dailykos.com — To earn my vote, health insurance reform must improve access to affordable health care for Minnesota families – and this bill clears that bar with room to spare. This bill does not fix all the problems with our health care system, and I will not stop working to improve the quality and lower the costs of health care for all Americans.
Dec 20, 2009 View in Crawl 4
novenatorDec 20, 2009
FTD - "Requiring insurance companies to spend 85% of premiums on actual health services -- not administrative costs, TV ads, or gargantuan CEO bonuses -- is a big victory. Senator Rockefeller and I worked hard to get that provision included because it holds insurance companies accountable and will put an end to exploding premiums and obscene profits – a huge win for progressives."I was not aware this was in the bill. This is why this debate was so difficult, the wingnuts seemed to control the information flow somehow. I made it a full time job debunking their lies on various social media websites, but their rumors persisted, when people should have been talk about things like this.By the way, I'm still pissed the public option has been removed. I know Franken did everything he could to keep it in there though.
Closed AccountDec 20, 2009
Couldn't have said it better myself.Also: Franken RULES!
theuniversalDec 21, 2009
Franken and Obama and Kos can pound their fists all day long, but there isn't support in congress for a public option. Not sure why so many progressives are unable to count.
thinkouttheboxDec 21, 2009
It will be interesting to see what happens when millions of Americans choose to not be forced to buy health insurance.
dougchristianDec 21, 2009
The 85% percent doesn't refer to profits. It refers to total overhead. That is profits and administrative costs. That is everything that isn't healthcare from heating their buildings, to flying their executives to DC brunches, to paying an army of lawyers to figure out ways to avoid paying for your care.The current national average is around 75%, so this would be an improvement.And of course there are other major factors and problems. Many others. Our country is WAY too immature to deal with half of them and WAY to run by lobbyists to deal with the other half. If you couldn't see that in this healthcare debate you weren't paying attention. You tell me how you talk to a Christianist about end of life care decisions or to a bought Senator about cracking down on insurance companies.What I don't understand is why, when faced with that reality, you would get angry at the guys who were trying but failed.
dougchristianDec 21, 2009
Jesus. What part of YOU ARE NOT BEING FORCED TO BUY INSURANCE do you not understand? Get insurance or don't get insurance. You will rightfully pay a slightly higher income tax rate if you do not. That is all.