• Explicit rejection of price controls and rate-setting



• A level playing field on taxes, regulations and administration



• Limited participation to certain market segments (e.g. small group and individual)



• Required supermajority approval for federal bailout of the public plan (in addition to self-financing)



• Automatic sunset after four years unless the plan can demonstrate solid financial performance and positive impacts on market stability



• Mandatory accreditation or evaluation of providers, plans and other stakeholders to ensure private sector cost containment if targets are not met

“Creating a brand-new government program will not only worsen our long-term financial outlook but also negatively impact American families who enjoy the private coverage of their choice,” said the letter from nine Republicans who are working on bipartisan health-care legislation.



The senators include Charles Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, and Mike Enzi of Wyoming, the ranking Republican on the Senate’s health panel.



...The signatories argued that creation of a so-called “public option” will undermine private insurers and eventually limit provider and treatment choices for consumers.



“Washington-run programs undermine market-based competition through their ability to impose price controls and shift costs to other purchasers,” they wrote. “Forcing free- market plans to compete with these government-run programs would create an unlevel playing field and inevitably doom true competition.”

I woke up this morning and the first thing I saw was Rick Scott's ugly mug on yetdistorted ad from Conservatives "For" Patients Rights. I guess you can't call it "Conservatives Against Patients Rights" or "Conservatives For Insurance Industry CEO Rights," though both names would far more accurately describe the essence of Scott's jihad against health care reform. (That link above includes a wonderful clip from Rachel Maddow that thoroughly explains why a career criminal like Rick Scott is involved in this debate.) Today's ad claims that if there is a public option it will drive for-profit health insurance companies out of business. From, as my dear departed grandmother used to say, their lips to God's ear! Someone should ask him towhy it would drive for-profit insurance crooks out of business and why that's a bad thing.Don't expect our elected representatives to ask that question. Not counting the banksters ($3,560,808,113), the biggest spenders on Congress are the fine folks from the Medical-Industrial Complex. Since 1998 they've spent $3,405,669,482 on lobbying our federal elected officials, trying to persuade them that substandard health care that generates huge profits for middle men is just what the doctor ordered. Insurance alone is the second biggest industry in the country when it comes to lobbying-- $1,220,365,114-- second only to Big Pharma at $1,620,254,958 (andmore ready to spend than Big Oil at $785,573,021 or investment firms at $626,626,225). Add to that an other $833,259,267 in direct "contributions" from "Big Health" to candidates (clearly bribes) and $315,390,117 from Insurance and you're looking at billions of reasons why Congress likes the status quo regardless of how bad it is for their constituents.Remember, of course, every member of Congress has the kind of health care coverage we're asking for. In fact, I posed a question to the Progressive Caucus asking why we can't have the same coverage that members of Congress have. In the video below you'll see progressive superstar Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) answering: "That's exactly what we're talking about-- making sure that everybody has a plan at least as good as the members of Congress." As Ryan Grim pointed out earlier at Huff Po , the Blue Dogs have joined the Republicans to fight the public option.Today McJoan at Daily Kos analyzed the fake reform that the conservadems were circulating-- the same kind of proposal for a non-robust, non-workable public option that will only do one thing-- guarantee more extreme profits for their patrons at Big Insurance. These are the people who Max Baucus (DLC-MT) listens to while he's having single-payer proponents arrested and carted off to jail. And here's what they think Change should look like:They didn't even have to think about it; it's straight from K Street lobbyists; you see that $3,405,669,482 isn't for naught. The best explanation I've ever seen on the health care debate is on this Bill Moyers segment we posted Saturday. If you missed it, do yourself a favor and watch. And then watch Howard Dean on with Keith Olberman tonight.Of course making the Conservadems look like Sisters of Mercy are the Republicans with their anti-working family proposals to kill health care reform entirely. They sent President Obama a letter today in response to his call for a public option Olympia Snowe (R-ME), was the only Republican on the Finance Committee who refused to sign the letter, I'm surprised Max Baucus didn't fill in for her. These are the members of the Senate Finance Committee who sit on the Health Care subcommittee-- along with their phone numbers (and the amount of "donations" each has taken from Big Insurance):Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), chairman - 202-224-5323 ($400,674)Jeff Bingaman, (D-NM)- 202-224-5521John Kerry (D-MA)- 202-224-2742 ($1,397,617)Blanche Lincoln (DLC-AR)- 202-224-4843 ($456,533)Ron Wyden (D-OR)- 202-224-5244Chuck Schumer (D-NY)- 202-224-6542 ($981,400)Debbie Stabenow (D-MI)- 202-224-4822 ($251,050)Maria Cantwell (D-WA)- 202-224-3441 ($81,750)Bill Nelson (D-FL)- 202-224-5274 ($522,016)Robert Menendez (D-NJ)- 202-224-4744 ($464,679)Tom Carper (DLC-DE)- 202-224-2441 ($451,724)Orrin Hatch (R-UT), ranking Repug - 202-224-5251 ($661,807)Olympia Snowe (R-ME)- 202-224-5344 ($408,490)John Ensign (R-NV)- 202-224-6244 ($584,940)Mike Enzi (R-WY)- 202-224-3424 ($240,953)John Cornyn (R-TX)- 202-224-2934 ($566,053)Jon Kyl (R-AZ)- 202-224-4521 ($533,044)Jim Bunning (R-KY)- 202-224-4343 ($781,016)Mike Crapo (R-ID)- 202-224-6142 ($375,432)Members of the Houses' Progressive Caucus answer questions about health care:

Labels: health care, Max Baucus, Progressive Caucus, Rick Scott, single-payer health insurance