{"id":3037,"date":"2009-06-06T09:24:10","date_gmt":"2009-06-06T13:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/?p=3037"},"modified":"2009-06-06T09:24:10","modified_gmt":"2009-06-06T13:24:10","slug":"the-plan-to-screw-the-public-option-in-health-care-reform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/2009\/06\/06\/the-plan-to-screw-the-public-option-in-health-care-reform\/","title":{"rendered":"The Plan to Screw the “Public Option” In Health Care Reform"},"content":{"rendered":"

Robert Reich lays it out<\/a>:<\/p>\n

[Big pharmaceutical and insurance companies] don’t want a public option that would compete with private insurers and use its bargaining power to negotiate better rates with drug companies. They argue that would be unfair. Unfair? <\/em>Unfair to give more people better health care at lower cost? To Pharma and Insurance, “unfair” is anything that undermines their profits.<\/p>\n

So they’re pulling out all the stops — pushing Democrats and a handful of so-called “moderate” Republicans who say <\/em>they’re in favor of a public option to support legislation that would include it in name only. One of their proposals is to break up the public option into small pieces under multiple regional third-party administrators that would have little or no bargaining leverage. A second is to give the public option to the states where Big Pharma and Big Insurance can easily buy off legislators and officials, as they’ve been doing for years. A third is bind the public plan to the same rules private insurers have already wangled, thereby making it impossible for the public plan to put competitive pressure on the insurers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Your understanding and participation in this battle really does matter.\u00c2\u00a0 Do not assume that your representatives and senators are going to do the right thing as the result of a party label.\u00c2\u00a0 The influence of Big Pharma and insurance companies is far greater than party affiliation.\u00c2\u00a0 These folks need to know that citizen influence can occasionally be greater than either.\u00c2\u00a0 Make sure they hear from you.\u00c2\u00a0 Regularly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Robert Reich lays it out: [Big pharmaceutical and insurance companies] don’t want a public option that would compete with private insurers and use its bargaining power to negotiate better rates with drug companies. They argue that would be unfair. Unfair? Unfair to give more people better health care at lower cost? To Pharma and Insurance, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,8,3],"tags":[335,333,334,332],"class_list":["post-3037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-policy","category-politics","category-society","tag-baucus","tag-health","tag-public-option","tag-robert-reich"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t