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Comments Posted By choicelady

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Health Bill Basics

Oh lordy – she SAID that? And here I thought he was a clay tablets guy. After all, how long would palm writing last if you’re a burning bush? I know WATERproof ink, but…???

» Posted By choicelady On March 19, 2010 @ 3:34 pm

Khirad – don’t give the Reeps any more fodder! LOL!!!!!

The other official name is the “Self Executing Rule” which is almost WORSE. The Reeps today (not when THEY used it) say it’s an accurate name – it’s suicide.

You know in some ways you gotta admire the RW – they ARE clever. Dumb but clever.

» Posted By choicelady On March 19, 2010 @ 10:32 am

Oh Cher – you are MY kind of woman!!

I keep every old address I ever had, anyone I ever knew, relatives of anyone I ever knew – makes a good link for advocacy. These people represent ALL of us, and if they block us because we’re not in their district, that’s just wrong. So we’re circumventing arbitrary actions. Harry Reid and Pelosi get it – they take mail from everyone though Pelosi has a separate email for her work as Speaker. If you get one through, she will just send it back to resend to the right email – not a big problem.

I see nothing wrong with this – we write them in their NATIONAL capacity as members of House Rules Committee.

GO for it!

» Posted By choicelady On March 19, 2010 @ 10:29 am

I just said I was from CA, and that seemed to work. No one got too fussy. So GO FOR IT! Matsui’s office was VERY responsive. Cardoza is not even committed to voting for the bill at all. I’d focus on him for sure.

Cardoza represents the towns of Stockton, Modesto, and Merced should you feel moved to mumble something about where you might, someday, for some reason, live…They did not ask me, but I represent a statewide organization and said so, so you might be asked.

What we’re looking to keep is Sec.I, Subdivision A, Title II, Subtitle B – Public Health Insurance Option in HR 4872.

Of course REAL people would just ask to keep in the public option! Only we wonks talk this way!

» Posted By choicelady On March 19, 2010 @ 10:25 am

OK – here is the cold water.

On Saturday House Rules Committee will meet to mark up the Reconciliation bill, HR 4872. There is much pessimism about the survival of the public option at that point. That is why NO one is discussing it.

My query however is that 119 House members said they would not vote for anything that did NOT have a public option. So there may be real pressure to keep this provision. And the reconciliation bill, HR 4872, was created as a bi-house agreement, so why the cold feet?

House Rules Democratic members:
Louise Slaughter – Chair (NY)
James McGovern (MA)
Alcee Hastings (FL)
Dennis Cardoza (CA)-Blue Dog
Michael Arcuri (NY)
Doris Matsui (CA – Sacramento and mine!)
Ed Perlmutter (CO)
Chellie Pingree (ME)
Jared Polis (CO)

If you live anywhere in these states, CALL them and tell them you want the public option to survive. You can use our faith group toll free number (don’t worry – no one will call to convert you!) at
1-888-797-8717 to connect to the DC offices.

» Posted By choicelady On March 19, 2010 @ 10:00 am

Oh Nellie – that’s cold. Funny as hell but cold. LOL!!!! True, too!!! Thanks – that really DID make me laugh out loud. Woke the cat.

» Posted By choicelady On March 19, 2010 @ 7:31 am

Just up over at The Dark Side (HuffPo) they are stating “what’s in, what’s out” based on the AMENDMENT package for HR 4872. It’s 153 pages, and it is NOT the actual reconciliation bill, it’s the clean up language for the much larger reconciliation bill we’ve all been looking at here.

I’ve sort of lost the thread of who here has said what, but whoever noted that no one wants to read the BILL would be right on.

This is what I called Anthony Weiner’s staffer about. I asked if the Amendment to the Reconciliation Bill stood alone or was just as it sounded – a series of technical amendments. He said HR 4872 stands, the amendments make some changes (apparently it does eliminate the “cornhusker” privilege) but nothing – I repeat NOTHING – in the amendment package even discusses revisions in the public option.

So HuffPoo is setting forth an analysis based on an amendment bill rather than the real McCoy. WE have a much better sense of things by far!

This is the weakness of the MSM – very few people actually READ the deadly prose of federal legislation. For those of you who waded through the Thomas.loc.gov site version, you quickly discovered how turgid the organization is – you have to click on sections separately. (Oh for a good PDF file!)

But once you get the hang of it (and I used to do federal bill analysis so I’m used to it) you can just go to the sections you want on Thomas. It’s slow but in some ways helpful for piece by piece assessments.

I admit I’ve not read every page of HR 4872, but I can see the overall picture of reconciliation posted last night in HR 4872, and then look at the amendment package to HR 4872 – as Nellie said, that was posted at 2 pm today – to see what has changed. It’s all minor stuff compared to the program mandates such as the Public Option in the main bill. That remains unaltered.

So – HuffPoo is giving WRONG information by assuming that the amendment bill is all there is. Nope. Not so.

» Posted By choicelady On March 18, 2010 @ 10:59 pm

That is my understanding, too.

» Posted By choicelady On March 18, 2010 @ 10:42 pm

Thanks for the kind words, Sanity! I hope, after a long, long day of analysis and conversations with Congressional staff and my peers that we are correct. I will know more tomorrow when we get feedback from Sherrod Brown’s (Senator OH) health staffer. I will keep you posted. But Nellie has kept her finger on this very, VERY well! I think we’re REALLY going to get a very good bill!

» Posted By choicelady On March 18, 2010 @ 10:40 pm

It’s actually much, much stronger since it’s a mandate to create a budget improvement with a public option and all the other factors that strengthen it.

Yes – the Senate bill will be signed, health care a done deal, but the Reconciliation will make it MUCH better. And the Senate will be under vast pressure to sign IT (HR 4872) ASAP. No dawdling!

» Posted By choicelady On March 18, 2010 @ 10:37 pm

The liberal Dems do not want to just pass the Senate bill because it’s not as good as the House bill – no public option for one thing. They don’t trust the Senate to go BACK and fix it through Reconciliation.

So they are going to use a system (started for the first time March 16, 1933) called “deem and pass”. It passes TWO bills in one step. One is “deemed to have passed” if the second one, voted on by roll call, also passes. So the House can “deem” that the Senate bill HR 3590 passes by voting for HR 4872 and so specifying. That does require confirmation by the Senate, but that appears to be in order – we have over 51 votes to pass Reconciliation in the Senate.

The Reconciliation bill, while tackling ONLY those issues that impact the budget, is quite extensive since almost all parts of the health reform DO impact the budget. (We used Reconciliation to create COBRA, SCHIP, and several other health programs.) All they have to say is what they said here – direct the Secretary of HHS to create a budget-friendly public option program.

Congress has used the “deem and pass” process 36 times under Republicans in 2005 and 2006 and have used it 49 times under the Dems in 2007 and 2008. Before 2005 it has been used over 100 times. It is a way to expedite votes, keep members from having to go on the record voting for something they don’t really like, and moving related legislation forward fast.

Does this help?

» Posted By choicelady On March 18, 2010 @ 10:09 pm

Yesterday we found a poll from more rural states that shows when people actually understand what the bill will do, the support is 62%.

There is so much crap (a purely technical term, you understand) our there that of course people are nutso and scared, but this plan is absolutely magnificent, and the fact it is so far along and so well developed with a great deal of Congressional support is amazing. Just amazing.

People will freak at first – until they learn how good this bill is and will be. The pursuasion language in sec. 227 to have Congressional supporters use the public option is huge.

We will get through this, and people will be pleased since they will NOT have to pay through the nose if they cannot do so and do not choose to do so. It also gives those who like private insurance that they have the right to keep it. And maybe get subsidies if they are buying it on their own.

There are huge benefits to small business, too. I’ve read a ton of analysis from universities and think tanks about how much good this will do for small business.

All in all – this is bordering on a near miracle.

My organization helped in a significant if small way in helping to turn six blue dog Dems into supporters. We are working on the last three hold outs – and I think we will get them. But we turned Mike Thompson (D-CA-1) all by ourselves because NO one else was working him. One minister I know apologized for getting “only” 85 people in one small town to visit and call him. That was decisive. Amazing. I am so proud of them for all they did! He turned last Fall and kept his commitment to his constituents.

I think by next week, we will have health care reform DONE and done WELL.

To every Planateer who wrote, called, visited and then did it all over again – this one’s for YOU!

KQ and e-cat – I think you may have health care coverage and very, very soon.

Wow.

» Posted By choicelady On March 18, 2010 @ 10:01 pm

I have read more in HR 4872 and am speechless. It is to be created NOW with an allocation of $2 BILLION to provide coverage for immediate claims. It gives a wide range of flexibility in how it is implemented including using state’s Medicaid programs if they are good enough.

Here is one provision that is stunning:

“SEC. 227. SENSE OF THE HOUSE REGARDING ENROLLMENT OF MEMBERS IN THE PUBLIC OPTION.

It is the sense of the House of Representatives that Members who vote in favor of the establishment of a public, Federal Government run health insurance option, and senior members of the President’s administration, are urged to forgo their right to participate in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) and agree to enroll under that public option.”

That means that the public AND members supporting the public option will all be enrolled in the plan. It is optional for those who vote against this bill. But those who vote FOR it are encouraged to enroll for their OWN insurance through it.

It is to start Y1 – Now. Immediately.

This is the reconciliation bill, and this is what will be voted on Sunday with HR 3590, the Senate bill, being “deemed to have passed” so we will have health care reform as a done deal by Sunday afternoon. If the reconciliation bill does ALSO pass (the real, recorded vote) then yes, the Senate has to confirm it, but I’ve been told we have over 51 votes for the public option and thus for this reconciliation.

I am over the moon!!!!!!!

» Posted By choicelady On March 18, 2010 @ 9:52 pm

Nellie and Sanity – this is indeed it. Took me a huge amount of time to find and wade through. This is THE reconciliation bill (it has higher education components as well) through which the liberal/progressive Dems will get back the Public Option. When they vote “deem and pass” it will be to “deem” that HR 3590n has passed on passage of HR 4872. They WANT to vote on reconciliation. They do NOT want to vote on the Sen. bill that House Dems think is very weak. They have done brilliantly in getting several things into reconciliation as budget reform measures. I’m weak in the knees at this – it’s so good I’m almost afraid to hope!

Thanks, both of you, for persisting and finding what I found. Now if I AM crazy, at least I have the two of you to bounce around the padded room with. I’m much obliged!

» Posted By choicelady On March 18, 2010 @ 9:34 pm

HR 3590 is what will be ‘deemed to have passed’ because liberal Dems do not want to vote for it. We actually are not trying to do much with that since it is highly flawed in the eyes of House members. They will vote for HR 4872 to get the budget fixes including public option AND give it to the Senate as is to pass in reconciliation as well.

» Posted By choicelady On March 18, 2010 @ 9:29 pm

Hi all-

Thanks to Nellie I have been wading through all this and calling several representatives “in the know”. Things have changed all day, but I could not have started this without Nellie! Here is what I found:

HR 3590 is sort of a moot point. This is the bill that will be “deemed to have passed”.

The REAL issue is the Reconciliation bill HR 4872 that was introduced last night (3-17-2010) and will be passed in both houses and sets the standards for many, MANY issues. If you want to read it (dubious) it is 2074 pages long but broken into parts. You can access it most easily at thomas.loc.gov – the library of Congress site for bill searches. It is HIGHLIGHTED on the main page so is easy.

However, the part you REALLY want is important. What you want is Sec. I, Subdivision A – Affordable Health Care Choices, Title II, Subtitle B – THE PUBLIC HEALTH INSURANCE OPTION.

YES – IT LIVES!!!!

There is an amendment that was introduced this morning. It does not address the whole reconciliation bill but does substitute much technical language for parts of Medicare, Medicaid, etc. as well as higher ed issues that must also be included.

It changes nothing about the PO!!!

To be sure about this, I called Con.Anthony Weiner’s office (you see him on Rachel Maddow a lot) and asked if the Amendment TOTALLY replaced HR 4872, and I was assured that NO, HR 4872 with the public option IS the reconciliation bill to be passed Sunday and sent back over to the Senate for them to pass via reconciliation. We have heard that there are at least 51 votes for the reconciliation bill WITH the public option.

As of this moment, I am scared, worried, happy, overjoyed, cautious, nail-biting, fearful I am wrong, pleased I found this, worried I’m over-reacting, and basically going home and having a glass of wine.

Why this is not big news is utterly mysterious which is why I’m fearful, but I DID confirm the PO with Anthony Weiner’s office, so…

Keep the hope folks! But don’t spread this around too much!

» Posted By choicelady On March 18, 2010 @ 4:20 pm

Republicans “Deem and Pass” the Hypocrisy on Healthcare Reform Bill

Oh it is true they often have phony SS cards, but they pay into the system – sometimes to other citizens’ accounts – and get nothing. In CA undocumented people get NO services other than emergency medical care and school for their kids (who often ARE citzens.) But they add billions – cher is right – to the tax coffers but now cannot even BUY insurance. Mexico offers single payer insurance (think of the irony) to those who are employed within Mexico. However, they SELL insurance for $95 per YEAR to those not employed within the country. The problem? US hospitals won’t take it. We’re working on that.

Legally present immigrants without private insurance cannot access any public program – I believe not even Medicare at 65 – for FIVE years under what I think will emerge. That is in the Senate bill. The House bill let them have coverage, and let undocumented people buy it, but what’s in the final bill, passed either with reconciliation or deem and pass is just not yet clear.

The only good public health measure is to be sure that everyone inside the US has some access to insurance or we’re going to see pandemics like we’ve not experiences since 1918. We will have polio, typhus, whooping cough – on and on because sick people will continue to get sick and be among us. Not everyone who is a citizen will have adequate protection. It’s just stupid. And inhumane. People are people, and the woman who cleans my hotel room matters, the guy who cuts our grass at my office matters, and his kids matter, and his mom matters. We just have taken the YOYO principle – you’re on your own – waaaaay too far. We’ve lost our decency.

» Posted By choicelady On March 17, 2010 @ 8:58 pm

Amen, Sister Cher, amen!

» Posted By choicelady On March 17, 2010 @ 8:50 pm

KQ – the day after it passes, you will deserve an INFUSION of whatever pleases you! You and e-cat and anyone who has been waiting for care and coverage do deserve whatever good comes your way!

» Posted By choicelady On March 17, 2010 @ 7:41 pm

I do, too, and the idea that at least 18 million people – and e-cat and KQ should be among them – who have no insurance and need immediate care will GET care is something I cannot ignore.

That said – would anyone tackle the issue of how we are leaving out documented and undocumented immigrants? How dreadful, IMHO, to think that anyone present in this nation cannot even BUY insurance! And legally present immigrants pay TAXES, so why are they banned from public programs for FIVE YEARS – what if they are 65? They have to wait til 70 for Medicare? Awful. And short-sighted. And dangerous to the public health. Anyone have an answer or insight?

» Posted By choicelady On March 17, 2010 @ 7:40 pm

Hi all – Happy What’s Left of St. Patrick’s Day!

I just signed up at FDL and posted – only to see nothing appear. What’s up with them?

Man – they are all whiners just like the bozo I dealt with New Year’s Eve who declared HE had all the answers and set all the standards for everything, and HE was not happy with Obama, oh, boy, no he was NOT, so Obama ought to be very, very worried because HE wrote Obama a letter saying next time HE might not vote.

I’m used now to the whiners at HuffPo, but these folks are special (picture me saying that like the SNL Church Lady).

What seems to be the common denominator here is the EGOTISM of people who know very little. I’ve worked hard for single payer in CA, but I twice have been on a panel with a single payer supporter doctor who knows NOTHING about the federal plan, just that it’s not single payer and so he hates the federal plan. When I asked him what he would say to the millions who will get coverage, he brushed them off as unimportant. He then said we HAD to get single payer and could do it in two months. He and his wife both are physicians and will settle for nothing less than what is ideologically pure. Even if it’s on the backs of uninsured, untreated people. So my question is – what happened to your oath to first do no harm? Throwing under the bus the 87 million who at one time or another during any given year do NOT have health care coverage IS ABSOLUTELY IMMORAL. I dare say I will not be going to HIM for treatment! His wife’s a pediatrician, so I’m not likely to need her, but I am horrified at people who put ideology ahead of the common good.

I am just plain fed up with these attitudes, and I no longer can tell the right from the left.

Grrr!

» Posted By choicelady On March 17, 2010 @ 7:36 pm

Hi Cher! Yes, this guy is well within the borderline mentality. What can one do? Between his nuttiness and the “demon” purveyors, we just have to sigh and move on.

» Posted By choicelady On March 17, 2010 @ 9:55 am

Or I should watch my blood pressure and not read those sections! Maybe it’s good they have a place to vent, so they don’t do worse things?

» Posted By choicelady On March 17, 2010 @ 9:28 am

Good morning all! This morning Kucinch did the right (as in correct) thing and says he will vote YES to provide a floor from which to build a better plan. Good on him, as Molly Ivins would have said!

If you want to know how seriously warped life is around this, the rant from the Teabaggers is that there are “demons” in the Capitol. I do believe this comes from poor enunciation of “Deemand Pass”. So we all need to articulate clearly, please. These people are clearly too stupid to function without our help.

Second, this morning’s Sacramento Bee had an article about our two wussy Dems who are trying to figure out how to vote despite having the highest levels of uninsurance in their districts. One of their constituents, nearly homeless with myriad health problems, uses a public health clinic BUT opposes reform as “just another way for politicians to control us.” WTF????? When you hear that sort of garbage, what CAN you say in reply? This guy would benefit a great deal from reform, but nooooo – he does not want to be “controlled”.

I’d give up, but there were other people who understood the benefits, so I’m hoping good sense will FINALLY prevail!

» Posted By choicelady On March 17, 2010 @ 9:27 am

Oh wow, KQ – at first I thought you’d written “The insanity” and could not figure out how you thought this SEIU ad was “insane”. Luckily, I’m just tired, and YOU wrote no such thing!

Thanks for sharing that poster. It’s powerful.

» Posted By choicelady On March 16, 2010 @ 7:34 pm

I just wrote to him – we’d met very briefly in an unusual circumstance at the CA Democratic Convention, so I hope he remembers me. But I asked him to think of the millions uninsured who are just desperate and cannot wait. I hope he listens. This is about people – people who are scared they are going to die or live in pain, people who are helpless before the illness of a loved one, people who are down to their last nickel and cannot get health coverage. We need this passed now. It cannot wait. 18 million people will get immediate help, and who can say “too bad, not good enough, just wait a few years longer” and have that be moral? I hope tomorrow’s press conference will mean he is voting YES. I really want him to do that.

» Posted By choicelady On March 16, 2010 @ 7:32 pm

OK – Lawrence O. and Rachel just talked me down. They are saying it WILL PASS. First positive thing I’ve heard today.

Did not realize how skimpy the Capitol Teabaggers turn out was – couple of hundred – and the ‘drive and honk’ movement is apparently also a total bust.

So I feel less worried, though still am worried, but maybe, just maybe I will get a GREAT birthday present this weekend after all. I’ve been working this sumbitch for YEARS both in CA and federal, and I’d like to see it pass before I get Medicare, please! Among other things – we have a LOT of other issues to focus upon!

Oh – also heard the guy from The Nation say that that support is increasing in the polls!

But wow – you read the email responses to stories in the Washington Post, in The Hill, most anywhere and you’d swear that everyone except yourself and other Planeteers hated this bill, Obama, Congress, and probably their grandmother for being on government run health care. It may after all be a small number, but man are they MEAN!

» Posted By choicelady On March 16, 2010 @ 6:42 pm

NOW they issue this! Too late!

New Issue Brief by the Center for Labor Research and Education Examines the Impact of the President

» Posted By choicelady On March 16, 2010 @ 4:54 pm

We may not have gotten bad enough for people to get how horrific the Reeps and their new BFF teabaggers are, but if they get in again, will we EVER get OUT?

I am scared to death we are on the verge of massive social chaos – even if the teabaggers ARE only 11% of the population! I cannot understand how the health reform has gotten SO far out of hand with the MSM totally misconstruing regular procedure and scaring people. I sent NATIONALLY our discussion on deem and pass – maybe it will help a bit.

I am really REALLY scared today. I fear for Obama and for our country.

» Posted By choicelady On March 16, 2010 @ 4:51 pm

He is great on issues of poverty. He just sucks a wad on issues of women’s right to choose, GLBTQ issues. He’s NOT progressive but certainly is better than the pack. He’s also arrogant and an empire builder, but that I could live with if he weren’t such a homophobe and so nasty on abortion. He is therefore, hard to pin down. He’s the very best of a very bad lot.

I, of course, am perfect on all these issues…
(Gag)

» Posted By choicelady On March 16, 2010 @ 4:47 pm