Dean Rejects Conrad’s Health Care Co-Op Proposal: ‘This Is Not A Real Compromise’
Dean Rejects Conrad’s Health Care Co-Op Proposal: ‘This Is Not A Real Compromise’
Last week, Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) floated a health care proposal intended to mollify conservatives who are upset over the possible creation of a public health insurance plan. Instead of offering consumers a government-run option similar to Medicare, Conrad suggests giving individuals and very small businesses the option to buy into a plan that would be run by a non-profit cooperative. The idea has gained the support of Democratic senators, including Max Baucus (D-MT).
The idea would be to create multiple state or regional non-profit co-operatives, operating through members who choose a board of directors and a CEO. Unlike Medicare, this model “would lack the market leverage to bargain for lower prices.”
This morning on MSNBC, former Gov. Howard Dean rejected Conrad’s proposal, saying it is “not a real compromise.” “This is a fix for the Senate problem,” he said, “this doesn’t fix the American problem.” After heaping praise on Conrad, Dean explained:
He’s wrong about this. The co-ops are too small to compete with the big, private insurance companies. They will kill the co-ops completely by undercutting them, using their financial clout to do it. In the small states like mine and like Senator Conrad’s, you’re never gonna get to the 500,000 number signed up in the co-op that you need to in order for them to have any marketing [power].
This is a compromise designed to deal with problems in the Senate. But it doesn’t deal with problems in America. And I think it’s time for the Senate to stop playing politics, do what has to be done. … If the Republicans don’t want to get on board, then we can do this without the Republicans.
Watch it:
The Wonk Room’s Igor Volsky also notes that Conrad’s co-op proposal will lack the inherent advantages of a new public option. “Thus, co-ops should be considered as a supplement to — not a replacement for — a public health plan,” Volsky writes.
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The Dems need to stop dithering and commit to single-payer NOW.
June 15th, 2009 at 12:23 pmOoh, I’ve got a compromise! How about single-payer?
June 15th, 2009 at 12:27 pmHoward Dean!
Where the HELL have YOU been? We need you, man. Your country calls, again!
June 15th, 2009 at 12:28 pmWhy are the Dems even consulting with the Repugs? As far as I’m concerned, the Repugs should be shut out of all decisions. It was the Repugs fault we are in this mess. They spent the last eight years bashing gays, Stepping into Terry Shivo’s personal life, and outlawed flag-burning.
June 15th, 2009 at 12:28 pmWhen will this country give itself what its people deserve–a gold-standard health program like France’s–instead of fleecing its oblivious inhabitants?
When will this country begin taking care of its citizens the same way the rest of the civilized world’s nations have, instead of making vast fortunes off of them?
When will we demand it? When?
June 15th, 2009 at 12:29 pmThis is a compromise designed to deal with problems in the Senate. But it doesn’t deal with problems in America. And I think it’s time for the Senate to stop playing politics, do what has to be done. … If the Republicans don’t want to get on board, then we can do this without the Republicans.
Gooooooood Morning, America! Let’s get this done before the Republicans realize they are wearing a costume to a formal ball. And now, “Nowhere to Run” from Martha Reeves and the Vandellas…..
June 15th, 2009 at 12:30 pmIf they want to establish a generational majority they would…
June 15th, 2009 at 12:30 pmP.D. sed:
“As far as I’m concerned, the Repugs should be shut out of all decisions.”
Amen, bruh. Amen. Their very breath fouls the air.
June 15th, 2009 at 12:31 pmStandard Dem Congressional response to anything – “Hey, the Republicans aren’t compromising. Oh well, I guess that means we’ll just have to compromise twice as much!”
June 15th, 2009 at 12:32 pmIt is time for the conservaDems to stop the delays and obstructions. Forget the co-ops and pass the health care with a government plan. The insurance companies can take care of themselves or go out of business.
June 15th, 2009 at 12:36 pmRuss Feingold is our man regarding single-payer.
June 15th, 2009 at 12:36 pmFleecing is the American way! If someone has a need, don’t meet it, just figure out how to exploit their weakness. That at least is the Republicans’ way, and if the Democrats go along, it’s time for a whole new political ballgame.
June 15th, 2009 at 12:39 pmIm always amazed at the amount of whining over taxes but they are willing to pay more for insurance believing that these associations work to defend free market capitalism when they are actually acting as protectionists to keep prices artificially inflated.
If there were true competitive capitalism there would not be 1300 health insurance providers acting together but 500 or less with larger pools driving costs down instead of up.
June 15th, 2009 at 12:39 pmRemember when Tom Delay, aka, ‘The Hammer’ would literally frog-march the Dems out of any legislation? Watching the Repugs whine and stamp their feet is a little amazing to me. From the Big, Bad Tough guys, The Repugs are reduced to children. Kind of amusing.
June 15th, 2009 at 12:40 pmMultiple co-ops means multiple CEOs, CFOs, COOs, multiple information systems, multiple accounting departments, multiples of everything running a healthplan entails!
Didn’t these free market capitalists ever hear of the concept of economies of scale? Reduction of cost per unit?
Why the hell do they think Medicare has only 2% overhead, while most private and so-called non-profits operate at about 15-20%?
Morons, bought and paid for! Single payer now!
PEACE
June 15th, 2009 at 12:42 pmUntil Americans start to kick out congress and senate members who are willing to protect the medical insurance industry and continue to take their money, America will not have a decent and affordable health care system.
June 15th, 2009 at 12:43 pmIf there were true competitive capitalism there would not be 1300 health insurance providers acting together but 500 or less with larger pools driving costs down instead of up.
If there were true competition, with 1300 providers, health care costs would be affordable. Since they aren’t worried about competition but instead grabbing a piece of the pie, they are all dedicated to making it a bigger pie.
June 15th, 2009 at 12:45 pmSo the “compromise” is making an inoperative public option?
June 15th, 2009 at 12:46 pmI watched Michael Moore’s “Sicko” again yesterday….and felt deep shame for our country. Once again, it illustrated that greedy corporate bigwigs value their extreme profits over the lives of American citizens. Remember that in that documentary, a young (early 40s) black family man, married to a white woman, got cancer and was denied care because it was deemed “experimental”. And his wife worked for the care company!! He died. Also, a Latino family man in Texas, 24, got cancer and they hospital demanded $135,000 for his treatment. They were able to raise about $6,000 but when they ran out of money, the treatment stopped. He died a year later. WHAT IS WRONG WITH US?!! France has wonderful healthcare, Great Britan, Norway, Sweden……..the list goes on. We are 37th in healthcare in the civilized world…infant mortality is higher in America than in CUBA! and a whole list of other countries. And now our elected officials want to make sure the insurance companies are protected if we reform health care? We pay their salaries, and they only do what the healthcare lobbiests tell them to. I am ashamed to be an American.
June 15th, 2009 at 12:51 pmHere’s the AP headline:
Obama pleads for support of health system overhaul
Pleads? With both houses of congress and high polling numbers, why is my president having to plead for anything?
Can anyone remember Bush pleading for anything? Or the MSM reporting it as such? Me neither.
PEACE
June 15th, 2009 at 12:54 pmZooey Says:
The Dems need to stop dithering and commit to single-payer NOW.
June 15th, 2009 at 12:54 pm““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““
Zooey, it’s NEVER going to happen. Because just like the banks, the health care industry and big pharma also own the senate. The democrats are playing right into the republicans plan by trying to work with them. The end result will be a piss poor health care plan that will come back to haunt the democrats in the future!
We conflate the pursuit of happiness with accumulating the almighty dollar?
Pursuit of the almightly dollar…
June 15th, 2009 at 12:54 pm:|
Oh, how much is that co-op red herring in the Republican window? Funny, now the corporate types like these “co-ops,” and yet they are still extremely anti-social, as in socialized public option not-for-profit federal health insurance. The end is near for corporate greed exploiting our health problems. The public option is probably the best way to move towards single-payer not-for-profit universal health insurance. The free enterprise cheerleaders are scared shitless of competition from a federal public option health insurance program…
June 15th, 2009 at 12:54 pmHey Democrats, how about growing a pair and stand up for the American people like you’ve promised.
June 15th, 2009 at 12:55 pmDr. Howard Dean and Senator Bernie Sanders both make so much common sense. I wish they would make more public appearances re; single payer health care. They tell the truth….including the truth about the GOP propoganda talking points from Frank Luntz.
June 15th, 2009 at 12:56 pmLook, the netroots raised tens of millions of dollars during the last campaign. How about we tell our congress people that we will absolutely not donate or help raise a penny, won’t go canvas, won’t attend rallies, write letters to the editor, work the polling stations, etc. until they recongize the true value of their constituents over their corporate donors?
I’m calling my senators and my congressman today. Care to join me?
PEACE
June 15th, 2009 at 12:58 pm“This is a compromise designed to deal with problems in the Senate. But it doesn’t deal with problems in America.”
June 15th, 2009 at 12:58 pmI love this guy!!
Here’s my post from yesterday in regard to Robert Reich’s column about Obama rejecting the AMA’s position on single-payer: It’s on…
June 15th, 2009 at 12:58 pmspencers mom Says:
Here’s the AP headline:
Obama pleads for support of health system overhaul
Pleads? With both houses of congress and high polling numbers, why is my president having to plead for anything?
Can anyone remember Bush pleading for anything? Or the MSM reporting it as such? Me neither.
PEACE
June 15th, 2009 at 12:59 pm“““““““““““““““““““““““““““““`
Exactly! President Obama needs to stop trying to be so popular with everyone and start pushing his agenda. The republican party is leaderless and in disarray, if the democrats can’t manage to push through polices that help the American people now, than when? Time to stop playing nice and start forcing the issues. We won, lets start seeing the change we were promised! It begins with health care.
“They tell the truth….including the truth about the GOP propoganda talking points from Frank Luntz.”
There was news I saw over the weekend (Dailykos?) that Harry Reid has been talking messaging advice from Frank Luntz.
Frank Luntz. So, everyone will be talking like a Republican. Gee, how great.
I used to be a Harry Reid fan, but he’s losing my support with such nonsense.
June 15th, 2009 at 1:00 pmEvil Spaniard Says:
So the “compromise” is making an inoperative public option?
That’s what R’s do. I think they know they can’t kill a health care bill. But they also know what they can do is throw in hundreds of little amendments that screw up the whole system and force it to fail. Then later on they can see “look, government health care doesn’t work!” They’ve done it to most bills, as well as most government functions in which they “serve.” The Medicare prescription benefit is a good example. There was no reason for it to be that bizarrely complicated, unless making it bizarrely complicated is your intent in the first place.
.
spencers mom Says:
Here’s the AP headline:
Obama pleads for support of health system overhaul
Pleads? With both houses of congress and high polling numbers, why is my president having to plead for anything?</em.
Because that’s how the AP thought the title should be written. They decided to use that word even though there was nothing “pleading” in his speech at all. Liberal bias my ass…
June 15th, 2009 at 1:01 pmDean is right and Conrad is wrong. The biggest fear I’ve heard expressed by the Republicans is that a public health care plan is a slippery slope to (oh horrors!) single-payer health care. In other words, it will lead to exactly what we desperately need in the U.S. Conrad and Baucus, both, are bought and paid for by the insurance industry and they aren’t the only ones.
June 15th, 2009 at 1:03 pmAre there any Socialists in N. Dakota? We can do a head count in about 10 minutes of the entire state, its not even the size of a big suburb. Dean is absolutely right and Conrad is a chicken liver and dead wrong. So dead wrong that by inaction he risks the lives of millions. Without a moral component in the health care debate Conrad could win: The Senate needs reform and rollover quickly and little North Dakota might be just the place to start.
June 15th, 2009 at 1:03 pmIn the heads of politicians:
Politician D: I would like to push for the single payer option but than I would lose my much needed $$$$ I get as campaign contributions from the health care industry and big pharma, plus they might fund an opponent and run me out of office.
Politician R: To hell with the American people and the single payer option. If they want good health care they should become a politician. Besides I have to do what my masters tell me to do and they say no to a single payer option.
June 15th, 2009 at 1:04 pmSadly after all that Howard Dean has done for the democratic party, with his 50 State strategy, he has now been pushed aside by the likes of Rahm Emanual and has become a lone voice on the sidelines.
June 15th, 2009 at 1:09 pmWe wonder why the Dems are tagged as wimps? The Dems think too much (if that is possible). They should grow some balls and go for all or nothing. We gave them a mandate. Just friggin do it.
June 15th, 2009 at 1:11 pmBecause of the Blue Dogs like Conrad, there is no way Single Payer will happen.
June 15th, 2009 at 1:13 pmAt this point all one can hope for is the Public Option, and it is doubtful that that will even happen.
spencer’s mom says: Can anyone remember Bush pleading for anything? Or the MSM reporting it as such? Me neither.
Me neither, too. Bush DEMANDED that the Congress push through that ridiculous Medicare Part D, and he made sure his congressional minions obeyed. I want Obama to go to Capitol Hill and DEMAND that the damn Dems–Dinos,BlueDogs,Yellow dogs alike–pass a public option immediately, or feel his wrath for the rest of their tenure. I’m tired of those spineless idiots, and especially tired of Ben Nelson, Kent Conrad, Harry Reid, et al. who should resign and join the Rethuglican party, since they’re useless to real Democratic policies. I’m with you, spencer’s mom, and Peace to you, too.
June 15th, 2009 at 1:22 pmDoes anybody remember when the Repukes tried to “mollify” the Democrats on anything?
June 15th, 2009 at 1:30 pmNow THAT’S a pro-compromise!
June 15th, 2009 at 1:30 pmThe Republicans are abandoning their party because they are going seriously nuts. The Democrats need to bail on their party because they are seriously bought or whimpy.
Our politicians are selected by the parties, given monetary support for their willingness to support party policy and dogma.
What would happen if they claimed a party and America said no thanks.
Time to shut the corporocrats down.
June 15th, 2009 at 1:30 pmI wanna be in the co-op that congress is in.
June 15th, 2009 at 1:41 pmHealth care should not be a ‘for-profit’ industry, period. There is enough incentive to spur innovation in this field without a need for profit.
PS, replace Reid with Feingold or Franken…
June 15th, 2009 at 1:41 pmStrange so many conservatives hate National Healthcare. What would you call it when you, the taxpayer, pays 2/3rds of the cost for healthcare for the representatives ? The Reps pay only 1/3 of the cost, per Debbie Wasserman D from Florida.
For private pay it runs from $350/month to $900/month. AND you get a list of doctors to choose from, AND from what I can see the doctors aren’t getting paid enough. So guess whose pocket all this money is going into.
The lobbyists for pharma have spent $1,000,000 more this year than at the same time last year to keep the gold.
June 15th, 2009 at 1:50 pmThat movie was horrible. I was really excited when he announced the topic of the movie, but the execution COMPLETELY missed the mark. There are plenty of horror stories about health insurance but devoting even a second to the denial of experimental procedures kind of invalidated the entire moive.
June 15th, 2009 at 1:59 pmCould Senate Dems have some type of criteria for whom they hand out Chairmanships to? Like, “Senate Dem Chairs won’t undercut the Democratic agenda and help Republicans advance theirs.”
Otherwise, why the hell do I give a rat’s ass about helping the people with a “D” after their name win a majority and assume greater power? Spare me the DSCC mailings when you Senate Dems
a) literally serve Wall Street finance big wigs,
b) help the big insurance companies stymie health care reform and
c) kill efforts at global warming action.
(Make no mistake, this list goes on and on.)
I’m so damned fed up with Democrats! They attack their base and curry favor with Republicans!
Not a dime for the DSCC. I will support individual candidates only.
June 15th, 2009 at 2:06 pmI understand small business is already taxed to the max, well why aren’t they on board for National Healthcare ? I would support an additional tax on what is bought, a surtax, so that anyone buying from food to furniture would be contributing, that way one segment would not carry the whole burden.
June 15th, 2009 at 2:34 pmAlpha – you may want to see who is receiving the most campaign money from big pharma and the AMA. Which for those who hate unions, AMA set charges on medical procedures along with health insurance providers.
June 15th, 2009 at 2:37 pmAre you posters aware that people paying cash versus those with insurance are charged more for the same procedure ? Because insurance bargains with the providers same as Walmart forces vendors to give the lowest price possible if they want Walmart business. Taxpayers you are getting the shaft.
June 15th, 2009 at 2:39 pmDean was in perfect pitch this morning on MSNBC — clear headed, no matter what the argument — always presenting facts and truth.
June 15th, 2009 at 2:49 pmTexaslady, many people do not know that.
June 15th, 2009 at 2:57 pmWhen I had to carry my own insurance (which increased every year, even as I reduced coverage and increased my deductible to $5000 (I am a healthy person, no conditions, no prescriptions). It meant that I actually paid for everything out of pocket but because I paid that premium every month, I had the advantage of the “negotiated” rate of an insurance company. If I did not have any insurance, I would have paid a substantial percentage more out of pocket for those routine visits. Over a year, my premiums far outweighed my “discount”, but I would have been covered for a catastrophe that exceeded my $5000.
I saw a Repug say if there were no “negotiated rates” everyone could afford insurance — he must be nuts — totally unrealistic.
June 15th, 2009 at 3:14 pm
Congress and their families get FREE medical care with no costs or co-pays. It is time for a Dem to propose to put Congress’ medical plan on the same order of private plans which means premiums and co-pays. If a Dem forced the issue, there would be a lot in Congress that would be forced to take a position and they don’t want to do that. Then we would get health care reform with a public option.
June 15th, 2009 at 3:17 pmThe “trigger plan” and co-ops are both just lipstick on a pitbull.
Thank you for calling out weak-kneed “Democrats”, Gov. Dean.
June 15th, 2009 at 6:05 pmen son videolar
June 16th, 2009 at 9:41 amen son videolar