Excerpts from a Washington Post Article run this afternoon regarding both the Schumer and Rockefeller amendments to the Healthcare Bill:
"Republicans stood solidly against both provisions, arguing that they would lead to complete government control over health care.
But Schumer vowed to keep pressing for a public option on grounds it was the best way to control rising health-care costs.
'The present system is broken,' he told the committee. He said he was pushing for a public option not for ideological or symbolic reasons but because 'costs are going through the roof.' And he expressed confidence that, 'with some work and some compromise,' proponents of the provision eventually could get 60 votes on the Senate floor.
'We are going to get at this, and at this, and at this, until we succeed, because we believe in it so strongly,' Schumer said. The more Americans hear about benefits of a public option, he asserted, "the more they like it."
Rockefeller and Schumer argued repeatedly during the committee's markup that a public option would be the best way to give consumers an affordable choice in health insurance and rein in what they described as voracious, profit-driven private insurance companies. ' "
I will, because I also trust the senator from West Virginia and his solid view of the reality of what is going on in this country with health care reform, let Senator Rockefeller speak for himself from this excerpt from the Washington Post:
"Rockefeller said his proposal would save about $50 billion over 10 years. He denied that it represents 'some kind of government takeover,' insisting that enrollment in a public plan would be strictly optional.
Charging that private insurance companies have 'failed to meet their obligations' to the public, Rockefeller said the firms are 'determined to protect their profits and put their customers second.' A public option, he said, would act as a 'counterweight' to 'rapacious' health-insurance companies, helping to reduce excessive growth in the cost of premiums.
The West Virginia Democrat also took aim at what he called "junk insurance" products -- limited-benefit policies that he said make up one of the fastest-growing sectors of the insurance industry but that provide no real coverage when a consumer gets sick because they are so riddled with loopholes and exceptions.
'They're getting away with banditry, and they revel in it,' Rockefeller said. The companies encourage employees to find reasons to deny coverage to policyholders and will not change their ways unless forced to do so, he asserted.
Nor, he charged, will new rules under the Baucus bill suffice. 'Their whole livelihood is made by getting around rules,' he said. (italics are mine)
Baucus told Rockefeller during the debate, 'I agree with the intent of your amendment, which is to hold the insurance industry's feet to the fire.' But he said his own bill 'is not easy on insurance companies.' "
Baucus voted against both amendments, claiming that he knew that with either in the bill it stood no chance of passing. I wish he had to give us back all the money he's taken from the Insurance Companies, so that we could do something good for the country with it, Schools, parks, repairing bridges, you know.. good stuff.
And I say that the insurance companies OWN Senator Baucus. Sad isn't it? I hope that he lives to regret that he sold out to them for whatever his reasons, because he is NOT a free man. There are just too many like him in the "public servant" class.
