All 13 Democrats are voting for new HELP health care bill

**AMEX** · 07-02-2009, 03:06 PM

Jason Rosenbaum: All 13 Democrats are voting for new HELP health care bill

Quote:

The HELP Committee has released their final version of a health care bill, including a public health insurance option and a provision for shared responsibility:

Democrats on a key Senate Committee outlined a revised and far less costly health care plan Wednesday night that includes a government-run insurance option and an annual fee on employers who do not offer coverage to their workers.The plan carries a 10-year price tag of slightly over $600 billion, and would lead toward an estimated 97 percent of all Americans having coverage, according to the Congressional Budget Office, Sens. Edward M. Kennedy and Chris Dodd said in a letter to other members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. The AP obtained a copy.

By contrast, an earlier, incomplete proposal carried a price tag of roughly $1 trillion and would have left millions uninsured, CBO analysts said in mid-June.

You got that cost number right - $611 billion. If you'll remember, the last version of the HELP bill - without a public option or shared responsibility - came in at $1 trillion. Clearly, these changes saved money. (And remember when John Boehner, Republican leader in the House, said the public option would cost over $1 trillion? He's dead wrong.)

On the conference call announcing the measure, Senators Dodd, Brown, and Whitehouse said that all 13 HELP Democrats would be voting for this bill. That's right, every single one.

Richard Kirsch, Health Care for America Now's national campaign director, had this to say:

The HELP Committee's bill will give Americans all across this country what they want - a choice of a strong public health insurance option that will provide lower costs and keep the insurance companies honest. The public health insurance option included in the HELP bill will be available on day one, giving Americans a new alternative to the private insurance industry. It will also encourage the delivery of better health care at a lower cost. The public health insurance option, combined with other key sections of the HELP Committee legislation, makes this bill a good prescription for health care reform. More specifically, the bill invests enough resources to make good, affordable health care available to middle-class families and includes strict rules to stop insurance company abuses.

We urge the Senate Finance Committee and the full Senate to follow Senator Kennedy and his fellow Democrats' lead in giving everyone a choice of keeping their current health insurance coverage or selecting a new public health insurance option. That public health insurance option would be a real alternative to the private insurance companies that have failed to make health care affordable while regularly delaying and denying needed care.

I concur. The HELP Committee is standing up today and doing the right thing for the American people, and indeed, doing something they deeply support. Finance should follow suit.

Hopefully this turns out to be a good thing

**edgecrusher1120** · 07-02-2009, 03:08 PM

can this bill run crysis?

**Awesome-0** · 07-02-2009, 04:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Broken

Hopefully this turns out to be a good thing

it will turn out to be a thing...good or bad will be debated for years. I see it as welcomed help. Eliminating pre existing condition refusals by insurance companies and increasing coverage is a start.

Also conpanies who do not offer insurance discounts to their employees will be fined $750 per person not insured, but that money will go towards bigger discounts to the 3% who still cannot afford coverage

**AMEX** · 07-02-2009, 04:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Awesome-0

it will turn out to be a thing...good or bad will be debated for years. I see it as welcomed help. Eliminating pre existing condition refusals by insurance companies and increasing coverage is a start.

Also conpanies who do not offer insurance discounts to their employees will be fined $750 per person not insured, but that money will go towards bigger discounts to the 3% who still cannot afford coverage

i was talking to my buddy last night about this, there is a lot of things being talked about that can really ruin this.

for example they are talking about making your health insurance, if paid in part by your employer, considered part of your income that would go on your taxes. Meaning if you make 30k a year and your employer pays.... say 5k a year of your insurance than you made 35k in the eyes of the IRS.

why would any company want to continue to supply their employees coverage? they will actually GET TAXED for supplying health care coverage, and fined if they dont!

I dunno. it seems like this is going to push everyone onto the government plan and then all hell breaks loose. but at the same time the health insurance companies have been raping us for far too long and there needs to be another option on the table to keep them in check.

**Rumwookie** · 07-02-2009, 04:57 PM

This is going to turn into another abused social program like welfare and social security and everyone else is going to pay for it. Thanks to the Democrats for finding another way of taking money out of my pocket.

**Awesome-0** · 07-02-2009, 05:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rumwookie

This is going to turn into another abused social program like welfare and social security and everyone else is going to pay for it. Thanks to the Democrats for finding another way of taking money out of my pocket.

nice response, joe the plumber!

**Rumwookie** · 07-02-2009, 05:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Awesome-0

nice response, joe the plumber!

Joe the plumber was an idiot and was one of many failures of the McCain campaign. You can go fuck yourself with a rusty pitchfork if you think I'm Joe the plumber.

I realize that there are people who need and deserve help but generally those people don't get it because social programs have too many loopholes and aren't policed. I have little faith that a public health care program conjured up by Democrat senators is going to help me in any way. It also seems like most people like myself who worked so hard to get a job with insurance benefits are going to get dicked over by this.

**Awesome-0** · 07-02-2009, 05:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rumwookie

Joe the plumber was an idiot and was one of many failures of the McCain campaign. You can go fuck yourself with a rusty pitchfork if you think I'm Joe the plumber.

...It also seems like most people like myself who worked so hard to get a job with insurance benefits are going to get dicked over by this.

You sounded just like him, thats why I said it. Re-read your post, its something in the exact same format that would have come out of his mouth while he was stumping. Kinda big words, but not to big, no specifics, no examples, generalizations (mostly false), etc.

So getting denied coverage because of a pre-existing condition isnt getting dicked over?
Getting denied coverage for a procedure because its not on their list of approved procedures isnt getting dicked over?
Reaching the maximum of an insurance policy fighting cancer and paying the rest out of pocket and driving people into bankruptcy isnt getting dicked over?

what do you consider getting dicked over compared to what REALLY getting dicked means? The insurance companies have gotten away with too much crap, and some of that is going to change, but that change isnt free.

**Awesome-0** · 07-02-2009, 05:50 PM

please look over the bill and lets talk about what you dont like about it...

**Rational Erratic** · 07-02-2009, 05:56 PM

i hate the business side of medical institutions. they are definitely one hundred percent needed and more of them. but charging people a couple grand for blood that was "donated" is just bullshit. and thats just one thing.

07-02-2009, 03:08 PM	#2 (permalink)
edgecrusher1120 SOT Post Whore Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: new york, north kackalacka and compton Posts: 5,567 gXboxLive Leaderboard: 61^st	can this bill run crysis? __________________ Gimme the fucking keys, you fucking cocksucker motherfucker sound bite The Usual Suspects sound bites sot-do you want to bang heads with us?

07-02-2009, 05:50 PM	#9 (permalink)
Awesome-0 Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 9,717	please look over the bill and lets talk about what you dont like about it... __________________ Munky, PSI...we are

07-02-2009, 05:56 PM	#10 (permalink)
Rational Erratic EL Beefcake Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Chandler, HH Posts: 22,231 gXboxLive Leaderboard: 47^th	i hate the business side of medical institutions. they are definitely one hundred percent needed and more of them. but charging people a couple grand for blood that was "donated" is just bullshit. and thats just one thing. __________________ SOT- Freakin' sweek

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07-02-2009, 04:57 PM	#5 (permalink)
Rumwookie SOT Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 756	This is going to turn into another abused social program like welfare and social security and everyone else is going to pay for it. Thanks to the Democrats for finding another way of taking money out of my pocket.