Baucus Rules Out Single-Payer Plan

Well, we finally have some mention of single payer in the pages of the Washington Post. BUT again we have an article entirely devoted to process with a word of content. Why do the single payer advocates think it is vastly better than anything proposed? Why is the Post afraid to answer that question? Also to end with two graphs about tha Swift Boater Rick Scott is like ending an article on those scientists who say the earth is a ball with two paragraphs on a witch doctor from the central plateau of Borneo who says the earth ia a plane on the back of a large turtle!

Also the article makes it sound like only a few left wing nuts are in favor of Medicare for All (HR676). Here is a question from a Washington Post - ABC poll: "Which would you prefer: the current health insurance system in the United States, in which most people get their health insurance from private employers, but some people have no insurance, OR, a universal health insurance program, in which everyone is covered under a program like Medicare that's run by the government and financed by taxpayers?" 62% favored Medicare for All; 33% were opposed. That's pretty decisive. And this is with the facts suppressed. Other questions in the poll show that the 62% supporting the universal program mostly believe it will cost more when it will cost less. They believe they won't be able to pick their doctor when Medicare allows much more freedom than most private plans. They believe there will be long waiting times when this is a myth. And still they support a universal plan like Medicare for All by 2 to 1.

Boo - Hiss! Why can't we have single payer??? Medicare works fine. We need a system similar to Medicare for everyone. Or I'll take the health insurance the Senators have. Baucus is owned by insurance companies. He should be voted out of office for this.

It has been reported that Senator Baucus has received a significant amount of contributions from Health Care and insurance companies. He should be replaced on the committee he is chairing since it would be impossible for him to be impartial. Refusing to even consider a single payer plan is evidence of this conflict of interest.

Who is this backwoods yahoo from Montana to tell the rest of the United States of America that we can't have single payer? The health care lobby has made him rich beyond his wildest dreams so his position is understandable but Obama, Kennedy, you going to stand by and let Max Bumpkus be "the decider" on this life and death issue?

Hocus-Pocus-Baucus. What a humbug.

Too far along in the process? I thought the process continues until the president signs the bill. Obama is now signalling a willingness to rethink some of his parameters, letting Congress know more research and public input still has a role to play. By those lights, "the process" has a long way to go... And frankly, some of history's worst mistakes unfolded because policy-makers lacked the courage to pull the plug on a process that was going in the wrong direction, re-examine the options and start again. So if Baucus is more committed to his process than our health -- and he now admits his process was flawed by excluding a key perspective, where do I sign up to help get rid of him?

Um, do all the singler payer advocates realize that nurses in Europe tend to get paid less than in the U.S.? See the following website: http://www.worldsalaries.org/professionalnurse.shtml And Baucus is no yahoo, I seriously doubt anyone who has actually met him would say that. Seriously, if you want to critique his policies that's fine, but calling him a yahoo because he is from Montana is just plain stupid.

Am I wrong? Everything I have heard so far about other countries having a Universal Health Plan has been a disaster. What are we going to do that will change that? to Lensch: please show me how you know that that the questions being raised really are a myth. I need some evidence before I will make a decision. Do you have an article or something that I can reference too?

Bring on SINGLE PAYER HEALTH INSURANCE. I belong to a Medicare HMO, fortunately my care has been very good, but I am healthy. I know of those in my HMO who can't get the care they must have.My primary care HMO physician was trained in the UK, and is highly supportive of Universal/Single Payer insurance. We need Medicare for all.I think it unconscionable that Max Baucus has this much power over the lives of THE PEOPLE; even his own constituents are for single payer, and against his stand. He didn't even have the guts to face them during his Town Hall meetings in Montana...he sent a surrogate. Shame, shame on him. The country suffers from this type of "leadership."

Single Payer is what I want. Baucus is the WRONG person to lead here. I wish they'd get him out and put someone in charge who is a real Democrat. If Democrats stand up for this issue, they will not only have done what is right and what's best for the people, but they will, in the process, have their power in Congress extended for many years to come.

To those who say that single payer is a disaster in countries where it is used I refer you to the PBS show by TR Reid"Sick Around The World". It offers the viewer a unique insight to the pro's and con's of the variety of health care options in countries that have high quality health care where everyone is in, no one is out. The health insurance corporation cartels have made many of our elected officials prostitutes. Senator Baucus has become accustomed to having his pockets lined with their money. We must remember that health insurance co. are corporations. By law, corporations can only consider the interest of their shareholders in their policies. They are legally bound to put it's bottome line before everything else, including the good of those who pay to have their coverage. Rick Scott is featured in numerous ad's trying to scare the US public out of supporting single payer health care. What they don't tell the viewers is that he is the former CEO of Columbia Health, the corp. found guilty in the nations largest health care fraud. Why isn't he in prison? Look at William Mcguire, and his 1.6 billion dollar back dating stock scandal and 1.1 billion dollar golden parachute. These crooks are walking around free and not behind bars. These men and others like them own DC. Our elected officials need to be stripped of their health care benefits and see what hard working Americans go through in securing affordable care. How many policy holders died or became very ill by being denied care by the insurance companies so these men could make these outrageous and questionable sums of money? Take a bite out of crime and end the health insurance cartels hold on this country.

First Baucus keeps single-payer advocates out of the loop, then he says they're too late because they should have been there back when he was keeping them out. I can't think of anything printable to say about a filthy trick like that, or about a corporate puppet cum bureaucrat who would perpetrate it.

Sen. Baucus just did a series of state-wide forums on healthcare. After having his staff read a statement saying, "I am your employee....you are the employers. I need for you to tell me what you want me to do." Well, his constituents spoke quite clearly that they are completely fed up with the "for-profit" insurance companies and that they would prefer to have a "Medicare Healthcare System" for all. He told them to go pound salt. It's time to run a true Progressive Democrat against the "servant" Baucus and send him back to his ranch where he belongs: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/01/baucus-battered-by-voters_n_209865.html

Why the Washington Post hasn't done some real research for a meaningful article on health care mystifies me. They go around the issue and talk about who is for what and who is controlling what but fail to provide real information to their readers. I would love to understand what value the insurance companies provide in exchange for the profit they make from health insurance. And I would love to understand how health insurance paid by employers advances the competitiveness of our economy. I personally have been turned down for insurance coverage after losing a job because of pre-existing conditions. I have also experienced huge additional expenses that drained my resources when the insurance companies failed to cover the expenses. My doctor tells me that insurance processing is an enormous drain and a huge expense to his practice of medicine. I submit that we have single payer health care now. The difference is that the insurance companies do not have to answer to anyone--certainly not to congress since congress is paid by them. We also have rationing of care, since the insurance companies can refuse to pay for some kinds of care or refuse to sell insurance to those who would potentially need care. The wealthy don't need to worry. It's part of their condition for employment. The poor of our society are rationed out of care. Please WP, do a real story wit REAL analysis that enlightens. You have a proud tradition to uphold.

Go here to sign these 2 petition with political teeth that will force Baucus to enact single payer universal health care. Go to http://bit.ly/single_payer_baucus http://bit.ly/single_payer

My god!, how can we be so stupid? Single payer is the only reasonable solution. Every other solution involves the insurance corporations whose only goal is to maximize their profit. They do this by LIMITING access to health care by individuals. Remember Katrina? All those homeowners who thought they had flood insurance? The insurance companies said:"Your home was destroyed by wind driven water" or "Your home was destroyed by an act of god" Either way, we ain't paying. The insurance companies need to be removed from the loop. We need single payer universal nationwide non-deniable health care.

I was never as disappointed after so many years of Republican 'leadership' to learn that the Democrats are just as tied to their corporate handlers. The fact that a single payer Universal Healthcare Bill is off the table is devastating to me. I just saw Ceci Connolly on C-Span and learned that Sen. Baucus has nixed any consideration. First, some of the C-Span callers need to be set straight on Medicare...the program has been deliberately starved by the Republicans since Reagan to "prove" how the government can't work (or as Norquist said, 'shrink it so it's so small, it can be drowned in a bathtub.) I have many Canadian friends and they will NOT come to the US because they have to buy travel insurance and it is so expensive. I have never met a Canadian who had a loved one die because of wait times. However, I do have a friend whose 28 year old daughter-in-law with epilepsy, drowned in a bathtub. Instead of drowning the government, the politicians have begun to drown their citizens. My friend's family member chose feeding her kids over buying her needed medication. She had a seizure, died and left 3 young children. If she were Canadian, she'd be alive today. Tinkering around the edges of healthcare will just ensure the system will be really FuBAR. Throw it out. Start over. Let's civilize the wild west of corporate healthcare profiteers. Otherwise, we will never be competitive with other countries. People can't start their own businesses for fear of no insurance, people won't change jobs they hate for the same. We will have no engine for growth if the largest expense a corporate has is insurance. Remove that burden, make it a tax and cover everyone equally. It's fair, it makes economic sense. And to those of you who would hate to have a government 'bureaucrat' make your healthcare choices for you, my daughter's doctors last year spent three days arguing with the insurance company to keep her in the hospital for a serious blood infection. So as far as I'm concerned, the government could not do any worse.

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