This is hopeful news.
Politico reports that a group of centrist Republicans and Democrats plan to roll out a series of fixes for Obamacare. They call themselves the “Problem Solvers.”
A breath of fresh air. Pragmatism and collaboration instead of ideology and self-righteousness. That’s the American way, or should be.
If only we could see the same spirit in education. Improve the public schools, don’t replace them with private contractors and subsidies for religious schools and for-profit enterprises.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Here’s a fix (in fact, the only one that will work): Universal single payer.
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Yes, agree 100%, single payer is long overdue by decades.
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The probability that “centrist” Dem’s and Repubs have that in mind when they say “fix” is the same as that Trump does.
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I’d also have to say that the probability is greater that I would survive jumping out of an airplane without a parachute than that is what they mean by fix.
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Agreed, which is why I’m not holding my breath. Heck, I’m on an HSA – can’t afford the medical care.
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Hold on to your wallets, folks.
Gridlock is our friend!
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The trouble is that Trump will do his best to kill Obamacare by starving it. Shows what a person he is, determined to destroy the healthcare of millions to make a point.
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Trump’s goal is to destroy the United States and to do that he wants to destroy the federal government and to do that means he wants to burn the U.S. Constitution and the rule of law it represents.
The public schools are only one target of many in the federal government. Putin must be celebrating every day that #FakePresident Trump is allowed to stay in power and continue to dismantle the U.S. government.
That goal is the same one that the Mercers want, that Steven Bannon wants, that the Koch brothers want, that the Walton family wants, etc.
One a powerful federal government can stop extremists and nut cases as wealthy and powerful as the Koch brothers are.
And Putin knows the clock is ticking. Trump has until the 2018 midterm elections to destroy the United States, because that’s when the Kremlin’s Agent Orange could end up an almost powerless president if he is still in office by then. If the Democrats take back the Senate and/or the House of Reps, Trump will be impeached and/or have his power stripped from him to the bare minimum.
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Trump wants to kill Obama care by starving it but it won’t just be the general public that gets the knife though. If you remember when the ACA went into effect, all the political aids in service to the Senators and Congress people were switched over to the plan? The idea is to get those people riled up so that the politicians will get desperate and hobble something together so that Trump looks good. This will not go well for anyone, but the general public will get a real look at how politicians are only looking out for themselves and their kind.
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Depends on what they mean by “fix”.
Some might say that Trump also wants to fix it — good.
Problem solved. 🙂
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Oh god no . That group of problem solving Democrats including my Congressman are exactly what is wrong with the Democratic party . They talk like progressives and policy wise are Republicans. If you like Rahm Emanuel you will love the problem solvers . I think i will go puke.
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These people solve problems like the framers of the Constitution “solved” the problem of slavery with the 3/5ths compromise.
You can be sure that whatever solution they come up with is going to come back to bite us in the asterisk down the road.
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These are same “centrists” who voted to gut the ACA and deprive as many as 32 million Americans, yours truly included, of access to health insurance. I’d like to know what type of center they are talking about. We’ll have to invent a new type of geometry to define it.
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Before you get excited about this, let’s see what corporate insurance ties these “Centrists” have. Remember: Obamacare/ACA started out as a right wing Heritage Foundation plan which then was adapted by Mitt Romney (“Romneycare”) when he was governor of Mass., then adapted by Obama and his insurance industry cronies in 2009.
“Fixing” Obamacare is STILL allowing for-profit, private corporations to control health insurance, instead of the emphasis being on health CARE, not insurance.
See:
Emma Niles: Health Care Sows Rift Between Progressive Left and Democratic Party Stalwarts – Truthdig http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/health_care_sows_rift_progressive_left_democratic_party_stalwarts_20170730
Let’s EVOLVE from the Duopoly’s Neoliberal Swamp – The Greanville Post
http://www.greanvillepost.com/2017/07/30/lets-evolve-from-the-duopolys-neoliberal-swamp/
We Don’t Need No “Moderates” – The Greanville Post
http://www.greanvillepost.com/2017/07/30/we-dont-need-no-moderates/
Privatization of health care is even worse for democracy than privatization of education. Health care is NOT a commodity like shopping for a car, despite what the apostles of neoliberalism and the market (both Rethugs and Dems) claim.
Health care is an even more necessary human right than is education. Keeping a corporate system such as Obamacare only perpetuates inequality, misery, and terrible health outcomes, as comparisons of U.S. health care with that of other developed countries (which have truly universal health care) continually show.
This is why we desperately need Medicare for All, as HR 676 and Bernie Sanders’ soon-to-be introduced bill (I hope) stipulate, despite opposition from Corporate Democrats such as Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer.
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I’m a little worried when I hear the term centrist whatever in the context of the USA 2017. These days, centrist usually means sell out, accommodationist, Quisling and watered down. Isn’t that what the ACA was in the first place? A centrist program that was not universal health care but it was better than nothing, better than the status quo that existed before the ACA. The GOP was against it from day one and worked overtime to kill it off. Trump can sabotage the ACA without enacting any laws. Obama had the chance to fight for true universal health care but opted for Romneycare and still was rebuffed by the GOP.
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ACA was a Democrat bill. I don’t care where you put people on the political spectrum, if an effort doesn’ t have bipartisan support it is doomed to failure. Now we have a bipartisan group that is trying to piece together legislation that both “sides” can agree will improve healthcare. It will save some of the ACA provisions and tweak or eliminate others. It will not be single payer,…yet. No one is going to be totally happy. The “my way or the highway” attitude has tied Congress in knots. It is past time to begin governing: trying to meld disparate beliefs into a coherent compromise. I am so tired of sneer and smear tactics that only lead to more discord.
I will always be a Bernie supporter not because I believe in everything he says but because he knows how to compromise without vilifying his colleagues. He recognizes that change is incremental and looks for ways to move toward his position. Al Franken strikes me as another individual who sees the futility of absolutism in governing. I know there are others. Those are the people I want in Congress, not the ideologues from either party.
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speduktr
I will always be a Bernie supporter because he seldom compromises on his core principals. We are not talking here about moderate democrats starting out at single payer, or Medicare for all ,or lowering the age for Medicare ,or a buy into Medicare . We are talking about Democrats who will consider it a gain to have table scraps thrown at them . Truth be told not only is ACA a disaster for moderate income people whose wages exceed the subsidy cap 7% of ACA eligible . . The employer based healthcare system was dying before it was revived by the employer mandate in the ACA . By now so few Americans would have had employer based health insurance, that was worth the paper it was printed on. Republicans would be heading for the fall out shelters.
But let’s start on the Scrub act which every progressive group said would gut Health, Safety, Consumer , Banking and environmental regulations . Suozzi could not say which regulations needed scrubbing
Somehow he was one six Democratic problem solvers who voted with all the republicans to pass it . Example OSHA regs one of the most despised agencies. MS 13 has killed 17 people in 2 years on Long Island . Yet 34 construction workers have been killed in NYC because their employers refused to obey OSHA saftey regs . Nobody going to smash that employers head into the cruiser on the way down town . There are not enough OSHA inspectors to come out to the site till someone gets killed. Been that way since Reagan.
Let’s move on to taxes, 2.5 trillion sitting overseas un taxed anywhere
The democratic congressman from the NY 2 thinks we need a tax holiday to encourage them to bring that money home and invest it. Just like we had in 2003 when they were able to bring it home at 5% instead of the 35% or the effective 25% they actually pay. .
Of course it was not allowed to be used for stock buy backs and dividends . Yet by some miracle 96% of it trickled down right on Wall Street, in the form of buy backs and dividends . The Wall Street crew would call a new holiday a moral hazard. If it applied to poor people.
And of course Mr Suozzi could not bring himself to support single payer as proposed by John Conyers because it would cost New Yorker’s more tax money . By that logic how did we build the interstate Highway system , Put a man on the moon and win the cold war. As I said to him David Koch is a NY-er and he does not pay enough.
Compromise the ACA was a compromise right out of the box ,as Krugman stated today
” Krugman points to the Affordable Care Act’s origins in a 1989 Heritage Foundation proposal. Yes, the plan Republicans have spent the past seven years trying to destroy had roots in an idea from one of their favorite think tanks. ”
“When Mr. Garland was floated as a possible choice for the Supreme Court in 2010, Orrin Hatch, the senior Republican senator from Utah, called him a “consensus nominee” and said there was “no question” that he would be confirmed with bipartisan support. That’s partly why Mr. Obama nominated him this time, and also why Mr. McConnell denied him a hearing ”
I want to know when Democrats will compromise and become Democrats again .
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I have no argument with you. The whole political spectrum has moved so far right that I have trouble recognizing the Democrat in most Democrats, but I do find hope (perhaps to strong a word?) in the reports of “across the aisle” collaboration. Campaign finance reform is critical to rebalancing the political equation although Bernie’s campaign gave us the understanding that people can still defeat big money.
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“Centrist”
Centrist means you’re willing
To compromise your stance
Bartering and selling
To carry on the dance
Centrist means you’re willing
To drive the center line
When coming cars are killing
The folks who are behind
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Gridlock means you’re milling
Waiting in a line
At least you aren’t killing
Anything but time
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I would like to disagree with the sentiment here. First, the presence of the body politic on the right at this moment does not preclude the movement of that body politic toward your position in the future. If there are people who want to talk, let them talk. It is preferable to posturing, which is all we have now. Talk may bring people in the direction you want. Otherwise, you have nothing. Revolutions start in coffee houses.
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All the other democratic wealthy countries have true universal health care and we are not even close to having universal health care. It is pathetic that we are incapable of enacting true universal health care with affordable drugs in 2017. Seriously?! Instead, tens of millions are uncovered and cannot afford health care or the obscenely expensive drugs. Millions of Americans are in fear of going bankrupt from medical costs. What will it take, a bloody revolution, a civil war, an invasion by benevolent aliens from a galaxy far far away? One thing is for certain, we will not get universal health care until Trump is out of office, until the GOP is reduced to a marginal party and until the Democrats grow a spine and stop sucking up to the medical-industrial-complex. That’s quite a hurdle.
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Or until the people decide a plague on both your houses and we get a third party. So far it doesn’t seem that most Republicans are interested in being anything other than odious and most Democrats aren’t interested in being anything other than craven.
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What will it take to get a viable third party? Same answer: What will it take; a bloody revolution, a civil war, an invasion by benevolent aliens from a galaxy far far away?
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Were’nt the Alien Sedation Acts meant to nip the latter possibility in the bud?
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“Growing a spine”
A spine can not be grown
When certain genes are lacking
A jellyfish with one
Requires a genome hacking
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Trump will probably he told to kill Obamacare by cutting federal subsidies for the insurance companies. I would like to see a single payor system, but I think that the campaign to undermine that idea will be really ugly and well-funded.
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Good GAWD. Save me.
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Good read: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/meet-the-democrats-running-on-single-payer-health-care-w494047?utm_source=rsnewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=daily&utm_campaign=073117_16
Money quotes: “Exhibiting a suspicious amount of concern for the Democratic Party’s future, the right-wing National Review argued that if Democrats embraced single-payer, they’d be in danger of following the “Bernie Sanders wing of their party off the proverbial cliff.”
So, the idea that single payer is “pie in the sky” is a right-wing idea, spread by the right-wing. Anyone who embraces it should be considered right-wing, regardless of the initial after their name.
“But 33 percent of Americans support single-payer, a five percent increase since January, according to a Pew poll published in June. That number might suggest many aren’t sure what single-payer means, since the same survey showed 60 percent of Americans think the federal government should provide health care coverage to all Americans.”
So two-thirds of Americans want single payer, it’s just that half of them don’t know what the words mean. How very American.
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“Not a single prayer”
I support the single payer —
Long as it ain’t me.
But it lacks a single prayer
Far as I can see
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Love your last sentence! So true!
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The only soulution is single payer. Anything less is soulless.
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A few highlights
1) “Provide mandatory funding for “cost sharing reduction” payments to insurance companies to hold down out-of-pocket costs such as deductibles and co-payments in Obamacare plans for households earning below 250% of the poverty level;”
Right now it is up to 400% of the poverty level as adjusted by Family size. Caps at 45,000 for a single person . 94,000 a family of four . I am not an actuary it would seem they are lowering the subsidy cap
Mandatory funding does that mean that HHS/ Treasury have to pay what they were mandated to pay by law
2)”Change the mandate that employers provide coverage to apply only to companies with 500 or more employees, compared with the current 50-employee threshold, and define a full-time workweek as 40 hours, up from 30 hours;”
The Reason the exchanges had fewer sign ups is more workers had gotten insurance from employers . Fifty employees is not a mom and pop store. CBO score please sounds like a lot of workers are losing their employer health care . To be thrown in to the section of the market that has the most disgruntled people . Again putting stress to eliminate health coverage at competing firms that dig provide for their employees,before ACA.
3) ” Modify sections of the Affordable Care Act to make it easier for states to innovate and enter into compacts to allow for the sale of coverage across state lines.”
I can see the policies with invisible ink now. That cover everything up to an appendectomy
Somehow I don’t feel thrilled . I don’t think the American people will either, but who will they blame. Any time government fails Democrats get the blame
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