I don't know why there seems to be this assumption that the rest of us are too stupid to have thought of and through these arguments for ourselves.
But even setting all that aside: Let's assume the hypothetical that everybody ran on a single-player plan. Now let me explain the problem.
This "They should've gone to the table with single-payer" thing sounds great, until you realize: This entire effort was dependent on a handful of senators who didn't give a rat's ass if it passed or not. There was always this behavior as though the House was the equal to the Senate on this bill. It wasn't.
There were always enough people committed to the issue in the House. There weren't in the Senate. Because if the House said, "We won't agree to what you're proposing," the Senate would've said, "Okay, piss off then."
But people on the blogs seemed to think they could just put their fingers in their ears and pretend this wasn't so. "The House has to have leverage!" The House never had any fucking leverage, because the Senate didn't give a shit if it passed.
As for the silver option, given that up until...yesterday, I think...there was still an effort underway to push a public option, despite it being proclaimed dead about 700,000 times, why do you assume nobody in the White House pushed for it?
It isn't even that I disagree with the view. I share it, actually. But why is it simply assumed to be true? Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin
Edwards Gets It Right
"Health Markets", coops, exchanges... MOAR CHOICES baked in the goshdarn senate cupcake, baby....
Like Mr. Schwarzenegger, Mr. Edwards sets out to cover the uninsured with a combination of regulation and financial aid. Right now, many people are uninsured because, as the Edwards press release puts it, insurance companies "game the system to cover only healthy people." So the Edwards plan, like Schwarzenegger's, imposes "community rating" on insurers, basically requiring them to sell insurance to everyone at the same price.
BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHA uniform pricing? BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Finally, some people try to save money by going without coverage, so if they get sick they end up in emergency rooms at public expense. Like other plans, the Edwards plan would "require all American residents to get insurance," and would require that all employers either provide insurance to their workers or pay a percentage of their payrolls into a government fund used to buy insurance. But Mr. Edwards goes two steps further. People who don't get insurance from their employers wouldn't have to deal individually with insurance companies: they'd purchase insurance through "Health Markets": government-run bodies negotiating with insurance companies on the public's behalf. People would, in effect, be buying insurance from the government, with only the business of paying medical bills - not the function of granting insurance in the first place - outsourced to private insurers. ahahahahahahahaaaa Read MORE....
But Mr. Edwards goes two steps further.
People who don't get insurance from their employers wouldn't have to deal individually with insurance companies: they'd purchase insurance through "Health Markets": government-run bodies negotiating with insurance companies on the public's behalf. People would, in effect, be buying insurance from the government, with only the business of paying medical bills - not the function of granting insurance in the first place - outsourced to private insurers.
ahahahahahahahaaaa Read MORE....
... which brings me back to my realpolitisch deconstruction of "Change we can believe in" upthread. The fact is that what we're experiencing right now is a top-down disaster. -Paul Krugman
