There's too much happening for lengthy preambles,so for the time being we'll dispense with niceties until our future becomes more certain.
Here's where we stand.
- The Republicans didn't write the Senate Finance bill themselves, they had Chuck Grassley ask Max Baucus to write one for them.
- What you're seeing today is the so-called bipartisan no public option trial balloon. Take a look at who's in favor of so-called "bipartisan compromise", that's right the industry lobby responsible for this catastrophe, AHIP. This is nothing but a handout and bailout of the for-profit insurance industry.
Also understand one critical point. When you hear the words "bipartisan reform", it means, gift to AHIP.
PLEASE LOOK AT THIS ON THE AHIP WEB SITE. BIPARTISAN = INSURANCE INDUSTRY
HERE AGAIN IS THE WHIP COUNT TOOL. PLEASE USE IT!
- Barney Frank takes the pledge. Thank you Congressman Frank!
Before I take you behind the scenes of the Aspen health Care Ideas conference attended by Tom Daschle, Ron Williams the CEO of Aetna and Billy Tauzin chief lobbyist for PHarma, and others, here's what needs to happen in the days ahead.
UPCOMING ACTION. WHAT YOU MUST DO TO STOP THIS HANDOUT TO THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY AND THE UNPRECEDENTED ATTACK ON THE AMERICAN PEOPLE:
1. I received a bunch of emails yesterday similar to this one:
Dear nyceve
I do not know what to say.
your talking points are
to oppose any health care reform that doesn't have a public plan
that is not available on day one
that is not accountable to congress and voters
but all they say is: the bill is not out yet and 'we' do not know what
is in it so we cannot say anything.
THEN WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO SAY?
HERE'S WHAT YOU SAY:
Since we now have pretty good reason to believe that the bill coming from the Senate Finance Committee will not have a public option, but probably will have triggers and/or a co-op, your question should be:
Will [name of Congressperson] vote against any bill that has co-ops or triggers?
2.
Whip Count, Whip Count, Whip Count. This is our firewall for a robust public option which will be affordable. For-profit insurance will not be affordable even for upper middle class Americans. The government is getting ready to mandate that all Americans buy junk insurance. If you doubt me, listen to the tape of the CEO of Aetna, Ron Williams.
Please use this tool to call the progressives in Congress and demand that they take the pledge. PLEASE DO THIS NOW.
3. HERE IS OUR BRAND NEW VACATION TRACKER TOOL. PLEASE USE IT.
We need forty House members to pledge to vote against any bill that has co-ops or triggers the Senate
We need to have the progressives stand up for this. And this is how we're going to accomplish this mission.
The center of activity will shortly move to the states. Progressives will head home, at some point, and we need to assemble a calendar of where they'll be and when they'll be either in their district offices or at public events.
We need to wake up the people who live in the districts with big progressive majorities to take action, especially during August when members will be at home.
HERE IS OUR BRAND NEW VACATION TRACKER TOOL. PLEASE USE IT.
Off the radar screen is what transpired at the just concluded Aspen Ideas Health Conference, which was attended by everybody who is anybody (expect Max Baucus), in healthcare including Tom Daschle, Billy Tauzin, and Ron Williams, the CEO of Aetna.
Matthew Holt, one of our most esteemed healthcare bloggers, was there as well.
Holt reports as follows. This is not good news, dear friends. This is why our actions must focus on getting progressives to draw an inviolate line in the sand and take the Whip Count Pledge.
Live from Aspen: the moderates' view on Obama health reform
Funnily enough I’ve been at the Aspen Health Forum where the self-same Billy Tauzin used his not inconsiderable Cajun charm and a dollop of PhRMA’s money to buy me (and a bunch of others) a whisky and a s’more on Saturday night, and took part in a couple of panels I watched on Sunday. We had a couple of brief chats, one about his cancer treatment and another about getting big Pharma to behave better. He claims some progress there (voluntary restrictions on DTC, better posting of clinical trial data, reductions in marketing excess to docs). I suggested that there was more progress required both in pricing policy and PR. He said it was hard, I told him that was why they paid him the big bucks.
More importantly, Tauzin was on a panel with Tom Daschle (former Dem Senate leader, but a red state Dem) and John Porter (former liberal Republican, now heading Research America) which essentially gave the dwindling moderate middle of American politics’ view of health reform. (Video may appear here at some point but isn't there yet).
They all essentially agreed that something called health reform would pass this year.
Tauzin said explicitly that several liberal members of Congress demonstrated by a show of hands at a dinner last week that they thought the Public Option was going to be traded away. They also all agreed that the Blue Dogs in the House wanted the weaker Senate bill to be voted on first, so that they weren’t forced to defend a vote on a more liberal House bill that would be converted to a much more moderate bill in Conference. So the expect a Baucus-lite compromise.
While the three (former) Congressmen’s optimism about reform passing isn’t that widely shared, everything that they talked about—matched with some just excellent discussion from Don Berwick in other sessions—indicated to me that the political will to really fix health care is just not here.
http://www.thehealthcareblog.com/...
ALSO FROM ASPEN HEALTH IDEAS FORUM:
Here's Ron Williams the CEO of Aetna being "interviewed" by Walter Isaacson. Isaacson is the former Editor in Chief of TIME Magazine, he's now the head of the Aspen Institute. Isaacson did not ask even one intelligent question. Didn't ask about skyrocKeting premiums, didn't ask about recissions, didn't ask about medical bankruptcy, didn't ask about the army of underinsured Americans, didn't ask about medical loss ratios, ETC. ETC. Isaacson is a joke and a moron.
But this "interview" is instructive because it demonstrates how utterly ineffectual the media is at probative questions. If they demand answers, well you know what happens, they lose access.
I made some notes, I'd like to get some of this posted on You Tube, I've tried to highlight the urgent pieces of the discussion.
- around 6:01 this AETNA scumbag talks about public plan.
Then Williams supports coops, Conrad and says so.
- around 10:06/07 he admits that the insurance company knows everything about your medical history
- at approx. 25:00 he completely lies about Medicare Advantage
- around 27:30 (approx) he talks about Massachusetts, says they are giving "a rich benefit package". Which means come reform, we'll all get junk insurance.
- 36.20 approx. explosive comment on public plan.
- 38.28 says uninsured are uninsured by choice, undocumented aliens, etc.
- 40.00 Waxman bill, focus on bipartisan bill, different approaches in House and Senate. Pleased Baucus and Grassley are forging a bipartisan plan
- 41.20 what will you do to bend the cost curve?
- 43 (approx) Transparency - this is scary stuff -Aetna is watching doctors very carefully. Aetna now has something called Accell which monitors doctors. Which doctors spend more and which spend less.
And pathetic, pathetic, pathetic Walter Isaacson doesn't ask one decent question.
Now that you know all that is happening to derail real reform, here again is our handy Whip Count Tool. Please use it.
HERE AGAIN IS OUR BRAND NEW VACATION TRACKER TOOL. PLEASE USE IT.
And please help us fight the insurance industry lobby, we rely on your generosity. Take a look at this!
https://secure.firedoglake.com/...