Many presidents and congresses have tried and failed to reform our healthcare system and the result is the broken system we have now. It should now be clear that if we fail this time it will be at least another decade and quite possibly another generation before we have another chance.
The bill that comes out of the House/Senate conference committee will undoubtedly be flawed. It will not have bipartisan support. That’s a shame, but it will still be a large improvement on what we have now. If you’re not convinced, read this or this.
This bill will need 60 votes in the Senate to pass and that’s exactly what we have. So Martha Coakley’s vote is needed to pass this. There’s a reason Ted Kennedy was elected to term after term in the Senate. It’s because his values matched those of the majority of Bay Staters and he fought for those values. Martha Coakley will fight for those same values. Scott Brown will not. It’s as simple as that.
Mr. Porcupine,
Why is it that Americans, unlike the citizens of every single western industrialized country should lack health insurance?
And if you want a conservative approach you can try something like the Swiss model?
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p>Why should anyone be proud of working to prevent this?
you were are a reasonable person, even if you had different political views than I. Your demeanor lately has changed that. It’s so unbecoming.
Now we’re finding out that the tactic-which-could-not-be-used can be used, e.g.:
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p>http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-…
* Healthcare spending is now 16% of the national GDP, second only to East Timor (yes, that East Timor).
* Nearly 35 million citizens, more than the population of Canada, have no insurance coverage.
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p>A vote for Scott Brown is a vote for the status quo.
A vote for Martha Coakley is a vote for an imperfect, but significant, improvement on the status quo.
This bill doesn’t address any of your reasons. Try again. A vote for Scott Brown is a vote FOR reform but not a union giveaway… and everything else this joke of a bill is.
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p>STOP THE BILL, VOTE FOR BROWN!!!!
but the so-called historic opportunity to reform our healthcare system was already been blown clean out of the water…..big time.
There are some 300 million people in the country and a vast array of attitudes and opinion–do you want people to have health insurance or not? If Coakley loses by a slim margin, though with your views can take pride in knowing how they stood up for progressive values by preventing tens of millions of Americans from every getting health insurance.
Don’t wreck our insurance and kill the economy at the same time on a “hope and a prayer”. GIVE IT UP!!!
don’t (and shouldn’t) give a damn about those who don’t?
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p>That also they should not care to have a safety net in the event of loss of their current insurance?
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p>If that’s the way you feel, then I have no respect for you.
you don’t put all your money on red in hopes this half-assed cluster fuck of a bill is going to fix it for the other 15%. I like some aspects for reform such as covering preexisting conditions, no dropping a patient who gets sick… and I believe anybody who is sick can go to a hospital today.
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p>I want reform. I want to “bend the cost curve”. The current bill does not reduce costs and I do not believe the CBO projections as they have been so wrong on many other government programs due to assumptions which never materialize.
We have many systems within the government that serve the “majority” of people that we accept. We have donut holes in systems, marriage penalties, year of birth penalties… There is NO RIGHT to healthcare… NONE!
a lack of understanding of insurance.
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p>The people who don’t like their insurance are those who have had to rely upon it and have learned the hard way that the insurance coverage they were happy with for 85% of their lives wasn’t very good at all.
While I agree that everybody should have health insurance, I’m of the opinion that no healthcare “reform” bill would’ve been better than what this present Administration in Washington is about to ram through. This particular healthcare “reform” bill that’s about to pass will do absolutely nothing whatsoever to reign in the costs of healthcare, which will continue to skyrocket out of control, nor will it improve the present overall quality of our existing healthcare system. Many people who’ve already bought healthcare insurance on their own could very well end up losing what they’ve got, or be forced to ratchet down their present healthcare insurance coverage. The opportunity for any real meaningful healthcare reform here in America was totally blown when the Obama Administration came out against single-payment, which is the only real way to go, imho.
… certainly less than it should. MEDPac (if they don’t water it down) and taxes (re-aligning the wages / benefit incentives) will do their parts. Comparative effectiveness should do some more. Moreover, nobody think’s we’re done. This is just what we could get passed. Stronger cost controls would be better, but thanks to Lieberman and the GOP this is what we could pass.
If Obama and the Democrats really and truly cared about Healthcare Reform (I’m no less supportive of real healthcare reform here in the United States), they would’ve killed that toxic piece of legislature that passes for a “Healthcare Reform” bill once and for all, gone back to the drawing board, really put their heads together and constructed and created a newer, better healthcare system that embraces single payer along with Universal Healthcare. Instead, this Administration chose to take the easy way out and pass a crappy ‘healthcare reform bill” that’s really a Republican bill and a huge bailout for Big Pharma and the Insurance companies, who, btw, Obama has been in the pockets of all along and still is.