--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "It's just a ride" <bill.hicks.all.a.r...@...> wrote: > > On Mon, Aug 17, 2009 at 8:50 PM, raunchydog<raunchy...@...> wrote: > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "It's just a ride" > > <bill.hicks.all.a.ride@> wrote: > > > > The only way we are going to get a public option is to reject the idea that > > a co-op is an acceptable fallback position. Co-ops are an admission for > > defeat. > > > > Why oh why do you have to keep seeing this as Earth, The Final Battle > (a terrible former TV series)? Co-ops are not an admission for > defeat. They are the shits, as they deny people with pre-existing > conditions and toss out people who become expensive. But a co-op > system is closer to a public option system next go around than a poke > in the eye with a sharp stick. > > I want it all, so does Obama. But if we have to hammer away year > after year, any step would be a start. Stop hating insurance > companies and big pharma. They will both be put in their place, just > not in one swell foop. You know if we forbid pharma from advertising, > they'd have more money left over than what they spend on R&D? Water > can wear away rock. We'll get to a good place, just maybe not by > January. >
Bill, here's where we have to agree to disagree. You have faith that Obama can save the day grabbing gonads, I don't. He had a chance to do plenty of gonad grabbing and he's done nothing but cede ground to insurance and big pharma. Sadly, behind they scenes they call the shots and write the bills, not Congress and Obama. Yesterday, Amy Goodman on Democracy Now! had an excellent interview with BusinessWeek reporters: "In a cover story for BusinessWeek earlier this month, reporters Chad Terhune and Keith Epstein argue UnitedHealth and other insurers maneuvered to shape healthcare reform for their own benefit. The story is called "The Health Insurers Have Already Won." The authors argue the insurers have, quote, "succeeded in redefining the terms of the reform debate to such a degree that no matter what specifics emerge in the voluminous bill Congress may send to President Obama this fall, the insurance industry will emerge more profitable." http://i3.democracynow.org/2009/8/17/business_week_the_health_insurers_have I'm interested to hear your opinion on Amy's interview. I don't subscribe to the idea that lalf-a-hoaf is better than nothing or in trying to put the borse back in the harn. From day one Obama and his advisers knew the nature of the beast and didn't stay ahead of the message. The right wing took control and dominated the conversation. Rather than muster the energy and passion of his campaign supporters to push a simple message, "Medicare for All," he let Congress, those wily, craven creatures, beholden to insurance/big pharma write several long, confusing, conflicting, toothless bills that do little for the people. Thanks for regaining a sense of respectful conversation.
