McCain's Healthcare Policy

I eatz it.

WAAAAAHHH!!!!!

Because he can, because he is the worst president ever:

President Bush will veto the recently cleared Medicare bill Tuesday, a senior administration official said Monday on a conference call arranged by the White House.

The administration is unhappy with the Republican senators who voted for the bill July 9, but appears to hold out little hope of being able to sustain the veto, or flip back GOP senators who deserted the president on the controversial measure.

[...]

The House passed the bill, 355-59, on June 24. The Senate passed it by voice vote July 9 after voting 69-30 to overcome a procedural hurdle. Both chambers have more than enough votes to override the president, assuming no members change their votes. In the case of a veto override, the House would vote first.

First SCHIP, now this. The man is fetid.

Not Enough Health Care to Go Around

Read up, it's a good article.

Under the current system, the winners are the insurance companies. By shrinking coverage to healthier and wealthier people - by charging more for it - insurance companies are raking in huge profits, because these people will not get sick as often. What this is about is maximizing insurers' profits at the expense of consumers. Both healthy, rich people, who pay higher premiums for the same service, and sick, poor people, who receive no coverage, are worse off. If we socialize the risk by way of a universal health care plan, costs will dramatically fall and everyone will be insured. Under that system, the losers are the insurance companies. Boohoo.

Punting

President George W. Bush signed into law legislation that increases Medicare and Medicaid payments to doctors and extends a U.S. children's health program.

The law funds a 0.5 percent payment increase for six months to doctors who treat patients under the government's Medicare and Medicaid plans, which provide health care to the elderly, disabled and poor. The legislation also maintains current funding for the State Children's Health Insurance Program until March 31, 2009.

I get it. As much as I hate not being able to get proper legislation passed right now, I know it's going to be impossible as long as Commander Prissypants is riding the Oval Office Pony (no, that's not Condi Rice). If this is how the Dems want to play ball, that's fine, as long as they hammer it home that Bush and the Republicans are the ones who are preventing progress. On that count, I think the Democrats need to try harder.

Link.

Senile

John McCain:

Republican presidential candidate John McCain outlined a proposal on Thursday to revamp the U.S. health care system by providing Americans with a refundable $2,500 tax credit as an incentive to buy insurance.

What world is he living in where $2,500 a year is enough to provide you with health coverage? Is he out of his mind? If you're lucky that can cover you for a few months at most. All these "voluntary" programs do is ensure that people opt out, which leads to 1. premiums rising because of the greater risk inherent in a smaller coverage universe, and 2. more expensive emergency care because of less reliance on cheaper preventative care.

If he's trying to play to the frothing-at-the-mouth free market fundamentalists who run the party, he's got it all wrong. If that was the case his plan should be: cut taxes, give you more money to pay for health insurance.

Still Don't Get It

Someone needs to clock the Beltway upside the head:

Tim Russert did a great job of pressing the candidates for specific answers to his questions in Wednesday night’s MSNBC debate from Dartmouth College. He drilled in on the front-runner, Mrs. Clinton, and this debate was striking for how often she resisted being nailed down on several topics.

In the earlier debates, when she refused to answer what she said were hypothetical questions, she was praised for her experience and judgment, especially compared with Mr. Obama. But tonight, there seemed to be a pile-up of unanswered questions. No doubt there is a YouTuber out there now who is stringing those non-answers together.

Her final answer captured the dynamic, when she was asked whom she would support in a (hypothetical) World Series between the Yankees and the Chicago Cubs. Well, she said, gazing at the ceiling, she would have to alternate between the two.

If Tim Russert did a great job he wouldn't have dared to ask a question about the World Series. If these sycophantic courtiers could stop their decades-long circle jerk maybe they'd realize how out of touch they are with reality. I know, it's a pipe dream. And then there's gems like this:

Mrs. Clinton may have taken her biggest hits on universal health care, an issue she commandeered 15 years ago but failed to get through Congress. Though every candidate on the stage agreed with Mrs. Clinton's declaration that "I intend to be the health-care president," several of them suggested she was too polarizing of a figure to garner the Republican support needed to pass major legislation in Congress.

It's not that healthcare isn't important, but what our Very Smart People in Washington and the media fail to understand is that there is only one issue that will drive this election: Iraq. I'm no orthodontist and honestly am not sophisticated enough to understand the intrigue and allure of the cocktail weenie world of the Beltway, but I understand that a war that is: 1. Killing thousands and wounding tens of thousands of our troops 2. Killing hundreds of thousands, if not more, and ruining the lives of millions of Iraqis 3. Destroying the U.S.' image in the world and ratcheting up anti-American sentiment, and 4. Breaking the bank at home, which finds its way onto the backs of average Americans, is going to be the most important issue on everyone's mind. The only people who don't understand that are the David Broders of the world who tell us what we should think and the politicans who listen to them.

Hillary's Healthcare Plan

Ezra.

Hillary is my least favorite of the top-tier Democrats, but this plan is good and, while not perfect, makes big strides in the correct direction.

I'd still prefer to see a one-stop public option though.

Pure Evil

Bush.

The Bush administration, after years of allowing states to cover more children from higher-income families through a popular state-federal health-insurance program, is putting the brakes on expansion.

The policy change will affect states that seek to or already cover children from families with income at 250% of the federal poverty level, or $51,625 for a family of four. (The federal poverty level is $20,650 for a family of four.) At least 16 states had received permission over the years to expand to or beyond that level.

The step will also put the administration on a collision course with Congress, which has approved legislation with tens of billions of dollars to expand the program to cover more children. The House and the Senate are expected to work out a compromise after the August recess.

Administration officials said President Bush will veto the final bill if tighter controls and spending limits aren't enacted. They argue that the program's expansion has gone beyond its original goal to cover low-income children at the 200% poverty level, or $41,300 for a family of four. The expansion, they say, has led some families to drop private health coverage in favor of the program, known as SCHIP, for State Children's Health Insurance Program.

Because children on public, as opposed to private, healthcare are morally decrepit. As for tighter spending? I cannot take someone seriously who spends over $200 million every day in Iraq.

Republican Obstructionism

Children's healthcare-style.