Moral Imperative to pass this legislation while we still can! People are dying right now and we can help to stop that!
PASS THE DAMN BILL!!!