Opinion biden public option?

[terrapin]

president biden spoke often about a public option as an alternative to bernie sanders UHC plan during the primaries. many of us thought biden sounded inauthentic and not sincere about really wanting a public option but were encouraged (often quite rudely) to be open to the fact that biden wanted everyone to be covered but had a different avenue to get there in mind.


biden won (thank goodness) and we also won the senate (a bit of a surprise and linked to a fib from biden about immediately sending out 2000 checks) and retained a majority in the house. we are experiencing a pandemic when a record number of people are being hospitalized and receiving healthcare due to covid.

biden admin, for their emergency covid relief plan instead of promoting a public option (something he stopped speaking about after bernie lost the primaries but spoke of often before that) has chosen to give insurance companies subsidies instead. the private health insurance companies requested subsidies and biden apparently gave it to them.

under a bronze plan, the lowest you can get, the deductible for a year is over 5000 dollars (who the fuck can afford that?) and many health insurers deny around 40% of claims.

seems like biden lied or changed his mind or is just taking his time during a pandemic to try to get a public option huh? biden admin says they still have a plan in the works but it seems to me that if you really had a public option in place now would be the time to push it right?

my position is that if biden does not act quickly to provide meaningful employment, decent wages and vastly improved healthcare we are going to see a stark rise in domestic unrest and terrorism (also related to other issues) the elites have lost touch with reality in this respect and i think are missing the primary drivers of unrest in our country.


this article about biden's plan says "the establishment is gearing up even against a public option."

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/12/health-care-policy-joe-biden-xavier-becerra-m4a-pahcf

this interview from "the hill" says "health insurance companies given a big win from biden".

https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/5...g-initial-win-in-bidens-emergency-coronavirus



here secular talk breaks down the proposals

 

[BisexualMMA]

Bro he got arrested trying to march with Mandela, stop questioning his honesty.

 

[skysolo]

seems like biden lied

 

[MMAisGod]

This is what the lesser of two evils philosophy looks like friend.

Lol @ "Crime" section though. I feel your pain man.

 

[terrapin]

This is what the lesser of two evils philosophy looks like friend.

Lol @ "Crime" section though. I feel your pain man.

you see what i did there.

 

[blaseblah]

As long as Republicans have the filibuster there will be no significant advancements made to healthcare

 

[UFCUCF]

The Obama admin spent all of its 1st term political capital on healthcare. I doubt outside of COVID Biden will move on anything like a public option.

Even $6,000 per year on marketplace plan is $500 per month (usually) pre tax dollars. Beats paying a 50% marginal rate on all your income. I guess it comes down to what do you get for a Bromze plan.

 

[terrapin]

The Obama admin spent all of its 1st term political capital on healthcare. I doubt outside of COVID Biden will move on anything like a public option.

Even $6,000 per year on marketplace plan is $500 per month (usually) pre tax dollars. Beats paying a 50% marginal rate on all your income. I guess it comes down to what do you get for a Bromze plan.

he spoke often about a public option during the primaries as a better alternative to uhc from bernie. its on bidens website too as a policy position they support.

once he beat bernie in the primaries he dropped the whole topic. i think that is a lot like lying to the american people. i dont think we have a whole lot of goodwill and tolerance left to spend on this kind of stuff personally. people are hurting and they are pissed.

 

[PHATV]

 

[Trotsky]

president biden spoke often about a public option as an alternative to bernie sanders UHC plan during the primaries. many of us thought biden sounded inauthentic and not sincere about really wanting a public option but were encouraged (often quite rudely) to be open to the fact that biden wanted everyone to be covered but had a different avenue to get there in mind.


biden won (thank goodness) and we also won the senate (a bit of a surprise and linked to a fib from biden about immediately sending out 2000 checks) and retained a majority in the house. we are experiencing a pandemic when a record number of people are being hospitalized and receiving healthcare due to covid.

biden admin, for their emergency covid relief plan instead of promoting a public option (something he stopped speaking about after bernie lost the primaries but spoke of often before that) has chosen to give insurance companies subsidies instead. the private health insurance companies requested subsidies and biden apparently gave it to them.

under a bronze plan, the lowest you can get, the deductible for a year is over 5000 dollars (who the fuck can afford that?) and many health insurers deny around 40% of claims.

seems like biden lied or changed his mind or is just taking his time during a pandemic to try to get a public option huh? biden admin says they still have a plan in the works but it seems to me that if you really had a public option in place now would be the time to push it right?

my position is that if biden does not act quickly to provide meaningful employment, decent wages and vastly improved healthcare we are going to see a stark rise in domestic unrest and terrorism (also related to other issues) the elites have lost touch with reality in this respect and i think are missing the primary drivers of unrest in our country.


this article about biden's plan says "the establishment is gearing up even against a public option."

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/12/health-care-policy-joe-biden-xavier-becerra-m4a-pahcf

this interview from "the hill" says "health insurance companies given a big win from biden".

https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/5...g-initial-win-in-bidens-emergency-coronavirus



here secular talk breaks down the proposals

Wait, did you seriously expect Biden to be able to pass the public option within a month to fit it into the relief bill?

With all due respect, that is a very, very silly expectation. If the Democrats had 56 Senators, it might be okay to expect them to ram through a massive healthcare reform within their relief bill, but with a 50/50 split, they're going to have to corral votes from people like Joe Manchin and Susan Collins to even get enough people on board.

This is what the lesser of two evils philosophy looks like friend.

Lol @ "Crime" section though. I feel your pain man.

Well, the more sincere comparison would be the robust relief package that will send out money to individuals and businesses rather than the absolutely-fucking-nothing that would happen if Trump was elected.

In the coming four years, maybe we get a public option, maybe we don't. But I seriously, seriously doubt it will be Biden that is in the way. Instead it will be people like Manchin, Sinema, and Angus King.

 

[Headkicktoleg]

The Obama admin spent all of its 1st term political capital on healthcare. I doubt outside of COVID Biden will move on anything like a public option.

Even $6,000 per year on marketplace plan is $500 per month (usually) pre tax dollars. Beats paying a 50% marginal rate on all your income. I guess it comes down to what do you get for a Bromze plan.

We pay $200 a month for health insurance with a $2500 deductible. Government ain't beating that

 

[terrapin]

Wait, did you seriously expect Biden to be able to pass the public option within a month to fit it into the relief bill?

With all due respect, that is a very, very silly expectation. If the Democrats had 56 Senators, it might be okay to expect them to ram through a massive healthcare reform within their relief bill, but with a 50/50 split, they're going to have to corral votes from people like Joe Manchin and Susan Collins to even get enough people on board.



Well, the more sincere comparison would be the robust relief package that will send out money to individuals and businesses rather than the absolutely-fucking-nothing that would happen if Trump was elected.

In the coming four years, maybe we get a public option, maybe we don't. But I seriously, seriously doubt it will be Biden that is in the way. Instead it will be people like Manchin, Sinema, and Angus King.

instead of giving subsidies for shitty coverage to health insurance companies and lifting his plan straight from recommendations made by insurance companies (that biden took a lot of money from and that i think is corruption) maybe he could have expanded medicare or public options.

it is too soon to tell if biden had any intent at all to try a public option when he was speaking about it all through the primaries but this does not look good. it is clear that as soon as bernie was out of the way it was no longer really worth talking about by biden though.

its a little bit like the 2000 dollar checks he promised americans they would receive (after 600 dollar checks had gone out) that turned into 1400 dollar checks (some creative mathematics at work here) and that now will not be pursued immediately but will have to wait till mid march to go out. this while people are waiting miles in line for food (some of them while having covid).

i think many american people don't have a whole lot of goodwill left for politicians that continue to support policies that place their large corporate donors first and the american people second.

 

[MMAisGod]

Well, the more sincere comparison would be the robust relief package that will send out money to individuals and businesses rather than the absolutely-fucking-nothing that would happen if Trump was elected.

In the coming four years, maybe we get a public option, maybe we don't. But I seriously, seriously doubt it will be Biden that is in the way. Instead it will be people like Manchin, Sinema, and Angus King.

Would it really take 4 years to "possibly" improve the ultra terrible HC system we have? Why isn't it priority 1 to work on it getting done faster than that? It's not like we haven't had it preached to use how bad it was/is, how Trump did nothing, and what we can expect if we got rid of him. Well now he's gone so we should be expecting results, and not plans from insurance companies to give them more money. Assuming the D's keep House/Senate/Pres for four years, why wouldn't it be an absolute guarantee that the promises we received in HC wouldn't be fulfilled? Especially considering how it would be (should be) the potential highest priority of all given current events.

 

[Trotsky]

instead of giving subsidies for shitty coverage to health insurance companies and lifting his plan straight from recommendations made by insurance companies (that biden took a lot of money from and that i think is corruption) maybe he could have expanded medicare or public options.

it is too soon to tell if biden had any intent at all to try a public option when he was speaking about it all through the primaries but this does not look good. it is clear that as soon as bernie was out of the way it was no longer really worth talking about by biden though.

its a little bit like the 2000 dollar checks he promised americans they would receive (after 600 dollar checks had gone out) that turned into 1400 dollar checks (some creative mathematics at work here) and that now will not be pursued immediately but will have to wait till mid march to go out. this while people are waiting miles in line for food (some of them while having covid).

i think many american people don't have a whole lot of goodwill left for politicians that continue to support policies that place their large corporate donors first and the american people second.

In terms of straight policy, I think the insurance subsidies are probably a good idea (although I sure as hell hope they have more coverage conditions than the Republicans' previous giveaway). Sure, for-profit insurance is pointless and vampiric, but now is literally the worst time in history to be ideologically rigid about healthcare, and any systemic reform will take time that no one currently has.

As far as the 2000/1400 thing goes, I think it's pretty clearly a matter of politics.

 

[terrapin]

In terms of straight policy, I think the insurance subsidies are probably a good idea (although I sure as hell hope they have more coverage conditions than the Republicans' previous giveaway). Sure, for-profit insurance is pointless and vampiric, but now is literally the worst time in history to be ideologically rigid about healthcare, and any systemic reform will take time that no one currently has.

As far as the 2000/1400 thing goes, I think it's pretty clearly a matter of politics.

the 1400/2000 going out immediately is clearly a matter of lying. i cant call it anything else.

i also dont think rigid is good framing for wanting american's to have a public option during a pandemic. but biden had a lot to say about it during the primary and nothing to say after he beat bernie. now at a time when the idea is extremely relevant and deeply needed he also has nothing to say.

i felt he never really supported it seriously during the primaries. i think that was an accurate assessment then and now. we will see though.

but also i generally think people are totally clueless about how pissed off amercian citizens are right now. any false hope that bidens calm words and professional demeanor (something i genuinely appreciate especially in contrast with trump) are going to stem the water that is nearly boiling over is incredibly naive.

this is not a time for incremental change. we need some effective real tangible change that american citizens can feel in their lives and soon.

 

[Trotsky]

Would it really take 4 years to "possibly" improve the ultra terrible HC system we have? Why isn't it priority 1 to work on it getting done faster than that? It's not like we haven't had it preached to use how bad it was/is, how Trump did nothing, and what we can expect if we got rid of him. Well now he's gone so we should be expecting results, and not plans from insurance companies to give them more money. Assuming the D's keep House/Senate/Pres for four years, why wouldn't it be an absolute guarantee that the promises we received in HC wouldn't be fulfilled? Especially considering how it would be the potential highest priority of all given current events.

In the short term? Because a good healthcare reform bill takes a lot of time. Unless you're the Republicans and want to ram through a terrible bill with zero hearings, amendments, or oversight, it's a long process.

For reference, the ACA took 8 months to get through:

In the medium-term, it might not be doable at all because the Democrats don't have a strong enough majority in the Senate. They need EVERY Democrat in the Senate to support it, and that includes Republican-lite Senators like Joe Manchin, Angus King, and Kristin Sinema. If they flipped seats in places like Iowa, Montana, and South Carolina, it might have been more doable. Specifically, Manchin is EXTREMELY and vocally opposed to single payer healthcare....which is what the public option most likely leads to as a matter of market logic imo.

It's important to remember why the public option failed in 2009. It wasn't a Republican that killed it: it was a conservative Democrat-turned-Independent who killed it. Basically, a guy like Joe Manchin.

In the long-term....well, it's pretty much the same story as the medium-term. If Democrats win more Senate seats in 2022, maybe more ambitious reform becomes more viable.

 

[Officer Rick]

dude fix the title...

 

[terrapin]

dude fix the title...

how so?

 

[SmilinDesperado]

how so?

optoin

Also, is your shift key broken, dude?

 

[Officer Rick]

how so?

it's option not optoin