Draft Democratic party platform commits to ‘affordable, comprehensive health care’ for all.
By on Aug 9th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
Draft Democratic party platform commits to ‘affordable, comprehensive health care’ for all.
Today, the 186-member Democratic platform committee put together a draft document “united behind a commitment that every American man, woman and child be guaranteed to have affordable, comprehensive health care.” Other highlights of the platform — which will be adopted at the Democratic convention later this month — are “complete redeployment within 16 months” from Iraq, closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, and “tough, practical, and humane immigration reform in the first year of the next administration.”
UpdateDigby has more on the abortion portion of the platform.
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44 Responses to “Draft Democratic party platform commits to ‘affordable, comprehensive health care’ for all.”
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Add prosecution of the GOOP under the RICO statue and you've got a winner, guys!
August 9th, 2008 at 5:50 pmAlso:
"Democrats typically have a strong plank in favor of abortion rights; this year's version is stronger than usual. 'The Democratic party strongly and unequivocally supports Roe v. Wade and a woman's right to choose a safe and legal abortion, regardless of ability to pay, and we oppose any and all efforts to weaken or undermine that right,' it says.
Gone is the phrase from the past that abortions should be safe, legal and 'rare.'"
Yay!
August 9th, 2008 at 5:51 pmThe question is how to get those currently in Congress to take up the banner. Dirty Max Baucus is no friend to the average American struggling to keep their health insurance. Added to the list of questionable characters is Kent Conrad and Evan Bayh. The insurance and for-profit hospital lobbies have many blue pols in their pockets. Sad days indeed...
August 9th, 2008 at 5:54 pmGood platform. If that idiot McCain somehow wins, I officially give up on this country.
August 9th, 2008 at 5:57 pmevery American man, woman and child be guaranteed to have affordable, comprehensive health care
Uh-oh... the wingnuts aren't gonna like that...
August 9th, 2008 at 5:58 pmHow about addressing all non-bid contracts, including the Medicare Drug Bill aka Big Pharma/Big Win?
And while we're at it, cancelling all contracts with tax-dodging corporations?
Immediate audits on all Bush-era government contracts for fraud and waste?
This may only be a short list, but the above alone would pay for "health care for all" within the first year.
PEACE
August 9th, 2008 at 5:59 pmWow,
A platform...that's soooo...NOT impressive!
How 'bout sum action? In Congress NOW!!!
August 9th, 2008 at 6:02 pmThis platform alone will bring in the votes. I know of racists that are voting for Obama because of the health care problems.
August 9th, 2008 at 6:11 pmAmerica is desperate and hungry for reformed health care available to ALL.
oooh! busy day!
just stopping by... remember seeing this yesterday:
What Digby says
By: John Amato @ 3:00 PM - PDT
Digby discusses the “Draft Democratic Platform Rejects Anti-Abortion “Reduction” Plank”
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/08/08/what-digby-says-2/
August 9th, 2008 at 6:15 pmstateofthedivision Says:
The question is how to get those currently in Congress to take up the banner. Dirty Max Baucus is no friend to the average American struggling to keep their health insurance.
We get busy and change the dem number to 60
A good place to start is contributing to http://www.dscc.org
They are putting out some great ads in OR against Smith.
August 9th, 2008 at 6:18 pmGet rid of the greedy insurance companies and have government be the payer would be the first good step.
August 9th, 2008 at 6:21 pmHad Enough,
Max is a Democrat and head of the Senate Finance Committee, the funnel point for health care legislation. It's also the reason Senator Baucus got donations from 7 for-profit healthcare companies with no, as in ZERO, facilities in his state of Montana.
As for Oregon, that's the home of Ron Wyden-D, author of the plan jettisoning the employer health insurance benefit. His bi-partisan plan would shift responsibility to the worker.
The platform sounds great. Electing Democrats sounds great, until one looks deeper into their recent record. Peace...
August 9th, 2008 at 6:27 pmEvery other Civilized Industrial Country has some form of National Health Care!
Why not in America??? Because the American people are very good at believing LIES.
August 9th, 2008 at 6:28 pmstateofthedivision
So do we lay down and forget about it because there are some road blocks?
This platform alone will bring in votes. It could be in a 2 or 3 word phrase pounded into the minds repeatedly for votes ... and in time could be a reality.
Max is a Democrat and head of the Senate Finance Committee, the funnel point for health care legislation.
Are you saying this can never be changed?
in time... in time.
August 9th, 2008 at 6:41 pmTanqueray Says:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I sure hope they intend to include care for illegitimate children of ex-Senators in this plank.
August 9th, 2008 at 6:28 pm Recommend (0)
I guess the GOP platform will include senators paying prostitutes, senators trolling for sex in airport bathrooms. It really is amazing how the troll is fascinated about Senator Edwards sex life, I am thinking the troll isn't getting laid and is just angry about it.
August 9th, 2008 at 6:45 pmI think the Cheap Gin just evaporated.
Heh.
August 9th, 2008 at 6:48 pmstateofthedivision Says:
As for Oregon, that’s the home of Ron Wyden-D, author of the plan jettisoning the employer health insurance benefit. His bi-partisan plan would shift responsibility to the worker.
As for Oregon, I was talking about the ridding Smith. Wyden's bi-partisen plan can and will change if there is enough support.
You have to admit
August 9th, 2008 at 6:51 pmis a step in the right direction. I am not understanding your quick negative reaction to this article.
The fact that not all citizens believe we need a national health care program is one of the indicators that this country has a more effective propaganda machine than any other country has ever had, including Nazi Germany.
August 9th, 2008 at 6:54 pmerror,
stateofthedivision statement ends with:
responsibility to the worker.
August 9th, 2008 at 6:54 pmAnyone suppose some of the illnesses such as AIDS, incurable staph infections,.. would get more research if health care was taken out of the For Profit mode? If the profit was taken out of Big Pharma, would there be more drug research in treating fatal diseases rather than the money makers such as erectile dysfunction drugs?
August 9th, 2008 at 7:05 pmhad enough Says:
If the profit was taken out of Big Pharma, would there be more drug research in treating fatal diseases rather than the money makers such as erectile dysfunction drugs?
_____________
Yeah, but what would Bob Dole do for a living, and what about poor Rush-bo?
August 9th, 2008 at 7:23 pmhad enough Says:
Anyone suppose some of the illnesses such as AIDS, incurable staph infections,.. would get more research if health care was taken out of the For Profit mode?
In a word, YES.
There is simply no incentive to search for cures for disease, only to find drugs that can maintain the disease.
If diseases were cured, such a drug would be a one-time only profit, while maintenance drugs, by definition, require the user to return to the well month after month, or die.
The "fear-based populace" has been a long time in the works, and it arrived just in time to ram through so much of the neocon's wet dreams, that has benefited so few:
Medicare Part D - Big Pharma and their lobbyists
No-bid military contracts - Halliburton, KBR, Blackwater, etc. and their lobbyists
An unstable Middle East to enable Big Oil to reap records profits, and of course, pay outs to their lobbyists
And in the process, we've allowed our basic freedoms to be stolen out from under us, without so much as a wimper.
And THIS is why the neocons love bush... they're just sorry he wasn't able to dismantle Social Security and give all that money to Wall Street before he left office. (Can you imagine what would have happened to that cash if Bush had has his way 4 years ago? Can you spell Bear Sterns?)
Sorry, I went way OT, but got on a roll...
PEACE
August 9th, 2008 at 7:24 pmWhat's next?
A STERN letter to the Ins. Co.'s from this spineless Congress?
Give me a mo'fo break!!!
August 9th, 2008 at 7:34 pmThe platform is a victory for Hillary. Absolutely...
http://www.political-buzz.com/
August 9th, 2008 at 7:34 pmkaty should get a hat tip for the Update.
Just sayin'....
August 9th, 2008 at 8:03 pmAugust 9th, 2008 at 8:17 pm
Had enough,
I loudly applaud the platform. Over the years, I've written many members of Congress on it. I even worked in a local community collaborative to make it reality. After four very successful years we disbanded due to huge state and federal policy roadblocks.
I'm skeptical the current Democratic Congressional leadership has any intention of making it happen.
August 9th, 2008 at 8:21 pm"Healthcare"??? THAT is their planned upon theme???
Not: "What a disaster the Republicans have been for the last eight years"???
You gotta be kidding me.
August 9th, 2008 at 8:38 pmThis should be made an amendment into the constitution. Every citizen after all has a right to LIFE, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Therefore, as a advanced society with the advanced knowledge in the field of health care, we should not deny any person access to these life saving procedures. To say that money should be the only determining factor between saving your life or dying is ridiculous. The constitution wasn't built around wealth, it was built around people. Government by the people, FOR the people. Therefore, if universal health care is wanted by the people, then the government has to serve the people.
Big business conservatives need to wrap their minds around this concept. Life is a right guaranteed under the constitution. More then 18,000 people a year die from lack of health coverage. This should be made illegal under federal laws.
August 9th, 2008 at 8:46 pmOn health-care:
Having grown up in the UK I have first-hand experience of ‘affordable comprehensive health care for all’ and having worked in the US in construction/woodworking for quite a while I also have first-hand experience of workers-comp (helpful) and of what one’s options are when unemployed and without health insurance of any kind.
UK:
I was born at home with just a midwife attending.
My 12-year old brother R. had open-heart surgery.
My 9-year old brother J broke his arm
My 13 year brother I broke his leg
My 52-year old father broke his foot and a doctor came to our house.
At 12 years old I fractured my skull, spent two days in a coma and a week in hospital.
At 14 years of age I accidentally cut-off the top of my thumb, which was stitched back-on.
At 84 my mother spent her last four-weeks in a hospital which had a garden (in fact all the wards were arranged around gardens) that she could see from her room. The hospital staff let us bring her Gin and Tonic every day we visited (she said it was the only thing she could still really taste).
The only cost to my middle-class (at-best) family for all this was the expected nominal Health Insurance tax taken out of my parent’s and everyone-else’s wages. Importantly, the necessary use of this health-care didn’t change the taxes my parents paid and had no evident effect on their employers’ contributions either.
I doubt there's anything exceptional in this history of family medical misfortunes except for the fact that only the injuries caused distress--not the finances needed to address them.
August 9th, 2008 at 8:48 pmBTW.. many thanks to Amanda for working on the weekend. Amanda does this a lot and I for one appreciate her work, so neener-neener katy (though I appreciate your contributions too).
August 9th, 2008 at 8:54 pm5th Estate,
I wish I could have given my Mummy gin & tonics. I had to settle for Dilaudid and Ativan.
August 9th, 2008 at 8:57 pml o l , 5th... (and thanks!)
you're correct... amanda deserves major kudos...
i DO appreciate the work of ALL the TP staff...
just found the last days lacking, as if distracted...
imagine that...
i even submitted a great topic that the TP ladies should've found fun - a compilation of mcCREEPY's sicko sexist humor...
rachel maddow was expressing her wish for such the other day...
i mean, if they can't think of more and better ways to promote and help out the Democratic Presidential nominee...
August 9th, 2008 at 10:58 pm...
zooey - i just noticed that Update w/digby...
thanks again...
August 9th, 2008 at 11:34 pmtoo tired to read it, but first reaction - whew!
Obama partisans block Clinton faction bid to end caucuses
Chicago Tribune - 1 hour ago
PITTSBURGH - Hillary Rodham Clinton loyalists tried Saturday to kill off the caucus system that proved so damaging to her presidential bid, but were beaten back by a Democratic Party leadership firmly under the command of Barack Obama.
Compromise Platform Draft Goes to Democratic Convention New York Times
Democrats derail bid by Clinton backers to ban caucuses Kansas City Star
"compromise"?
August 10th, 2008 at 12:05 amUntil Congressional Critters are given the same medical access and cost that a working mom has to endure, with the same income proportional premiums (30% of wages . . .), we will NEVER get anything close to "health care", it will continue to be "Health Care-less".
(You don't build and own the biggest building in a city by giving your customers a "good deal" . . . and Lobbyists cost a FORTUNE!)
August 10th, 2008 at 2:19 am"Affordable" for whom? That's sell-out language. Even Nixon felt healthcare should be a right, not an "affordable" commodity. The Dims are beholden to big insurance interests but making the purchase of health insurance mandatory (like auto insurance) isn't a solution. What about those out of work or so underpaid that food and rent are barely affordable? What about medications? Too much BS!
August 10th, 2008 at 9:06 amSINGLE PAY OR BUST!
August 10th, 2008 at 10:55 amConsidering that the current Democratic Congress has accomplished nothing but capitulate to the Republican's agenda, I'm not holding breath waiting to see these ambitious goals achieved, even with a Democratic president.
http://progressiveworldreview.com
August 10th, 2008 at 11:54 amWhat a crock.
It doesn't say "free." This is code for everyone being forced to pay insurance companies.
This doesn't say that the troops are coming home. This is code for building up in Afghanistan and invading Pakistan (or Iran).
August 10th, 2008 at 3:58 pmTanqueray Says:
I sure hope they intend to include care for illegitimate children of ex-Senators in this plank.
August 11th, 2008 at 2:39 amAugust 9th, 2008 at 6:28 pm
You have no argument, TROLL...which is shown by how you resort to a personal attack...at least offer up the usual cliche, how by following this platform, we'd be turning America into a Communist, I mean TERRORIST country...
Sad thing is the wingnuts including this TROLL are so brainwashed that they don't realize how much this would help them...
but unfortunately GOP propaganda works...hell I wonder if the GOP claimed that the wingnuts had to sacrifice their first-born children, they would do so willingly if the GOP claimed that this would prevent the country from descending into Communism or whatever...
August 11th, 2008 at 2:40 amEven Paul Krugman is skeptical of Democratic efforts to make the plank a reality:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/11/opinion/11krugman.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
August 11th, 2008 at 10:49 amcheck out BuzzFlash's coverage of the Dem press conference discussing the platform today: Democratic Party Unveils Platform, Trying Hard to Project Unity
August 15th, 2008 at 4:36 pm