| | Herseth Sandlin clears stance on public option | |
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Reporter Super Poster
Number of posts : 241 Job/hobbies : Report the news. Registration date : 2009-08-04
| Subject: Herseth Sandlin clears stance on public option Fri Oct 23, 2009 6:56 am | |
| Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin criticized the liberal wing of the Democratic Party on Thursday while at the same time taking a hit from Republicans over efforts to reform health insurance.
At issue is the concept of a public option - or a government-run insurance plan that would compete with private insurance companies. Herseth Sandlin was listed on a Web site run by former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean as supporting a public option. Dean, a former presidential candidate and former governor of Vermont, is a leading voice for left-wing Democrats.
The National Republican Congressional Committee pounced on the information, and in a release the committee called Herseth Sandlin a "puppet for her reckless party leadership."
But Herseth Sandlin spokesman Russ Levsen expressed bewilderment about the information on Dean's Web site.
"They didn't get that from us if that's up there," he said. In a call with reporters, Herseth Sandlin said she opposes a public option modeled after Medicare - the government program that provides health coverage for seniors. Liberal members in the House support the measure, in part because it probably would drop the 10-year cost of the bill below $1 trillion.
But the savings would come out of the pockets of health providers and, possibly, those already insured in the private market, Herseth Sandlin said.
Medicare reimbursement rates vary across the nation, and South Dakota's rates are among the lowest. Doctors here don't get as much money from the government, even though they provide the same services that doctors in other parts of the country receive substantially more for. Adding more people to the same rate structure would only exacerbate the problem of underpaid providers in South Dakota.
"They can't stay in business," she said. "And if they can't stay in business then nobody in the community gets access - not just seniors." "It's saving money on the backs of my constituents and my providers," she added.
Because Medicare pays below-market rates for services, some economists say the system's shortfalls are made up through higher costs to people in the private insurance market.
Still, Herseth Sandlin did send up a trial balloon, saying she isn't necessarily against another form of a public option. For example, one in which doctors could negotiate rates for providing services to people on a government insurance plan. But any type of public option strikes Republicans as the first step to a total government takeover of the health care industry - something that some House Democrats acknowledge as a strategy.
"You have progressive, liberal Democrats even saying that," said Tom Erickson, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee. | |
| | | mythoughts Advanced Member
Number of posts : 75 Registration date : 2008-10-17
| Subject: the unisured cost rural hospitals so much- cure that with a public option Fri Oct 23, 2009 9:15 am | |
| I like Stephanie, she is not difficult to understand. She can always explain her position.
I am for the public option because it will save South Dakota millions. The uninsured are a huge cost to SD hospitals. Talking about medicare reimbursements doesn't pertain to the public option in the bill. The public option is not medicare! Have you read the bill? Post a link to the real bill that came out of committee so we can all read for ourselves.
The public option would save the whole USA money. People who have insurance are able to go get treated on time and so the savings would come from people being healthier and from insurance companies being forced to honor their policies.
Why do my conservative friends and neighbors want to protect the profits of insurance companies? The insurance industry is spending 7 million dollars a day lobbying to protect it's interests anand conservatives are not even reading the health care bill before they criticise it. That's not good for democracy. Reading is good for democracy so post the link to the health care bill....or don't you even know where it's published? | |
| | | mouthpiece Power Poster
Number of posts : 721 Registration date : 2008-05-15
| Subject: Why Blame us? Fri Oct 23, 2009 10:19 am | |
| Conservatives have longed yell for tort reform and for the insurance industry, their is a lack of compassion.
I believe that reform is necessary but the public option will fail?
I believe that the government controls healthcare on the reservations and this has been a miserable failure.
Do you want healthcare like they have it on the reservation? Vote for the public option. Do you want choices, the coop is a better alternative. | |
| | | Lady Hawk Admin
Number of posts : 622 Age : 68 Job/hobbies : Wife/Mother Registration date : 2008-05-16
| Subject: Re: Herseth Sandlin clears stance on public option Fri Oct 23, 2009 10:22 pm | |
| - LindaS wrote:
- ...Have you read the bill? Post a link to the real bill that came out of committee so we can all read for ourselves... Why do my conservative friends and neighbors want to protect the profits of insurance companies? The insurance industry is spending 7 million dollars a day lobbying to protect it's interests anand conservatives are not even reading the health care bill before they criticise it. That's not good for democracy. Reading is good for democracy so post the link to the health care bill....or don't you even know where it's published?
That is a very interesting post LindaS. On the one hand you praise the health care bill and talk about it's benefits and then ask to have the bill posted so that " we can all read it for ourselves." That would mean that you have not yet read it. You then criticise conservatives for not reading it before they speak. If it is wrong for people to criticise the bill when they haven't read it then by that logic wouldn't it also be wrong for people to praise it when they haven't read it? You are computer literate. You could just as easily go on the web and find the bill and post it for everyone to read. Why do you tell other people to do something that you are not willing to do yourself? Go ahead and post a link. After you read it you will be better informed when you praise it. | |
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