True healthcare reform will require squeezing doctors and the medical-industrial complex...

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

by Robert Reich

Here's the latest contortion from Senate Dems trying to win over a few Republicans to a "public option": Let nonprofits create health-care cooperatives, and call them the public option. Kent Conrad came up with this bamboozle. Finance Chair Baucus is impressed, and some Republicans -- even Grassley -- seem interested. Watch your wallets.

Nonprofit health-care cooperatives won't have any real bargaining leverage to get lower prices because they'll be too small and too numerous. Pharma and Insurance know they can roll them. That's why the Conrad compromise is getting a good reception from across the aisle, just as Olympia Snowe's "trigger" (which means no public option until some time down the pike, and only if Pharma and Insurance don't bring down and extend coverage a tad) is also gaining traction.

The truth is that there's only one "public option" that will truly bring down costs and premiums -- one that's national in scale and combines its bargaining power with Medicare, and is allowed to negotiate lower drug prices and lower doctor and hospital fees. And that's precisely what Pharma and Insurance detest, for exactly the same reason.

Whatever it's called -- public option or chopped liver -- it has to be able to squeeze Pharma, Insurance, and the rest of the medical-industrial complex. And the more likely it is to squeeze them, the more they'll fight it. And the greater the opposition from Republicans, and from Dems who either believe any bill has to have some Republican support or who have sold themselves out to the medical biggies.

As long as single-payer is off the table, then we need a real public option. Don't be fooled by labels. Demand the real thing.

http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/tapped_...ic_option_bambo

Edited June 12, 2009 by Randomizer

[AlHayatZween 2]

Nonprofit health-care cooperatives won't have any real bargaining leverage to get lower prices because they'll be too small and too numerous. Pharma and Insurance know they can roll them.

what the hell... they better not blow this!

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

The truth is that there's only one "public option" that will truly bring down costs and premiums -- one that's national in scale and combines its bargaining power with Medicare, and is allowed to negotiate lower drug prices and lower doctor and hospital fees. And that's precisely what Pharma and Insurance detest, for exactly the same reason.

Right on the money.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

This is all about paying doctors and hospitals and pharma companies less. That's what reform has to be, or else it's no reform at all.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Nonprofit health-care cooperatives won't have any real bargaining leverage to get lower prices because they'll be too small and too numerous. Pharma and Insurance know they can roll them.

what the hell... they better not blow this!

Rest assured that they will.

This is all about paying doctors and hospitals and pharma companies less. That's what reform has to be, or else it's no reform at all.

Obviously, for the American people to pay less, someone will have to get paid less. It's simple math.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

This is all about paying doctors and hospitals and pharma companies less. That's what reform has to be, or else it's no reform at all.

Obviously, for the American people to pay less, someone will have to get paid less. It's simple math.

Exactly. Anything, any form of reform, that does not result in lower fees paid to doctors, hospitals, pharma companies, etc. - will achieve nothing.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

bamboozle is the right word. What a bunch of turds.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

They want to be able to continue to terrorize the American people with their large bills and fear of bankruptcy.

This, above all, was a key plank for the Democratic candidacy in November. If they screw this up, they're complicit in the economic terrorism of the GOP.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

They want to be able to continue to terrorize the American people with their large bills and fear of bankruptcy.

This, above all, was a key plank for the Democratic candidacy in November. If they screw this up, they're complicit in the economic terrorism of the GOP.

Fear really fvcks people's minds up.

[JimandChristy 1,689]

They want to be able to continue to terrorize the American people with their large bills and fear of bankruptcy.

This, above all, was a key plank for the Democratic candidacy in November. If they screw this up, they're complicit in the economic terrorism of the GOP.

Fear really fvcks people's minds up.

Aye and the Republicans are the masters of it...

Edited June 12, 2009 by JimandChristy

[JimandChristy 1,689]

Here's a gem, a GOP Senator putting money/corporations before the American people...

Surely the following clip is taken in a developing country....

Edited June 12, 2009 by JimandChristy