Specter agreeing with Schumer, but Schumer is wrong on health-care
From Talking Points Memo we discover that Arlen Specter has reversed his opinion on the single payer option because his poll numbers are dropping and now agrees with the plan that Schumer is endorsing, which should be a good thing for us, but really, what is this plan all about? (my bold):
“Schumer has it right about having a public component,” Specter said.
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has taken a lead role on negotiations over the public option in the Senate Finance Committee, and earlier this year proposed a compromise: the committee’s health care bill should include a public plan, he said, but one that competes on a level playing field with other insurers. Such an entity wouldn’t be able to use its sheer size to set prices the way Medicare does–but it could nonetheless incur savings in a host of other ways, and in so doing drive down the cost of health insurance in the private market.
Please, what kind of mamby pamby crap are they peddling here? What is the point if we can’t set prices, or negotiate for lower priced drugs? And, a level playing field? What does that mean and how does one accomplish that? As stlo7 says, this undefined, “public option” is some nebulous, placate the people with something that uses the word public kind of plan. It has no teeth and it will not bite.
Give me HR676 with a good set of canines.
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