Related: Kennedy Comfortably in the Hands of Health Corporations
"Some fear window is narrow for healthcare overhaul; Economy dominates on Capitol Hill" by Lisa Wangsness, Globe Staff | January 28, 2009
If it ain't single-payer with no corporations (like in Sicko ), I don't want it.
WASHINGTON - Mindful of how delays sapped the political will to overhaul healthcare during the Clinton administration, health advocates hoped to get a major bill during the new administration's first 100 days. Now, it looks like it will take longer, and some observers fear that a historic opportunity could be missed....
The economic downturn - which some say highlighted the burden of rising healthcare costs on businesses - has worsened to the point where deficit projections are already beyond $1 trillion. The stimulus bill and financial bailout are devouring the fledgling administration's political energy and kicking up considerable partisanship in Congress.
How much you wanna bet we get nothing -- again!
Meanwhile, President Obama conceded earlier this month that his campaign proposal to pay for healthcare by repealing the Bush tax cuts for the rich would not work.
WHY NOT?
Senator Edward M. Kennedy, the Senate's most driven leader on healthcare, is in Florida following a seizure related to his brain cancer, and it is unclear when he will return. A major healthcare bill his aides had hoped to have ready early this year is still in progress.
The House, meanwhile, has contributed little to the discussion of a major reconception of the health system. In an interview last weekend, House majority whip James Clyburn said he did not expect to pass a major health-reform bill this year, prompting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to tell a Capitol Hill newspaper that she expected "a major step" forward.
Isn't that great, how the ruling DemocraPs have it together?
Those developments are alarming to some advocates of universal healthcare, even though key senators and the administration insist that healthcare remains a priority.
If Congress does not act between the expected approval of a stimulus package in mid-February and the start of campaigning for the midterm elections a year from now, "a rare window of opportunity" will be lost, warned Drew Altman, president of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a leading health policy organization, on the group's website this month.
In that brief span, Congress must consider a vast array of interest groups, and devise a way to fund a plan that could cost more than $100 billion a year....
And MORE if they model it after Mass.
Of course, we spend that many times over for WARS, BANKS, and ISRAEL, so what's the problem?
Many healthcare advocates say the outlook for a significant change is still better than it has been in a generation. Business groups are demanding change, and insurers have indicated some willingness to make concessions. Unions and liberal advocacy groups have set aside millions to wage a ground campaign for a bill....
That's why I DON'T LIKE IT!! And shouldn't the unions be using that money for workers, not a political campaign?
Many healthcare advocates also see the economic stimulus package as a first installment on a healthcare overhaul, since it will spend billions of dollars on technological infrastructure that could support the health system of the future.
So the GLOBALIST FRAMEWORK will be built anyway, AmeriKa!
At a cost of BILLIONS to YOU for a BOONDOGGLE to HIGH TECH!!!
Also see: Standing Shinseki on His Head
Health Care for America Now, a liberal coalition, is urging a quick passage of the stimulus in hopes of creating momentum. Richard Kirsch, the group's director, said he was confident that the president "would [tend to] the short-term economic crisis and then move on to the larger issues affecting our economy."
NEVER a good idea to HURRY I have found out!
John Rother, a lobbyist for AARP, said that as long as a bill gets through both houses of Congress by early fall, the effort will be on track. Still, he said, timing is critical: "The farther away we get from that presidential honeymoon, the more difficult this is going to be politically."
Honeymoon's over, bud!
--more--"
