"It is a curse to have the epic temperament in an age devoted to snappy bits."
- J.R.R. Tolkien
Monday, February 8, 2010
I know this event is old news now, but something happened there that deserved some reporting, I think...Did anyone else hear anything about this? In his hour-long discussion with Republicans Obama said:
The last thing I will say, though -- let me say this about health care and the health care debate, because I think it also bears on a whole lot of other issues. If you look at the package that we've presented -- and there's some stray cats and dogs that got in there that we were eliminating, we were in the process of eliminating. For example, we said from the start that it was going to be important for us to be consistent in saying to people if you can have your -- if you want to keep the health insurance you got, you can keep it, that you're not going to have anybody getting in between you and your doctor in your decision making. And I think that some of the provisions that got snuck in might have violated that pledge. [emphasis added]Tom Bevan at Real Clear Politics (owned by Time Magazine) said:
If we take this statement at face value, President Obama is admitting the the health care bills passed by either the House or Senate (or both) contained provisions which were "snuck in" - presumably by Democratic members and perhaps on behalf of certain lobbyists - that would have in fact prevented people from keeping their current insurance and/or choosing the doctor they want.What do you think? Bevan's post title was "Obama's Stunning Admission", I took out the middle word for my post title because I really wasn't all that shocked...well, maybe I was surprised he admitted it. :-)
This was one of the core debates on health care throughout last year: Would President Obama and the Democrats' legislation allow government to come between citizens and their choice of doctors and insurers? Obama promised it wouldn't. Republicans said it would, and this was one of the aspects of the legislation that led them to characterize it as a government takeover of health care - the same characterization that Obama chastized the GOP for today.
So it's a bit of shock to find out now - from the President himself, no less - that one or both of the bills that passed Congress late last year (the House passed its version in late November, the Senate on Christmas Eve Day) contained language that would have violated this pledge.
Trackbacks:
Trackback URL: http://thinklings.org/bloo.trackback.php/5816.
Comments on "Obama's Admission":
2. Andrew
- 02/08/2010 1:26 pm CST
If I'm understanding it correctly, I think it's a non-issue.
Well, given that the President doesn't have much control over what actually goes into bills, I don't see it as a story at all. He has power over what he chooses to sign, but it's not as if Obama wrote the legislation. He should have never made the promise in the first place. As a candidate, he presented a plan that is much different than the bills passed by either House. If Obama's plan passed, we would still be talking about the public option.
It's only stunning in the sense that, yes, candidates say a lot of wacky, naive things on the trail, and yes, most of them fail to live up to the specific promises they make.
3. MzEllenl
- 02/08/2010 4:39 pm CST
Which of the "cats and dogs" did Obama campaign for got into the bill?
Is this an attempt to close the barn door after he let the wolves in?
Leave a Comment:
I don't think Obama's so-called 'admission' is very startling because it is vague and unspecific. Who knows what he was really referring to?
Furthermore, it is a red herring. The issue isn't some minor provisions that might impact what insurance you can keep, it is the entire package.
As just one example, under Obama's plan to not allow insurance companies to screen people for pre-existing conditions, insurance companies will be forced to take on new sick patients with high health costs, and shift those costs onto healthier members already in their plan.
So here is the scenario: You currently have insurance at a high (but affordable) cost, and all of a sudden your premiums skyrocket even more with the forced acceptance of new unhealthy members into your plan. Your higher premiums are now unaffordable. I would clearly say that under that scenario, the government mandates forced you to lose your insurance, even if they did not do it explicitly.