CMA Health Policy Blog

From the Desk of Judith Stein….

April 27, 2009 at 11:11 am Judith Stein 2 comments

Update: Real reform still possible

Apparently the President will support use of the Senate “Reconciliation” process to move health care reform if the super-majority of 60 votes needed to avoid a filibuster can’t be garnered to pass a good plan. We heard this last week from a senior senator – he hoped a bipartisan vote would be possible, but indicated that certain principles need to be met by any health care bill, and that Reconciliation would be considered if those principles would otherwise be sacrificed.  Amen to that.

Let’s not accept “something’s better than nothing” again!  That mantra helped pass the 2003 law that gave us private Medicare Advantage, Part D, and windfalls for corporations – at the expense of Medicare participants and taxpayers. Been there, done that.  This time we need a good plan with a solid public option that puts people above profits.

___

April 24th

CMA Health Policy Consultants’ contacts in DC indicate that a public option in health care reform is in jeopardy. Is it possible that after all the problems Medicare has had with private plans, and the plans’ exorbitant additional costs, that we will actually let corporate greed trump the interests of sick people and taxpayers once again?

Entry filed under: Health Care Reform, Medicare. Tags: Corporate Greed, Health Care Reform, Medicare, Private Plans, Public plan.