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OpEdNews Op Eds    H1'ed 6/6/09

Progressive and Bluedog Caucuses Clash Over Health Care

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On the progressive and moderate sides there are about 100 congressional dem reps each backing opposing "principles" for health care reform.

The progressive group, made up of the Progressive, Black, Hispanic and Asian-Pacific Islander caucuses, supports a public option that is immediately available.

The conservative group,  consisting of the bluedog caucus and the New Democrat coalition, which some characterize as moderate, supports a public option that only kicks in if certain criteria are met. This is the same option that Republicans are pushing for.

In the senate, about 20 dems-- the more liberal, primarily-- are supporting for the full public option available immediately.

The Hill reports, "Liberals may hold the chairmanships of the key committees, but centrist Democrats are a force to be reckoned with in the lower chamber. The Blue Dogs and New Democrats combined make up a bloc of 103 votes."

Providing a bit more detail on the differences between the progressives and the "moderates," AP reports,

•  The progressives say the public plan must cover all comers and must not be conditioned on private industry actions. The Blue Dogs say the public option "must adhere to the same rules and regulations as all other plans."

•  The Blue Dogs say the public plan should occur only as a fallback, triggered if private insurers aren't doing a good enough job on access and costs. The progressives say "we oppose any conditions or triggers undermining and limiting the availability of the public option."

•  The progressives say the public plan must be an entity operated by the federal government that "bears the risk for paying medical claims to keep administrative costs low." The Blue Dogs say claims must be covered by premiums and copayments without relying on the federal treasury.

Today, Saturday, thousands of Obama meetups will be held to discuss healthcare and mobilize supporters. This reporter has been to at least 5 health care discussions or townhalls. At each of them, single payer has received almost unanimous support, with full public option the distant fallback position. Yet single payer advocated are not excluded from the discussions being held by senate finance committee chair Max Baucus, and even among the progressives, single-payer is apparently not on the table, though progressive congressman John Conyers has HR 676 supporting single payer.

The question must be raised. Is Max Baucus simply representing the interests of moderate and conservative Democrats, or is he playing bad cop, in a good cop bad cop game, fronting for many more democratic senators afraid to admit they are protecting the health insurance industry.

At the progressive Our Future Now meeting, Ed Schultz reported that everywhere he goes, the only thing people want is single payer health care. "Where are all the supporters for these other options?" he asked to a crowd of about 100 members of the progressive media and blogosphere.

The future of healthcare for at least a decade will probably be decided in the next two months. So far, it looks like conservative/moderate democrats will be keeping America and Americans hooked on a private health insurance system that people and the American economy can ill afford.

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Rob Kall Social Media Pages: Facebook Page       Twitter page url on login Profile not filled in       Linkedin page url on login Profile not filled in       Instagram page url on login Profile not filled in

Rob Kall is an award winning journalist, inventor, software architect, connector and visionary. His work and his writing have been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, ABC, the HuffingtonPost, Success, Discover and other media.

Check out his platform at RobKall.com

He is the author of The Bottom-up Revolution; Mastering the Emerging World of Connectivity

He's given talks and workshops to Fortune 500 execs and national medical and psychological organizations, and pioneered first-of-their-kind conferences in Positive Psychology, Brain Science and Story. He hosts some of the world's smartest, most interesting and powerful people on his Bottom Up Radio Show, and founded and publishes one of the top Google- ranked progressive news and opinion sites, OpEdNews.com

more detailed bio:

Rob Kall has spent his adult life as an awakener and empowerer-- first in the field of biofeedback, inventing products, developing software and a music recording label, MuPsych, within the company he founded in 1978-- Futurehealth, and founding, organizing and running 3 conferences: Winter Brain, on Neurofeedback and consciousness, Optimal Functioning and Positive Psychology (a pioneer in the field of Positive Psychology, first presenting workshops on it in 1985) and Storycon Summit Meeting on the Art Science and Application of Story-- each the first of their kind. Then, when he found the process of raising people's consciousness and empowering them to take more control of their lives one person at a time was too slow, he founded Opednews.com-- which has been the top search result on Google for the terms liberal news and progressive opinion for several years. Rob began his Bottom-up Radio show, broadcast on WNJC 1360 AM to Metro Philly, also available on iTunes, covering the transition of our culture, business and world from predominantly Top-down (hierarchical, centralized, authoritarian, patriarchal, big) to bottom-up (egalitarian, local, interdependent, grassroots, archetypal feminine and small.) Recent long-term projects include a book, Bottom-up-- The Connection Revolution, (more...)
 

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