The Senate Finance Committee passed the health care bill crafted by Sen. Max Baucus (D-Montana) 14-9, with Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), casting the sole Republican vote.
I don’t know why more Republicans didn’t vote for this bill. If you didn’t know that it was written by a Democrat, you would think it was written by a health insurance lobbyist.
There’s no public option. There’s a mandate that everyone must have health insurance. If someone’s employer doesn’t offer health insurance, they must go and purchase health insurance on the open market and pay whatever the health insurance industry says they will have to pay. The only way this so-called “public mandate” makes sense is if people have the option of purchasing not-for-profit health insurance managed by the government.
My guess is that health insurance companies will start offering no-frills, “compliance” policies that will be health insurance in name only. They wont really help you when you or sick or injured and need medical attention, but will instead allow you to be compliant with the new requirement to have health insurance.
The purpose of a health insurance company is not to make people healthy, but to generate profit for it’s investors. Even if people have health insurance, too many times, a catastrophic health crisis will result in having to declare personal bankruptcy because of co-pays and out-of-pocket expenses not covered by their health insurance.
What’s the point of having Democrats in charge if this is the best we can do?
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Lee B.
/ October 14, 2009hope and change…
Don’t critique this bill- it’s historic. That’s all you need to know.
Bentcorner
/ October 14, 2009I don’t think anyone is saying that stuff shouldn’t be questioned. When I read the liberal blogs, people seem to be questioning things rather nicely. For instance, Arianna Huffington is calling for Biden to resign.
Lee B.
/ October 15, 2009They played a sound clip on local radio, I wish I could find it. One of Olympia Snowe’s staff was obviously irritated at the lione of questioning on details in the version that she approved, and the response over and over was “this is a historical bill, the details will come out later. This bill is historical- that should be what people focus on”.
The local DJ was having a field day with it.
Bentcorner
/ October 15, 2009And no, this is not Joe Paterno in a pink jacket. At least I don’t think it is.
Lee B.
/ October 15, 2009No doubt, history will that Sen. Snowe was actually a hand puppet belonging to Senor Wences:
http://www.nnmagic.com/nielsenprints/images/wences_johnny.jpg
Quite the legislator, and stage performer.