CO-04 (Special Election) See Full Big Line

(R) Greg Lopez

(R) Trisha Calvarese

90%

10%

President (To Win Colorado) See Full Big Line

(D) Joe Biden*

(R) Donald Trump

80%

20%↓

CO-01 (Denver) See Full Big Line

(D) Diana DeGette*

90%

CO-02 (Boulder-ish) See Full Big Line

(D) Joe Neguse*

90%

CO-03 (West & Southern CO) See Full Big Line

(D) Adam Frisch

(R) Jeff Hurd

(R) Ron Hanks

40%

30%

20%

CO-04 (Northeast-ish Colorado) See Full Big Line

(R) Lauren Boebert

(R) Deborah Flora

(R) J. Sonnenberg

30%↑

15%↑

10%↓

CO-05 (Colorado Springs) See Full Big Line

(R) Dave Williams

(R) Jeff Crank

50%↓

50%↑

CO-06 (Aurora) See Full Big Line

(D) Jason Crow*

90%

CO-07 (Jefferson County) See Full Big Line

(D) Brittany Pettersen

85%↑

 

CO-08 (Northern Colo.) See Full Big Line

(D) Yadira Caraveo

(R) Gabe Evans

(R) Janak Joshi

60%↑

35%↓

30%↑

State Senate Majority See Full Big Line

DEMOCRATS

REPUBLICANS

80%

20%

State House Majority See Full Big Line

DEMOCRATS

REPUBLICANS

95%

5%

Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors
February 25, 2010 07:01 PM UTC

Health Care Summit Open Thread

  • 92 Comments
  • by: RedGreen

It’s on! On TV, on the Internet, on live blogs left, right and down the middle.

Those with CNN and C-Span 3 can watch it live on the big screen. Numerous news sites are streaming it live. Post your favorite live links, analysis, gotcha moments and harmonious resolutions.

Washington Post live blog.

CBS News live blog

Tweet
Share

Comments

92 thoughts on “Health Care Summit Open Thread”

      1. 90% of Americans have access to insurance and 90% of them like it.

        The big downside is cost – the monthly costs that keep rising and rising and rising.

        Everytime there is a new health insurance mandate on coverage, the cost increases.

            1. 90% of Americans have access to insurance and 90% of them like it.

              Well I must be one of the loser 10% who is a cancer survivor who is also a small business owner. My lowest monthly quote is oh 1195 a month just for me… which means I cannot afford healthcare each month.  

              1. The price is to high for you – your problem is not that you can’t get it, it just costs to much.

                Its too bad you can’t use a business association to access better rates.

                Again, the problem is costs.  Too many trial lawyers and embedded system costs put your insurance options out of reach.  Every mandate the legislature puts forward costs you more and puts your viable access to insurance another mile down the road.

            2. 90% of Americans have access to insurance and 90% of them like it.

              Well I must be one of the loser 10% who is a cancer survivor who is also a small business owner. My lowest monthly quote is oh 1195 a month just for me… which means I cannot afford healthcare each month.  

            3. 90% of Americans have access to insurance and 90% of them like it.

              Well I must be one of the loser 10% who is a cancer survivor who is also a small business owner. My lowest monthly quote is oh 1195 a month just for me… which means I cannot afford healthcare each month.  

              1. I pay $ 645 a month for my and my son’s health insurance, and I pay $ 435 a month for my wife and my daughter.  Two separate individual policies each with a kid tacked on.

                We just had a daughter in January, and yesterday my wife received a “fishing for preexisting conditions” form to fill out for our insurer so they can “consider” honoring the claim for the birth.

                “When did you first start experiencing the symptoms of this illness ?”  Yes, now I guess pregnancy is now not only a preexisting condition, but an illness as well.  And I remember when we took out the maternity policy – the first requirement was that she wasn’t pregnant.

                Fucking assholes.

                    1. I make a living in the commodities business.  How long would I stay in business if I offered to sell at the market rate plus my healthcare expenses ?

                      Hmm ?

                      Hmm ?

                      Hmm ?

                1. I haven’t read or watched much lately on the issue, but I did watch some today and absolutely wanted to strangle “Leader Boehner” every time he repeated that we have the best healthcare system in the world.  We don’t.  

                  1. If you happen to rich and/or Republican. As in politician, not voter.

                    They see how their money (and tax payers) buy them superb, no waiting, no cost containment care and see it as “best.”  And it is.

                    They just don’t have to pass through the seething unwashed masses (me) in the E.R.  

                    5. So because someone is a government employee they get superb health care?  They get the same HC as every other employed American with good benefits.  Which as a taxpayer I am damned happy to pay for.  

                    6. That was for Hiking, not you, Steve!  I responded directly from My Comments and it wound up under yours!  

                      I sure wish Pols had a one hour edit window like some other blogs.  

                  2. and Boehner was on and hearing him say we had the best health care system in the world was what made me turn it off. The US is actually rated about 38th in quality of health care by the World Health Organization.  

                    2. If by “system” you mean something that a theoretical person with unlimited resources could go to to find stellar care, then yes, we have the most advanced health care in the world.

                      But if by “system” you mean the entirety of health care for all people in the country, then we drop down to 36th or 38th or whatever it is this year.

        4. First off, there haven’t been many new mandates imposed, so how can you make the factual assertion that “Everytime [sic] there is a new health insurance mandate on coverage, the cost increases”?

          I suppose yuo can say that every now and then there’s a new mandate, and costs keep rising.  In the same vein, you post crazy BS regularly, and health insurance costs rise — ergo you, Libertad, are causing health costs to rise. Why do you hate America?

        5. As many problems as there are with our health care system, at any giving time most people aren’t terribly ill, don’t have a newborn with a terrible medical issue etc. They think, therefore, that it’s working just fine until something really bad happens. Then they join the percent that finds out the hard way it was all a castle in the air.  

          It’s about risk. In our system risk is extremely high and potential consequences crushing for the majority of us.  A healthy young person can be diagnosed with cancer this minute.  A child with multiple birth defects could be born into a healthy, easy to cover family this minute. A person with great coverage could get laid off today and find that a routine, not terribly serious but chronic condition makes it impossible to get affordable coverage.

          Naturally this won’t happen to a majority of us at any given time but it could happen to anyone but a privileged few right this second. Since it does happen to plenty of people, including thousands more right now today, we all pay the price.  All except the insurers. They are free to dump it into all of our laps via the ER.  Even the taxes of the very people they deny help pay for our uniquely American and uniquely crappy, “socialist”, wildly expensive, universal health care system; the ER.

          As far as the cost, what we have now is so much more expensive than in other countries it’s crippling our economy and causing us to be less and less able to compete in the world both with those who have more efficient, humane and less expensive systems and with those who just let those who can’t pay die in the street. We’re not there yet but if the ditto heads had there way we probably would be in short order.  

          Of curse you won’t respond.  You never do.  You just pass along your overlords’ talking points like a good little ditto head, ignore responses to your releases and move on to the next.

  4. http://mediamattersaction.org/…

    Senators Grassley, Kyl, and McConnell voted in favor of using reconciliation to enact the Bush tax cuts.


       HR 1836: “To provide for reconciliation pursuant to section 104 of the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2002.”

       “Vote to adopt a conference report that would institute $1.35 trillion in tax cuts over an 11-year period.” Highlights of the Bill include creating “a 10% tax bracket that applies retroactively to 2001 and provides immediate tax rebates for individuals who fall within the 10% range.”

       [Project Vote Smart, accessed 9/8/09; Vote #170, 5/26/01]

        1. They had a supermajority.  The Senate bill in particular was done in secrecy and then rammed through.  If Brown winning wasn’t enough of a hint and a half that the public doesn’t want things done that way, then I don’t know what to tell you.

          I never knew having 40 seats could make one so powerful!!

                1. the same time you posted the link. I think it’s only fair to highlight this portion

                  The report did not break out how much premiums have increased in Massachusetts since the 2006 changes went into effect, so it does not show whether the law affected the rate of price increases. Still, with the state’s law often cited as a model for a national health care overhaul, advocates on various sides of the issue said the report underscores the urgency of including cost controls in any large-scale federal or state overhaul.

                  “While expanding coverage was the logical first step in Massachusetts, cost control is equally as important,” said Andrew Dreyfus, an executive vice president at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, the state’s largest private insurer with 3 million members. “And if you don’t face the cost issue directly, then you can jeopardize the progress you’ve made in expanding coverage.”

                  I believe cost control and caps on premiums are included in the Senate bill, no, so it would appear the federal bill is ahead of MA’s original HCR.

          2. Blame is nice, but also not the point.

            Where does the Constitution say we have 4 branches of gov’t?

            Judicial, Executive, Legislative, and Senate

            I’m pretty sure the legislative branch is set up to run by majority.  But why do you and your R’s now insist that it’s gotta be a supermajority?

            1. With judicial nominees.  As Froward very eloquently said it, we are dealing with two completely philosophies regarding health care.  It’s an overhaul of the entire system and IMHO it should be done in a way that has bi-partisan support.

              If a “small” bone like tort reform had been added, this thing would have been over and done in August and Obama would look like a hero.  Howard Dean told a group during a public appearance that it wasn’t included because the Dems didn’t want to upset the trial lawyers.  Do you see where people on my side of the aisle might not dig that?  

              1. A more pared down version of the tort reform that the GOP was proposing should have been included. I still don’t think that it has the cost-saving ramifications that the GOP says it does, and I don’t have any doubt in my mind that if it was included many Republicans still wouldn’t be supportive, but it would have been a real bone thrown their way.

                It’s still my opinion, though, that even with every concession the GOP could possibly want, they still would have used the same political strategy they did in 2009. When it first came up, they didn’t call it Obama’s Waterloo because they were worried that it would be bad policy. They were worried that if it had broad bipartisan support then Obama would cruise into a 2nd term, and it would be that much harder to win Congress back.

                It’s the same as if Bush had stayed the course with the UN and gone into Iraq with a big coalition like his dad did. There still would have been Dems in Congress railing against the war, even though many used that line of talk as cover when Bush decided to go it alone.

                1. I’m for tort reform, too, though we have to be careful to leave in place the powerful accountability mechanism that our current tort system supply. The truth is that in countries without a similarly strong system of civil law, medical malpractice is far more common than it is in America.

                  But we should decouple this function with the desire to soften the tragedy experienced by those with outcomes to medical procedures that leave them in terrible shape. I think we should have a social insurance pool in which if you have the misfortune to belong to the, for instance, 1% of people who end up crippled due to the inherent risks of procedure X, then we should create a safety net that spreads the burden of your misfortune onto all of our shoulders.

                  I would like to see more effort to design and implement a better designed system that meets these demands more directly and efficiently, and thus without contributing to rapidly accelerating health care costs.

              2. Clinton’s last two years had Republicans blocking more than 50% of his nominees, and delaying almost 70% – and Clinton had agreed to nominate almost all moderates to appease Republican demands.

                Bush 43 had similar issues with blockage of nominees, but he nominated many conservative ideologues – a number of which failed to receive basic approval from the ABA.

                Republicans have succeeded in blocking almost 80% of Obama’s judicial nominees to-date – nominees that are largely moderate in nature, to which Republicans object on single-issue grounds based on the nominee’s past.

                Don’t fool yourself – or attempt to fool us.  Tort reform wouldn’t have added a single vote to the HCR bill in the Senate; no Republican Senator at any time in the debate said “I’d vote for this if only it had tort reform”, and every single one of them voted against the bill for specific reasons having nothing to do with tort reform.

                1. The Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee did indeed have input on the bill. The reason Democrats hate the Senate bill is because it’s full of concessions to the Republicans. When it was still in the Senate, Obama had Republican leaders over to the White House to talk about the HCR bill in the Senate. Here’s how Time magazine described the encounter:

                  When Barack Obama informed congressional Republicans last month that he would support a controversial parliamentary move to protect health-care reform from a filibuster in the Senate, they were furious. That meant the bill could pass with a simple majority of 51 votes, eliminating the need for any GOP support. Where, they demanded, was the bipartisanship the President had promised? So, right there in the Cabinet Room, the President put a proposal on the table, according to two people who were present. Obama said he was willing to curb malpractice awards, a move long sought by Republicans that is certain to bring strong opposition from the trial lawyers who fund the Democratic Party.

                  What, he wanted to know, did the Republicans have to offer in return?

                  Nothing, it turned out. Republicans were unprepared to make any concessions, if they had any to make.

                  Read more: http://www.time.com/time/polit…

                  I don’t know if LB is going to see this, but if he does, I hope he’ll put in his two cents. By all accounts it appears tort reform was on the table, and the Republicans preferred to play the political games we all know they’ve been playing. It’s not about the bill being a bad piece of policy like so many of them say, it’s about stopping Obama’s agenda.

      3. Unfortunately, since the Republicans did it all the time (16 times in the past 30 years) and almost destroyed our planet and our country in the process, what choice do we have to but to help millions of dying people who suffer because of their reign? People are dying because they cannot afford health care.

        Does that make you laugh, Laughing Boy?

                    2. It ain’t the 18th century so just give me health insurance and I’ll happily skip the rest.

        1. I have a very beautiful, wonderful friend that inexplicably had an incredibly dopey, lame, rude boyfriend.  She broke up with him and we rejoiced.  I was having lunch with her and an old friend walked up to us and told her ‘Wow! You look great!  Did you lose weight or something?’ With one of the greatest lines of all time, my friend answered “Yes.  I had a 175 lb. boil lanced.”

          1. And you know, it just occurred to me that you might have GREAT health insurance. Which in that case makes our break up an even more devastating loss for me. Perhaps I’ve been a bit hasty here…(depending on your health coverage, of course.)

    1. Anything less than a royal ass kicking by the Dems and they won’t have enough cover to go for reconciliation.

      If anything, the R’s showed rationality and a willingness to look for common ground. Obama really hurt himself today.

      1. Sorry, the Democrats have big majorities in both chambers, courtesy the voters, and reconciliation is a time-honored Republican tradition for things like health care policy. The Democrats don’t need “cover” to resort to majority rule.

      2. I watched the same meeting.

        The Republicans showed themselves as the party of “No.”

        I was ready to credit them with some honest dialog until Eric Cantor pulled the sight gag with the stack of papers.

        Epic fail.

        1. Obama was absolutely owned by Paul Ryan.  If they try reconciliation, we’ll take both houses.  Not just the House.

          If the Dems were so powerful, this thing would be over.  Even moderate D’s aren’t comfortable with the sleazy nature of this ‘reform’.

          1. who care more about Senate comity and traditions and the good-old-boy network than getting things done?

            Who are these people who go apoplectic about reconciliation only when Democrats do it, and didn’t notice the last three dozen times it happened?

            Who are these people who give a shit who Paul Ryan is? (Isn’t he the intern on the Office or something?)

            Are they Republicans?

            If so, I think they were probably gonna vote Republican anyway this year. Just sayin, that’s what Republicans tend to do. Historically, you know.

            I think your predictions may be based on no small amount of bullshit. Just sayin.

          2. To think one so wise wishes to kill so many Americans by doing nothing.  Ah to be so blithe as to think that just saying no to everything will solve all problems.  Tis a pity one so wise utters nothing but political smack talk.  You once again show that winning in politics is more important to you than solving problems.  What a joke you silly bragging is.

            1. The point was that the R’s showed yesterday that they had some ideas, too, and that they were not happy with the status quo.

              If losing Kennedy’s seat over the sneaky, shitty way the current proposal (from the Senate) has been put together doesn’t send a message, then please try reconciliation.

              I thought the whole thing was fascinating yesterday.

              1. It was fascinating Too.

                However it became clear that Democrats believe Affordable Health care to be a right. While republicans believe Health care to be a privilege.

                Fundamental grand canyon gap there.

                Take the Idea of “Health insurance across state lines” sounds good on the surface. but like President Obama pointed out. that the Insurance companies would then rush to states with little or no minimums of coverage. Just like Credit cards do.

                some minimum standards in coverage must be implemented at the Federal level. this is then blasted as a “take over”. I find it absurd that republicans resent majority will being imposed upon all of us unless it is their majority will being imposed.

                I wish simple majority was not necessary. but It became clear yesterday that if President Obama should proclaim the sky is blue… the republicans would insist the sky is green. then disregard any information disproving their position.

                Including simply looking UP.

              2. You chose to emphasize one race but ignore that your party is in the minority and wishy wishy wish with all your heart that the Bay State election is your defining moment.  Don’t factor in a bad candidate and a poor campaign.  Mose raised his staff and Republicans won in Massachusetts.  Cut to singing chorus’.

                The point I was trying to make is that when you talking about Ryan “owning” Obama you reveal your true attitude about this issue.  It is an adversarial affair and an opportunity for political gain so screw offering anything other then the obligatory trial lawyer scapegoat.  I thought Durbin was spot on when he spoke about the need for innovative medical check lists which would reduce the mistakes that lead to lawsuits.  He also showed the utter heartlessness of Republicans proposing caps of 250,000 with the story of a woman who went into the hospital to have a mole removed but during the procedure her face caught on fire because of an oxygen malfuntion and will be disfigured for the rest of her life.  It shows the shallowness of Republicans that they continue to beat the dead horse of evil trial lawyers.  If the issue is really about protecting hospital corporations who butcher their patients from paying for their mistakes then it once again shows that Republicans love corporations but hate people.  Phony solutions to cover up the lust to please the corporations.  Typical Republican posturing with no real commitment to help ordinary Americans.

Leave a Comment

Recent Comments


Posts about

Donald Trump
SEE MORE

Posts about

Rep. Lauren Boebert
SEE MORE

Posts about

Rep. Yadira Caraveo
SEE MORE

Posts about

Colorado House
SEE MORE

Posts about

Colorado Senate
SEE MORE

287 readers online now

Newsletter

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter to stay in the loop with regular updates!