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Showing Original Post only (View all)Max Baucus on Obamacare: "I just see a huge train wreck coming..." [View all]
Max Baucus, facing an election next year, suddenly is "very concerned not enough is being done so far. Very concerned."
In the following video Baucus grills Kathleen Sebelius on Wednseday April 17, 2013 on the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.
at 9:25 President Obama explains why he didn't fight for Single Payer.
"You've got this system that's already in place. We don't want a huge disruption as we go into health care reform where suddenly we're trying to completely re-invent one sixth of the economy.."--Barack Obama
If you want to see exactly what is wrong with Congress skip to 13;21 where Amy Goodman reveals the financial holdings of key congresspeople involved with "Health Insurance Reform".
Harry Reid: $50,000 invested in a health care index,
Judd Gregg=$560,000 worth of stock holdings in major health care companies
Family of Jane Harman: 3.2 million dollars in more than 20 health care companies
John Kerry: at least 5.2 million dollars in companies such as merck and eli lilly
Chris Dodd: Wife serves on the boards of 4 health care companies
Max Baucus:
As chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Baucus called the first Senate meeting of interested parties before the committee to discuss health care reform, including representatives from pharmaceutical groups, insurance companies, and HMOs and hospital management companies. The meeting was controversial because it did not include representatives from groups calling for single-payer health care.
Advocate groups attended a Senate Finance Committee meeting in May 2009 to protest their exclusion as well as statements by Baucus that "single payer was not an option on the table." Baucus later had eight protesters removed by police who arrested them for disrupting the hearing.
Many of the single-payer advocates claimed it was a "pay to play" event. A representative of the Business Roundtable, which includes 35 memberships of health maintenance organizations, health insurance and pharmaceutical companies, admitted that other countries, with lower health costs, and higher quality of care, such as those with single-payer systems, have a competitive advantage over the United States with its private system.
At the next meeting on health care reform of the Senate Finance Committee, Baucus had five more doctors and nurses removed and arrested
Baucus has used the term "uniquely American solution" to describe the end point of current health reform and has said that he believes America is not ready yet for any form of single payer health care. This is the same term the insurance trade association, Americas Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), is using. AHIP has launched the Campaign for an American Solution, which argues for the use of private health insurance instead of a government backed program. Critics have said that Medicare is already effectively a single-payer system
Baucus has been criticized for his ties to the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries, and has been one of the largest beneficiaries in the Senate of campaign contributions from these industries. From 2003 to 2008, Baucus received $3,973,485 from the health sector, including $852,813 from pharmaceutical companies, $851,141 from health professionals, $784,185 from the insurance industry and $465,750 from HMOs/health services, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. A 2006 study by Public Citizen found that between 1999 and 2005 Baucus, along with former Senate majority leader Bill Frist, took in the most special-interest money of any senator
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Baucus
Uniquely American Indeed...
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Max Baucus on Obamacare: "I just see a huge train wreck coming..." [View all]
green for victory
Apr 2013
OP
No doubt at all. Every time someone has a claim denied, they make money. What's not to like? nt
raouldukelives
Apr 2013
#20
Kerry was for public option, and actually for universal healthcare, so, why pretend he was a
blm
Apr 2013
#8
Doesn't mean much. Republicans now hate it. They were also for the Civil Rights Act, the EPA,
pampango
Apr 2013
#27
which mainstream republicans hate it? Glenn Beck and Huckabee don't count...
green for victory
Apr 2013
#32
Which mainstream republicans hate Obamacare? Which don't. All their public statements and votes
pampango
Apr 2013
#36
Obama has not only had to deal with a united GOP but also with Dems like Baucus.
WI_DEM
Apr 2013
#19
Exactly! And this is why I wasn't freaking out that Obama didn't press for single payer.
PragmaticLiberal
Apr 2013
#22
If you google 'Obamacare' + 'train wreck', you get a whole lot of Baucus quotes on right-wing sites.
pampango
Apr 2013
#28