Senate Vote On Health Care Reform:Senate Health Care Vote
November 21, 2009 by Dylan
Senate Vote On Health Care Reform:Senate Health Care Vote – Senate health care vote results are in.The Senate has voted (by a vote of 60 vote yea to 39 nay) to allow the healthcare reform bill to come to the floor for debate.Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) secured the vital 60th vote by persuading Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) with some funds for her state.But it is not over because Lincoln said:
“I have concluded that it is more important to begin this debate rather than just simply drop the issue and walk away.I’m not afraid of that debate. I’ve already alerted the Leader and I’m promising my colleagues that I’m prepared to vote against moving to the next stage of consideration as long as a government run public option is included.
Reid said after the vote:
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“Tonight’s vote is not the end of the debate. It’s only the beginning,”
Tonight’s vote sets the stage for the epic December showdown over health care legislation.
This is unreal that our elected officials can ignore the voice of the people.
For me I am voting them all out. They can be unemployed like the rest of us
Gotta have the public option or the insurance companies win!
Dianne Fields your an idiot. If there is a public option, there will be no more insurance companies to win. Beside Medicare has denied ten times more claims than the greediest insurance company. When the Dems talk about the under insured, they are talking about those on medicare. Medicare under pays the doctor and they have to pass the differance on to the rest of us. What will happen to private insurance once half the country is on government insurance.
Dianne,
What are you thinking? First of all it is uncontitutional to force people to buy health insurance. Secondly, its not necessarily the insurance companies who are the bad guys here. The doctors and companies who provide drugs and medical devices or services are charging the insurance companies out the wazzoo. There needs to be reform, but not this crap the government is trying to shove down our throats. You think things are denied by insurance companies now, wait til you’re on the government option and you can’t get a mammogram or a yearly pap smear. The government needs to start with cutting fraud and doing some tort reform, and passing some legislation to get some competition going between the existing insurance companies without starting a new government beauracracy. That is the last thing this country needs.
We the working class will be punished for working and keeping the unemployed insured. Shame on your compassion. People who have worked hard to keep this country capitalistic, but now people like you want socialism, or why not communism. You say health care providers charge up the wazoo, and it is not necessarily the ins. companies. Just so you know, the providers agree to take their (ins.) patients, if they pay “X” amount of what medicare pays. it could be the same, or more, and some of these insurances have the audacity to offer less than medicare rates, which isn’t much in the first place. Which means that they can charge whatever they want, but they will only get paid what was agreed upon, the rest is a WRITE OFF. They do not get paid for that by the ins. or the patient. Right now medicare is paying about a third of the total charges. 2 thirds is written off. If you think there is a shortage of Doctors now, and you feel health care has gone down hill? Well go ahead and put in your new Health Care Reform, and see what happens then, even with all the tweeking. You better be careful what you ask for.
Hey mom
Your p!ssing in the wind. The moron you are addressing (Dianne) has likely never READ the Constitution. And if she has then she obviously has no regard for it. But she is in good company. 75% of Congress has nothing but disdain for that very document.
For the rest of you FREEDOM HATERS that want to force everyone onto a single payer healthcare system at the point of the gun of government…show me in the Constitution specifically where the federal government has been granted the power to provide ANYONE with healthcare. Show me in same document where the federal government has been empowered to force me to buy a product (insurance) by force. State governments have this right according to the tenth amendment. The Federal Government DOES NOT!
Uh oh. Just wait until this person discovers that everyone is required to buy auto insurance. TYRANNY! These hyper-patriots who’ve just now discovered the Constitution are hilarious. 8 years of Bush and Cheney wiping their asses with it and not a peep (extraordinary rendition, indefinite detention of US citizens with no trial and no legal representation — isn’t there something about that in the Constitution?). Now suddenly in a few short months of a Democratic presidency the country apparently lays in ruins and it’s all that awful Obama’s fault. It’s a case of willful, partisan amnesia to not recognize how we got here, and it’s simply pathological to suggest we once again turn the reins over to the very people who got us here. Astonishing.
James; You forget it is not mandated to buy auto insurance if you don’t have a car. In Washington State if you ride a motorcycle you don’t even have to purchase ins. because they have determined that the percentage of motorcycle involved accidents were caused by the person driving the car. In this so called Health Reform Bill it is mandated you have to buy health ins. or else!!!! Have a good day comrade.
Remember, if you have healthcare through your employer,,, as nearly all americans who have insurance do,,, your benefits are determined by your employer, not the insurance company. The employer negotiates the policy,,, you live with the results… The insurance company enforces the agreement. The public option is not negotiated,, it is determined by the government – as well as the reimbursement. So, there will be not choice left.
Have worked in healthcare for 25 years. Increased number of patients without no increase in staff WILL REQUIRE decisions to be made as to who received care. WE already are mandated by state run healthcare to report to the state who has been admitted according to diagnosis,,, they will decide if the admitting diagnosis is covered or not. Patient has not choice in the matter, unless willing to pay personally, which of course they cannot do.
Predictable – no guts selfish Dems are egocentrics that yield to dollars and cents, but only when it comes to themselves. They’re ready to vote on something they haven’t even read… and behind closed doors on a Saturday night!? Who’s kidding who? When a shift came from revering a Higher Power to bowing to the almighty dollar, this society began to slide into the toilet. Nobody is listening anyway – so why even bother… We need reform and they know it – and they know the places that need it – so why not fix them first before developing yet another monstrosity?
To bad the Senators are too interested in playing politics rather than actually looking for ways to help reform healthcare. I heard a great interview with Mr. Coker from Tennessee that was talking about the facts of this bill. I wish people would do this type of discussion instead of try to misrepresent or mislead the public.
National Healthcare delivered with the
Efficiency of the Post Office, the
Compassion of the IRS at
Pentagon prices.
Really, Dianne? A public option or the insurance companies win. How about a public option and we ALL lose! Government ran health care will drive all the insurance companies out of business. Do you know how big that industry is? How many people stand to lose their jobs. Not to mention the doctors in private practice who will be ran out of business. Yes your primary health care provider will be a low-bid, government employee who makes the same amount of money whether he/she sees you or not. Get a clue, Dianne!
@Daniel
I’m sorry to tell you that your assumption is totally wrong. How can I be so affirmative? Well simply because I’m currently living in a country having a public health care system.
And in that country, France actually, there are private healthcare companies living alongside the public health care insurance. In fact the public insurance only offer an essential protection, an if you want a more complete insurance, you subscribe to a private complementary insurance that cover things the public healthcare insurance doesn’t.
I can tell you that these private complementary insurance companies are living very well. The advantages of such a syste. Is that everyone get a protection, whether they can afford a private insurance or not, as even if you don’t get a private complementary insurance, you’ve got the basic pubic plan.
So there is no reason that it would be different for the USA than for any other country having a public healthcare insurance plan. Considering that, I can undoubtedly affirm that a public plan won’t killnpricate insurance company. Private companies will adapt themselves to offer plans that are complementing the public offer in addition to he current offers, and they will still win a lot of money, don’t worry on that.
If this thing does not change in a gigantic way, insurance premiums are going to triple, care is going to become much worse, nobody is going to want to be a doctor, the nation will plunge much further into debt, and scores of people will lose their jobs. How exciting! Let’s not forget that it’s not about whether the insurance companies win, it’s about whether the American people win!
@Jerry
Again, considering my experience, I can tell you that this assumption is also wrong. In France, where I’m currently living, privte complementary health care plans are far from expensive, in fact they are considerably cheaper than healthcare plans in the US. And cares are very good (France is one of te beat countries in the world in term of cares quality), and there are a lot people wanting to be doctors.
You should really look outside US, this would give you a more objective point of you based on facts and real experiences, not just on worst cases theories (as that’s what are your arguments based on) that have never happened and would in reality never happen.
I live in the UK and Ifrodo you must be honest that you pay VERY HIGH TAXES for that public health care. In the UK when we examined our taxes to pay for National Health Care it was double what we pay in the US for health insurance and our quality of care is very poor in the UK compared to the US health care system. I know because I have had many surgeries under both systems. All Europe pays very high taxes for nationalized health care and as you have said now many citizens of those countries purchase additional health care insurance for what is not included in the public system sometimes triple what you would pay in the US.
This’s the first and a “GIGANTIC” step to change the greatest , capitalist, nation in history into a socilaist / marxist and PRO ABORTION , bankrupt nation. This’s the “change” that we do not need. This entire bunch that voted for this need to be fired ! To quote a great leader, Margaret Thatcher: “the trouble with socialism is that you eventually run out of other peoples money” . Well guess what folks ! We’ve run out ! Wake up folks and GOD BLESS AMERICA !
Amen to that Brother! Couldn’t have said it any better. Our government is now being run by a bunch of selfish, eogotists that are power hungry, and no longer listening to the people. You are right, these people should be fired, if not impeached for their standing on their own politcal agendas They have lied to the American public and continue to do so, in making this Health Care Reform APPEAR to be better for the public, but yet innocent lives WILL BE affected. God Help Us.
Show the american taxpayers who voted for this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
To all Senators
I can’t believe how fiscally irresponsible you are being by adding another trillion dollar entitlement to the budget! We haven’t even properly funded Social Security, Medicare, medicaid and Prescription drug benefit, and now you are adding another trillion dollar tax payer funded entitlement! That is outrageously reckless and damaging to our nations financial stability!
We are losing hundreds of thousands of jobs every month, our national debt is climbing at a rate of several trillions of dollars every year, we are paying over a half trillion dollars in interest alone and you vote for another unfunded entitlement program! That is the height of temerity, you need to use some common sense and stand up for fiscal sanity and forget partisan foolishness! You need to do what is right by the American tax payer! This health care bill will hurt this nations economy, it is a poorly constructed mishmash of rules, regulations, mandates, tax & fee increases that will have the opposite effect of its intended purpose! This partisan lunacy must end or you will destroy this nation!
Sincerely
My sentiments exactly. What is this a set up? And we the American people will suffer for this!!
You are absolutely right that public and private when exists together, its serves the public at large.
As if there is only government, then there is in efficiency.
But if there is only private, then there is selfish Interests and the care is very expensive.
I hope that USA chooses a hybrid system of public and private sector like in France, and then the whole world would follow….
lfrado you bring up good points. Most (if not all) of the other civilized nations have universal health care. We need to look at those nations and evaluate what is good with their systems and what is bad. For those bad things look for ways to improve the system so it will be effective in America.
Many of the western European nations have a higher life span, as well as Canada, then here in America. Care is still consistantly good in these nations as well.
I feel there are a lot of people in this nation that are very afraid of change, and have this “the sky is falling” approach to everything. Lets give it a chance.
Actually you are incorrect about the life span being longer in western europe and canada. Living in the UK these past years, I have found out that they don’t count aborted babies in their life expectancy count like the US does and we have 40 million abortions so that really drags our number down. On the other hand, you are more likely to get cancer in the UK because they refuse to examine you because you are not the age that typically gets such and such type of cancer. Or that is what I have been told when I asked for a breast exam recently. Also, you get a pap smear once every 5 years that is why so many women die of ovarian cancer over here. It is one of the ways that they save costs for National Health Care is by convincing women it is not necessary to get regular pap smears and breast exams. My GP is like the gate keeper from getting the treatment you need. Every time I go to her she tells me why statistically I don’t need treatment and you can’t change GPs because they are assigned by the area you live in. It is a sad frustrating system that the poor, middle class, and elderly are trapped into because they can’t afford the additional health insurance that the working class purchase to get better treatment. It is not a good solution to our current problems in the US.
I am a US citizen living in the UK under the National Health system (NHS). I have now had 2 surgeries under this system and it is horrible! No second opinion if you want to find out if your doctor knows what they are talking about or not. Also, they perform surgeries using archaic operating methods. The same surgery that takes US citizens one week to recover from takes me at least a month because they use the same method that the US would have used 20 years ago!!!! My first surgery they promised would take me a week to recover. It is 7 months later and my wounds are still healing. I never had this poor medical treatment in the US.
The poor and the elderly usually have to use the NHS in the UK. I would not want to inflict that type of medical torture on our US poor, elderly, and middle class. Anyone in the UK wanting a second opinion or better qualified doctors must pay for health insurance on top of the high taxes that we pay for the NHS. Meaning that we pay twice as much as the US citizen for health care costs. The local person in the UK has told me that all working class people buy additional health insurance as well as paying for the taxes for the NHS. The only reason they defend the NHS is because they never had a medicare or medicaid system like we have in the US to take care of the poor and elderly. So it is their way to take care of the elderly and poor. They are trying to reform their system. So why are we trying to copy these broken health care systems in the US.
All our legislatures need to do is introduce compitition across state lines, make it illegal to deny coverage for pre-exisiting conditions, regulate insurance costs, and find an insurance co-op system for minimum wage workers that would make health insurance affordable for them. I am sure that there are some other good ideas out there besides these, but the National Health Care option is not one of them in light of the messed up job they have done with medicare and medicaid. They need to fix these systems too.
Whenever the government is involved in running something it gets screwed up. Just look at our public school systems going down the toilet too and I should know I used to teach in the US public school system. Whatever the government touches it breaks.