Recently Dennis Kucinich wrote a prescient piece about what was going to happen in the health care "reform" process. He called it the "Private Mandate Sausage Machine"
here is the body of the text
- House will make a big deal about keeping/putting a public option in HR3200 because it competes with insurance companies and will keep insurance rates low.
2. The White House will refer to the President's speech last week where he spoke favorably of the public option.
3. The Senate will kill the competitive public option in favor of non-competitive "co-ops". Senate leaders like Kent Conrad have said the votes to pass a public option were never there in the Senate.
4. The bill will come to a House-Senate Conference Committee without the public option.
5. House Democrats will be told to support the conference report on the legislation to support the President.
6. The bill will pass, not with a "public option" but with a private mandate requiring 30 million uninsured to buy private health insurance (if one doesn't already have it). If you are broke, you may get a subsidy. If you are not broke, you will get a fine if you do not purchase insurance.
This legislative sausage will be celebrated as a new breakthrough and will be packaged as health insurance reform. However, the bill may require a Surgeon General's warning label: Your Money or Your Life!
The bill that Congress passes may pale in comparison to the bill that millions of Americans will get every month/year for having or not having private health insurance.
It will take four years for the new legislation to go into effect. During that time, we are going to build a constituency of millions in support of real health care, a constituency which will be recognized and a cause which is right and just: Health Care as a Civil Right.
So far he is batting 100% in the process, a bill was passed by the house and the Senate is giving every indication that there simply are not enough votes to keep a real public option (though, from my perspective, even the house bill doesn't have a vibrant public option that would effectinvely curtail health care costs -- due to no bargaining power and limited (very Very limited) access by the population.) The house bill version of the public option will actually be managed by private health care industry so, how that is really a public option is beyond me. . .
Anywho, it is not a real issue anyway, even the watered down abortion free public option appears to be dead in the senate unless some amazing footwork is done to get (read: force) bought out moderate democrats to vote on a real reform bill.
according to Dennis, a co-op is going to be the final option in the bill. Every indication so far is that he will be correct once again.