Actually, we may have dodged a bullet here. No “solutions” from the Solutions Group might be better than the awful solutions they could have come up with.

Could he at least tell us what the principles are?

1. Make people buy from the insurance companies [even though everybody in the country hates them].

2. Extend the patent period for drugs so big Pharma can wring more money out of people.

3. Cut funding for gym at schools.

Republicans discovered that their ”Death to Poor People Act of 2009” didn’t do well in focus group testing.

Here is the sort of thing that Roy Blunt Instrument apparently thinks is just peachy — a family’s facing being tossed out into the street because their new baby needs lots of medical care:

Mind you, we didn’t have any sort of cushion. Our financial situation was never fat. Always lean. We had streamlined. Budgeted. Lived within our means. We had almost no credit card debt.

We opted to pay down student loans rather than buy a newer car, which we easily could have done.

So when our employer was dropped and we had to scramble to individually continue the policy, in short, taking a cut in work compensation, the payments for that came out of…..the only place we had left. Credit cards.

When faced with the option of having no insurance or accruing credit card debt to keep my pregnant wife and unborn child insured, I opted for the latter. Between the monthly costs and thousands in doctors bills that weren’t covered by the weak insurance we had, we accrued over $9,000 in medical debt. And when we finally met our huge deductible, our insurance only covered a tiny fraction of the vaccinations and Well Baby visits necessary for an infant’s first year of life.

And then my wife’s job simply died after 121 years in business.

The $9000 in debt, which was previously a steel ball around our modest living, became the thing threatening our home, even our continued ability to pay for the health insurance itself.

It was one thing to lose the job.

It was quite another to lose our job, saddled with almost ten thousand dollars in medical debt: hospitals, doctors, ultrasound labs, gynecologists calling us about payments that we simply had no way to make.

And why?

Because we briefly felt safe and wanted to bring another little person into our family.

And we’re some of the lucky ones.

blunt is already walking back his statement, per sargent.

Guess the guy lives up to his name.

Also noted, this is the same Representative that recently said that perhaps Medicare was a mistake.

Read between the lines on GOP Code Words no plan is their plan! That has always been their plan. Tell me did all those GOP Congressmen vote for George Bush’s Medicare drug plan, the one that cost government money?
Ask the GOPers why they voted for that plan and not this plan that will be revenue neutral.

I wish I could say I was shocked by this. It would be nice if Republicans and Blue Dogs had even a shred of integrity.

But alas, they do not.

When faced with the option of having no insurance or accruing credit card debt to keep my pregnant wife and unborn child insured, I opted for the latter. Between the monthly costs and thousands in doctors bills that weren’t covered by the weak insurance we had, we accrued over $9,000 in medical debt. And when we finally met our huge deductible, our insurance only covered a tiny fraction of the vaccinations and Well Baby visits necessary for an infant’s first year of life.

My bold PW that is perfect for an ad to run in GOP districts Blunt wants to force unemployed people who choose to life into bankruptcy.

True they are using Code Words on this one. But why not use code words on race like Reagan did from faux outrage over wise Latinas to concern that Obama does not have a birth certificate because he was born in other country?

The GOP is the party of no ideas the blue dogs the party of no spine. if Harry can’t control his dogs I think Harry might face a challenge for the leadership in the Senate.
That vote is simple majority right?
If the GOP loses this one who cares they need Dems to defect to filibuster. They are not relevant unless we make them relevant through weakness.

Yeah. “Choose Life? Choose Bankruptcy Too, if Roy Blunt has his way!”

Really, $9,000 is peanuts as most debt goes. I’ve had credit cards with more debt on them. Yet if you have no job, $9,000 and $900,000 might as well be the same damned number. And this is for a family that played by the rules and didn’t spend money like water.

I gather your zero tolerance cut-off point is similar to mine. Thank you.

Why do they fail, utterly, to see or care what harm they foster and perpetuate?! The lack of any shred of true humanity among them stuns me.

I am ashamed of them, FOR them, for they surely KNOW what they do.

That’s what is most hideous to me, regarding their conduct. They are aware of the harm to living beings, and they turn away as if deaf and blind.

The Republicans have stirred up their base on this issue. They simply call it big government and scare people about their insurance and their taxes. But Obama’s team has ignored the Democratic base. They are arguing to all of America, when they do not even have those who should be their core supporters. This is mostly due to their refusal to support single-payer. (Just ask anyone who works the phones in the House office buildings of liberal Dems.) But it is also because Obama refuses to call out his opponents — the insurance industry and the drug companies. These guys make billions and they don’t want to give up their profit. Usually, Obama can get away with being above the politics. But these are far too big and powerful opponents to just hope they fold. He needs to change the dialogue and get the scrutiny on the opposition.

Is there such a thing as a faith-based healthcare plan? I’m sure that’ll work with the rethugs. Have faith that you won’t get sick, and if you do, then its clearly evidence of a loss of divine favor, in which case you should try to go to your neighborhood church and see what they can do for you….

This is bizarre. But why am I surprised?! And btw, I can see Elba from my kitchen window. *g*

((((barbara))))!

How ya doin’, ma’am? Settling in?

Typical Republican. What if Democrats had simply stayed home during eight years of Bush for the same reason Blunt doesn’t have an alternative Republican Health Care Bill to present?

You mean, they didn’t? You’re saying they were there, present, and fighting all the way? Gee, I don’t remember that. I remember Dems whining a lot that there was nothing they could do.

Why do they fail, utterly, to see or care what harm they foster and perpetuate?! The lack of any shred of true humanity among them stuns me.

It stuns me, too.

How human beings (who, after all are voted into office by other human beings, not corporations) can be so devoid of compassion for 50 million of their peers never ceases to amaze me.

Republicans are frightfully unable to see Elba

Elba was the place Napoleon had come from – after Waterloo he was sent to St Helena, which is a lot farther away.

If we had millions to put in their pockets we would get some serious attention. What they don’t seem to realize is that if each of those 50 million put in $1, they would have $50M. That’s real support but they don’t see that the citizens have more money combined than the lobbyists.

I guess the point I was making–awkwardly–is that while Nap felt able when he saw Elba, Republicans are unable to provide any amo for their Waterloo battle.

yeah.. Napolen actually FIXED Elba’s infrastructure and social services before he got bored with the tiny place and recommenced his conquest of the western world. If the rethugs had been sent to Elba, they’d have eliminated social services, let the infrastructure rot, killed half the residents, and then focused all their attention on building nuclear missiles with which to re-attack Europe. St. Helena was basically just a prison for Napoleon – he wasn’t allowed to rule anything there.

Source: Washington Post

Research Firm Cited by GOP Is Owned by Health Insurer
By David S. Hilzenrath
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 22, 2009; 6:46 PM

The political battle over health-care reform is waged largely with numbers, and few number-crunchers have shaped the debate as much as the Lewin Group, a consulting firm whose research has been widely cited by opponents of a public insurance option.

To Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, the House Republican whip, it is ”the nonpartisan Lewin Group.” To Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee, it is an ”independent research firm.” To Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, the second-ranking Republican on the pivotal Finance Committee, it is ”well known as one of the most nonpartisan groups in the country.”

Generally left unsaid amid all the citations is that the Lewin Group is wholly owned by UnitedHealth Group, one of the nation’s largest insurers.

More specifically, the Lewin Group is part of Ingenix, a UnitedHealth subsidiary that was accused by the New York attorney general and the American Medical Association, a physician’s group, of helping insurers shift medical expenses to consumers by distributing skewed data. Ingenix supplied its parent company and other insurers with data that allegedly understated the ”usual and customary” doctor fees that insurers use to determine how much they will reimburse consumers for out-of-network care.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/…../20…

Principles of a conservative health care plan

Open up insurance markets to more competition

Tort reform- this could be possible, but the leftists will never let this happen, see John Edwards.

Ending of employer-based insurance- this distorts the healthcare market as well as the labor market. This would end the portability problem, and as Obama said last night, it would increase wages if employers were not purchasing expensive health plans. Secondly, here some kind of health insurance exchange would be a good thing, sans the public option. This would increase the market for health insurance, and bring down cost.

If all of you would purchase a used college econ 101 textbook, this stuff would be a lot clearer to all of you. However, I understand that leftists do not understand logic, so best of luck.

The real goal of the leftists is not better healthcare and increased health insurance coverage, it is power over the citizenry. Thank goodness for the second amendment.

Hi. Settling in but need to sell that nice old house. Where’s that perfect buyer I was promised. Waaah! Seriously, we’re doing pretty well, considering. Lots of boxes recycled this past week and contents put… somewhere… I even popped out a couple of large volunteer tomatoes from our old digs and they’re getting settled in. Kitties are happy. We’re happy, but I miss the Lake. Spoiled rotten that I am. Got some catching up to do. Thanks.