While I have doubts about the plan, Obama did get it done, and this is something no other president has been able to do.
It looks like Prime Minister Netanyahu is capitulating to US demands over Jerusalem.
The battle is not over. But with health care passing, Obama’s Presidency is rejuvenated while Bibi looks used up. As for AIPAC, this is a nightmare. The President who is taking them on has demonstrated he cannot be rolled.
Word in Washington is that behind the scene the deliveries of US materiel to Israel slowed early last week.
I doubt Netanyahu will last in office long. Was it really smart to publicly smack Biden’s face?
As for Obama, will he really beat both AIPAC and the entire American anti-health right in one 24 hour period?
Not bad at all.
It’s a win for Obama and the corporations. It may help people like me who are uninsurable, and it should help those close to the poverty line. But the average American is going to take it in the shorts. Sure, the insurers have to stop certain abuses. And they can raise premiums as much as they want to pay for the cost. We can no longer vote with our feet– “No” is not an option.
And those refundable tax credits to reimburse for high costs? They’re limited– if they cost too much, they get reduced. See the “failsafe” clause of the Reconciliation bill in Sec. 1001(a)(1)(B)(ii)(III).
Mandatory coverage with no premium caps? This isn’t reform– it’s an insurance company’s dream come true.
What you say is true, DJ, but having lived through (and briefly worked for) a lifetime of health insurance scams, false promises plus out and out thievery, I tend to grant that this is a ‘beginning’ … already I’m hearing moves to take away insurance corp anti-trust exemptions, to make corps get approval of stock holders before squandering money on political candidates and a serious effort to reign in bankers, speculators and loan sharks.
You are right to want more, much more. But let us take a few seconds to admit that the ball is finally (after 100 years) rolling. I have pretty good and mostly affordable coverage, but this bill lifts the caps which let hospitals and bankers take my family’s life savings, home and other property when my wife and I are certain to be sick enough to require hospitalization. This racket has been part of America since the Pilgrims gave indians diseases, then quack remedies which did not cure them, but the cost was native land holdings, the only ‘money’ Europeans craved. We need to keep rolling the ball until every American has access to Medicare, as was originally intended.