Briefly: Health Care Reform: Week of June 28
5 Items
David Culver, Evergreene Digest, ed.
Adam Zyglis
Dems: Obama Open To Dropping Public Option, Rachel Weiner, The Huffington Post
Obama is "open to alternatives" to a new government insurance program in order to get legislation overhauling the health-care system to his desk, said Senator Kent Conrad of North Dakota.
Obama Running Scared, Helen Thomas, Common Dreams
Obama clearly has no stomach for the political battle that any single-payer plan would ignite. So he's endorsed a step that would allow the government to provide health insurance coverage -- not health care -- to eligible people
Big Medical gears up to euthanize health reform, Tom Parsons, Daily Camera | CO
Submitted by Evergreene Digest Contributing Editor Ken Mitchell
President Obama is pushing for health care reform that offers the consumer a choice between (A) the for-profit, employer-subsidized insurance system most corporate employed Americans now have, or (B) a nonprofit, public payer system supported by tax-based revenue. Neither would be socialized medicine because both would use the same free-market providers we now have to deliver medical services. The public payer option actually permits greater patient freedom to choose a physician than does the insurance controlled system. Does having such a choice sound too good to be true? Big Medical, with their big money, wants to kill it.
Lawmakers Reveal Health-Care Investments, Paul Kane, CommonDreams.org
Almost 30 Key Players Have Stakes in Industry
Ex-insurance exec confesses health insurers dump sick people, John Byrne, The Raw Story
Companies routinely drop seriously ill policyholders so they can meet “Wall Street’s relentless profit expectations,” said the executive.
