Obama's Healthcare Timeline

[Tyyr]

Precisely, because "didn't we already fix healthcare?" And then you not only have to fix the original problem but also the ones your first "fix" created.

[Mikey]

Wonder of wonders - a little common sense reigns across the aisle. They'll wait.

[Lazar]

More time for the insurance industry and the PACs to scare the American people and undermine the public option.

[Mikey]

Also more time to think things through rather than rush to push a half-baked plan.

[Tyyr]

More time for the insurance industry and the PACs to scare the American people and undermine the public option.

If you hear about the Congress, our congress, that great big clusterfuck in D.C. bumrushing the health care system intending to "fix" it and in the process spend over a trillion dollars and they aren't even going to spend a month thinking about and you aren't at least a little concerned you're a FUCKING IDIOT!

[Aaron]

Wasn't this whole plan to be run by the private firms anyways?

[Lazar]

Wasn't this whole plan to be run by the private firms anyways?

The plan that Obama and the leading Democrats want would include a so-called public option that people could choose to buy into, and subsidies for people who couldn't afford insurance.

If you hear about the Congress, our congress, that great big clusterfuck in D.C. bumrushing the health care system intending to "fix" it and in the process spend over a trillion dollars and they aren't even going to spend a month thinking about and you aren't at least a little concerned you're a f***ing IDIOT!

I'm not convinced that delay means we get a better bill - it might just end up further watered down to corporate interests, or completely derailed. Reid consistently caved to the Republicans during the Bush years, so it doesn't fill me with optimism to see him doing it again.

[Aaron]

Maybe this is just the cynic in me but you would think that if a quasi-NHS was going to be part of Obama's plans that he and his staff would already have had a plan put together before he even took office.

[sunnyside]

Maybe this is just the cynic in me but you would think that if a quasi-NHS was going to be part of Obama's plans that he and his staff would already have had a plan put together before he even took office.

At that time he seemed to have a version for the voters. Fleshing something out only means it's vulnerable to attack. Better to keep the unicorns and rainbows version.

And to get something going this fast he must have had something in the works.

I do hope they come up with something good. I think most Americans agree the current system won't work. Republican, Democrate, etc alike. I think most even agree that providing proper preventitive care through a plan for the uninsured is better than having medicade or one of the many other governemnt programs pick up the tab later when they're in the emergency room.

But a whole lot of care has to be taken and a lot of reality instead of hopes needs to back it up.

[Tsukiyumi]

And, the more I hear about the "individual mandate" the less I trust that aspect of this deal.

Average single-payer plan here in America is $250 a month. I could pay maybe 10% of that.

[Tyyr]

I'm not convinced that delay means we get a better bill - it might just end up further watered down to corporate interests, or completely derailed. Reid consistently caved to the Republicans during the Bush years, so it doesn't fill me with optimism to see him doing it again.

Get a better bill by delay, maybe maybe not, but rushing something like this through with little to no consideration WILL get us a clusterfuck. Remember the last time we threw a couple trillion dollars at a problem without really considering what we were doing? Wanna do TARP all over again only lets drag the healthcare system into it? I don't.

I had been holding back but meh. Obama isn't doing this because the American people are demanding it this instant. The polls show a lot of people are nervous about it and rushing things wasn't helping. Most people with two neurons to rub together understood the magnitude of the what was being undertaken and that rushing things would have only gotten us a fucking disaster. Obama was pushing it purely for political advantage. He's been in charge now for six solid months and the shine is starting to wear off him. He's racked up several big whiffs with things like the auto industry, Guantanamo Bay, and the economy. He wants to get a solid W in the books and thought he could manage it by bullying Congress into pushing a healthcare bill through and then he could crow about it all summer long. Now he's going to have to go to the summer break with no real domestic wins. Its all about politics and his image, it has nothing to do with what America wants or needs. Thankfully Congress came to its senses and didn't rush something through. Take a look at what the CBO was saying about the plan they were pushing, no real impact on costs and it'll cost the tax payers a trillion and a half dollars or more over the next ten years. In other words it does nothing to "fix" the system. People want it "fixed," not just subsidized.

[sunnyside]

I dunno about it just being about getting a win.

He does have some real time constraints in the sense that elections are coming up in 2010 and after that he might lose the ability to do national health care and never get that chance again.

[Tyyr]

It's still 2009 though, he's got his current Congress for a bit longer. They'll still be the same guys after the summer break. He can wait for this for another few months.