Obama ready to drop public healthcare option

[bascule]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090816/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_health_care_overhaul

 

Bowing to GOP pressure, Obama is now signaling its willingness to drop the government run healthcare option entirely, purusing health insurance cooperatives.

 

Needless to say I'm not too happy about this. Here I was hoping for a substantive change in healthcare which could potentially lead to a cheaper healthcare system for all Americans. Instead we're just getting more of the same.

 

I can't imagine this will reflect very well on Obama's popularity either. With total control of the White House and Congress, Democrats are now capitulating to the Republicans. They've been given the chance to bring real change to America and they're foregoing it entirely.

 

Le sigh.

[iNow]

I disagree with the articles assessment. I watched those interviews this morning on This Week, Meet the Press, and Face the Nation (as I do every Sunday). Nobody said anything about dropping the public option. The interviewees simply didn't respond to the question "Is this a deal breaker for the president? Will he refuse to sign the bill if there is no public option in it?"

 

None of them responded. They evaded the question, and said that he wants more competition in the market, and is open to various methods of achieving that competition.

 

If that's a "signal" that "Obama is ready to drop the public option," then the authors signal detector is over sensitive and likely to have a lot of false positives, which I suggest is what has happened here.

 

 

I'll wait and see and reserve judgment, but having watched the referenced interviews myself first hand, I sincerely disagree with the suggestion being made in the article and find it a rather bold misrepresentation. Maybe I'm wrong though, who knows... That's just my reasonably well informed opinion after watching the same interviews personally...

[Pangloss]

You could be right. The article's doing a bit of tea-leaf reading there, but reporters usually have a reason (i.e. inside source) for stuff like this. We'll just have to wait and see. I think that's very interesting what you're saying about the talk shows -- I've been taking a break from the Sunday shows but as you say they can be a very good indicator of what's going on.

 

If there's a compromise it's interesting to speculate on whether it can be as effective as the "Obamacare" plan. These quotes from the story are helpful:

 

Facing mounting opposition to the overhaul, administration officials left open the chance for a compromise with Republicans that would include health insurance cooperatives instead of a government-run plan.

 

Under a proposal by Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., consumer-owned nonprofit cooperatives would sell insurance in competition with private industry, not unlike the way electric and agriculture co-ops operate, especially in rural states such as his own.

 

With $3 billion to $4 billion in initial support from the government, the co-ops would operate under a national structure with state affiliates, but independent of the government. They would be required to maintain the type of financial reserves that private companies are required to keep in case of unexpectedly high claims.

 

That example comes from a Democrat, but I guess the reporter is saying that it represents what the Republicans are looking for in a compromise.

 

But it also feels like pandering to the insurance industry (as if this plan wasn't already pandering). Orin Hatch is the top Republican recipient of campaign contributions from the insurance industry (though he pales in comparison with the Democrat's top recipient, who also sits on the Senate committee that will decide which health care plan goes to the floor!). (about halfway through this video story)

 

Story on Bloomberg study cited in ABC piece on lobbyists.

[iNow]

I forgot to mention, the only people giving credence to the claim that Obama is willing to drop the public option on this mornings shows were Republicans. Seems to me to be a bit of a tactic more than a truth. Just a thought I considered after thinking more about this and wanted to share.

[bascule]

I disagree with the articles assessment.

 

FWIW, so does Obama:

 

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/08/17/health.care/

 

The White House sought to reassure jittery supporters Monday that President Obama is not abandoning the fight for a public health insurance option.

 

The assurance came amid a media firestorm ignited over the weekend by administration officials seeming to indicate a willingness to drop such an option in order to secure congressional approval of a health care reform bill.

 

The media seem to go nuts over any little thing nowadays, perhaps because they're used to the previous administration having all officials "on point", regardless of whether their points were total BS. Members of the Obama administration seem to present a certain degree of individuality, even when talking to the media, and whenever that happens a sh*tstorm ensues.

 

I'm starting to wonder if the British approach to media (i.e. BBC) is a better way to go than our corporate-controlled, ADD, can't tell their heads from their ass approach we have here in America.

[john5746]

The media seem to go nuts over any little thing nowadays, perhaps because they're used to the previous administration having all officials "on point", regardless of whether their points were total BS. Members of the Obama administration seem to present a certain degree of individuality, even when talking to the media, and whenever that happens a sh*tstorm ensues.

 

I think some of this "individuality" is planned - floating balloons out there to see how big the burst is before suggesting it as an option.

[iNow]

I think some of this "individuality" is planned - floating balloons out there to see how big the burst is before suggesting it as an option.

 

What an interesting suggestion. It only serves as further evidence that this administration supports science.

[bascule]

I think some of this "individuality" is planned - floating balloons out there to see how big the burst is before suggesting it as an option.

 

Yes, an interesting question, but the larger one is: could this actually be group leadership in action, as opposed to the GOP's "this is the party line, everyone must speak it" approach? Could the Obama administration actually let different members speak candidly about their own ideas? That would rule!

 

The press shouldn't rebuke this. They should embrace it as the single greatest thing that has happened to presidential politics in the past decade.

[john5746]

Yes, an interesting question, but the larger one is: could this actually be group leadership in action, as opposed to the GOP's "this is the party line, everyone must speak it" approach? Could the Obama administration actually let different members speak candidly about their own ideas? That would rule!

 

IMO, Obama's administration does seem to have a longer leash, just by looking at the type of people he appointed. In general, liberals are more liberal? especially in perception of the media? I would say that Bush gave Rumsfeld quite a long leash and Cheney probably had more freedom then Biden, but everyone understands that deal.

 

The press shouldn't rebuke this. They should embrace it as the single greatest thing that has happened to presidential politics in the past decade.

 

I agree, the press makes too much noise about tangential issues instead of the issues themselves.

[bascule]

IMO, Obama's administration does seem to have a longer leash, just by looking at the type of people he appointed. In general, liberals are more liberal? especially in perception of the media? I would say that Bush gave Rumsfeld quite a long leash and Cheney probably had more freedom then Biden, but everyone understands that deal.

 

I think if the previous administration did one thing well it was keeping everyone on point, down to repeating the same soundbytes of rhetoric. Obama's not doing that, and this has thrown the press for a loop. Perhaps after 8 years of getting the same line from every member of the administration the press have grown accustomed to it and don't know how to react.

[Pangloss]

That could be, but thankfully I think most observers agree that it stops well short of the communications nightmare that was Bill Clinton's first year in office.