Open Left

Does Nancy Pelosi get credit for destroying the Progressive Bloc? (4.00 / 13)

Funny, I don't read much anymore about the Progressive Bloc at OpenLeft. Cat got your tongues?

Also, isn't this a gross distortion?

I am angry that single-payer supporters Kucinich and Massa were happy to let any hope of health care reform for a generation die because the bill wasn't everything we hoped it would be.

(Emphasis mine).

Not only don't I believe this, I don't believe that you believe it. Are you sure you don't care to rephrase this? From Kucinich's Democracy Now interview

KUCINICH: And so, I made every effort, right from the beginning, as you know, as a single-payer advocate. We couldn't really make this bill single payer; that was taken off the table. But we did something else: We were able to get a bill in the committee passed that would protect the right of states to be able to have-to pursue a not-for-profit healthcare plan at a state level to shield it from legal attack. And that was taken out of the legislation after it had passed. It was taken out by the administration, which has whittled down the public option to the point of not having it truly compete with insurance companies.
So what you have here is people continuing to be at the mercy of the insurance companies, except in this case the government is going to subsidize the policies. People are still going to have premiums, co-pays and deductibles to deal with. And, you know, there's really a great deal of question here as to what in the world we're doing in creating a healthcare system that's really based on the premises of private insurance.
AMY GOODMAN: Do you think it's better than what we have now?
REP. DENNIS KUCINICH: No. Actually, it's not, because it locks us into a for-profit system that the government subsidizes. It's not going to save money in the long run. It's not going to provide the kind of broad healthcare services the American people need. It's going to limit the choices that people have over a longer period of time. And people will have to buy private insurance. I mean, what's going on in this country? We're told that the only choice we have is to buy private insurance, and with the robust public option being gone, it makes sure that there's little competition with the insurance companies. This bill doesn't effectively moderate what they can charge for premiums or co-pays or deductibles. It just says people have to have insurance. Well, insurance doesn't necessarily equate to care, and care comes at a cost.

 

435 Dem Primaries 2012
Coffee Party Usa
TheRealNews.Com

---

by: metamars @ Mon Nov 09, 2009 at 18:10:57 PM CST