Health Care Reform Battle Moves To Senate Finance Committee-- Where Blanche Lincoln Needs To Make A Decision

UPDATE: This is the ad that got the second most votes

No doubt you've read about Blue America's Health Care Choice Campaign and later today (5pm, PT) we'll be announcing which TV ad got the most votes. It isn't too late to vote-- just click that link above and view all 3 ads and tell us which one you think will be most effective in helping persuade Conservadem Blanche Lincoln that it's time to think of the best interests of her constituents-- the working families of Arkansas-- for a change, not the CEOs at the health insurance companies that have funneled so much money into her political career. I'm in awe at the number of ads-- on everything from CNN, MSNBC, Fox and ESPN to USA, TNT, the Food Channel and Lifetime-- that will blanket the Little Rock area. I think we need more spots in Jonesboro though, so please consider adding to our little warchest.

Meanwhile, it's looking like the tiny handful of senators who actually see themselves as tribunes of the people-- Sherrod Brown, Sheldon Whitehouse, Jeff Merkley-- are allowing the sworn enemies of working families (i.e., the GOP plus the bad Democrats like Baucus, Lincoln, Lieberman, Nelson, Landrieu, all the corrupt, steaming garbage)-- are allowing themselves to be bamboozled into a weaker reform program in order to satisfy the paid off shills of the insurance companies. As Ezra Klein pointed out in the Washington Post yesterday, the new CBO score ($611 billion over the course of a decade) "is low in part because we've made some of the policy worse." We can thank corrupt shitheads like Lincoln, Baucus, Lieberman and the rest of the senators who are on the Insurance Industry payroll for that. Anyone who ever votes for any of them deserves exactly what they get from them. I mean when you have a shill like Kay Hagan now agreeing to vote for the bill, you know there's got to be something plenty wrong with it.

All 13 Democrats on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee have announced they're for it. Presumably the 10 corrupt anti-family Republicans-- Mike Enzi (WY), Judd Gregg (NH), Lamar Alexander (TN), Richard Burr (Medical-Industrial Complex), Johnny Isakson (GA), John McCain (AZ), Orrin Hatch (UT), Lisa Murkowski (AK), Tom Coburn (OK) and Pat Roberts (KS)-- will all oppose it. And then there's the Insurance Industry's best friend, Max Baucus' uber-corrupt Senate Finance Committee, which has guaranteed their paymasters that they would kill whatever is beneficial in HELP's bill.

Burr, Isakson, McCain, Coburn and Murkowski all have to face the voters in 2010. Coburn's voters are as crazy and demonically-possessed as he is and there's nothing to be done with them at all. But Isakson, McCain, Burr and Murkowski should all be made to pay the price politically for sticking with the Insurance Industry CEOs and giving the collective finger to the struggling families in their states. Yesterday one of the best candidates for the Senate running anywhere, Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, explained to Ohio voters why she is so adamant about a strong and robust public option and why she's asking all members of the Ohio congressional delegation to "fight for inclusion of a public insurance option rather than bow to pressure from the powerful insurance lobby to keep all payment for universal health care in the hands of private insurers." Brunner:  



“I strongly urge members of Congress to stand strong in favor of the more than 50 million individuals and families who now lack access to health care, because they have no health insurance of any form. Health care is a basic right, and the choice of a public or private plan ensures all have access to the type of health care they need... Consumers’ choices are dwindling as health insurance premiums soar.  Small businesses, labor unions, and companies with large numbers of retirees struggle to keep the costs of benefits level by increasing employee shares of premiums, deductibles, co-pays and decreasing covered services, especially when there are preexisting medical conditions. Millions of Americans in need of health care go without proper medical attention, even when they have health insurance.  Our current system of tying health care to a job leaves millions without health care as unemployment rises.  As these uninsured families with children apply to states for their children’s health care needs costs to taxpayers escalate.  For those who simply go without, leaving themselves completely vulnerable to catastrophic illnesses or accidents, ultimately, all others pay the price as health care costs rise."

She's running against a left-over Big Business shill from the Bush Regime, Rob Portman, someone who Cheney pointed out this week as a GOP up-and-comer. He has no position on health care whatsoever. Brunner pointed out that Cheney and Portman are exactly what has exacerbated the health care crisis in America and that the country needs to move on from their failed policies and catastrophic agenda.

Now that Dick Cheney has left office he has chosen to become vocal and to opine on issues of the day, presumably as a standard bearer for the ailing Republican Party. How can he and Rob Portman maintain their oblivion to the tragically large numbers of Americans who are suffering from their previous failure to face the deteriorating circumstances of Americans and their families because of inadequate or no health care?


In 2007, the California Nurses Association and the National Nurses Organizing Committee, which represent 80,000 members in 50 states, ran a highly publicized advertisement in support of universal health care. Its blunt message:  “If (Cheney) were anyone else he’d be dead by now.”  The advertisement pointed out that Cheney, who has survived four heart attacks and quadruple bypass surgery, benefited from government-financed health care.

 

Brunner isn't in the Senate, at least not yet. Fortunately, Jeff Merkley is-- and a member of the Senate HELP Committee. He's a big booster of the Affordable Health Care Choices Act because it includes, in his words, "a strong, nationwide public health insurance option to lower costs and greatly reduce the number of uninsured Americans." He always said that one of the reasons he took on Big Business shill Gordon Smith was to help reform the health care system. The public option, as he sees it from inside the Committee, will be offered alongside private insurance options in a “Health Insurance Gateway,” or insurance exchange.  Participation in the public option is completely voluntary, and would assure American families that they will have access to an affordable choice.  Through pooled purchasing power and lower administrative overhead than private insurers, the Community Health Insurance Option will help to lower costs and encourage insurance companies to improve their services. Merkley:

“Our health care system is broken.  Over the last nine years, costs for the average family have doubled even as insurance companies use less and less of premiums for patient care. We need to provide consumers with real choices to keep costs down and keep insurance companies honest... If you like your doctor and you like your insurance, nothing will change for you.  But if you want more options, this bill provides them, while increasing healthy competition that will reduce costs for everyone. For far too long, insurance companies have been able to set the rules, charge what they like and revoke coverage on the flimsiest of excuses. The Affordable Health Choices Act will level the playing field for consumers by providing them with more choices.”

Our campaign looks great in Little Rock, Fayetteville, Ft Smith but it can use some beefing up in Jonesboro and everything south of Pine Bluff. The good news is that counties like Little River, Drew, Hempstead, Desha, Ashley, Union, Nevada, Calhoun, Clark, Dallas and Lafayette are among the least expensive in the state to saturate. So, if you want to help us make sure we're reaching everyone... this is the place where those $5 and $10 contributions are going to do some good. And if you think this is something, we're just getting started. Believe me, Medical Industrial Complex servants like Richard Burr (R-NC), Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Jim Bunning (R-KY), all up for re-election next year, and all violently opposed to health care reform, will not be getting off scott free.