The Senate needs to vote on passing the HOUSE BILL and nothing else. That is all that has to happen here and they have already added it to their bill as an amendment. All they have to do is pass the House Bill and they will be finished. Reid needs to move this forward. The Senate has to abandon all their measures and move the House Bill forward to the President's desk.
This so called compromise EXPANDS Medicare Advantage. This is what Republicans have wanted since Republicans have existed. It 'sets up' the American people to be at the disposal of private health care or the lack there of from the time of their birth until the time they die while the government pays for it as soon as one qualifies for federal benefits.
...Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., (click here) said the idea is on the table as part of an emerging compromise under which liberals would back away from their demand for a new government health insurance plan to compete with private carriers. Instead of a so-called public plan, the compromise envisions private insurers operating under the auspices of the government agency that now manages the federal employee health plan — the same one that covers members of Congress....
This is another STALL tactic to move the passage of a Health Care Bill past the Holiday Recess, into January and ultimately to delay it and stop it all together.
This is NOTHING new. It actually cuts the funding as it is structured now under the funding plan the House bill lays out. The House Bill sees Medicare Advantage, a corporate, corrupt and expoitive plan which costs the American taxpayer billions of dollars, stopped and replaced with regular Medicare. The measure to cut Medicare Advantage will save the American people enormous amounts of money and fund the much needed health care changes needed in the USA.
The Senate Bill cuts the very measure that will allow the Federal government to fund the health care of the nation. If this measure passes, in conference, it will permit the House bill to provide its version of change to the Health Care Industry but it will ALSO preserve the Medicare Advantage laws and expand its use.
While the Budget Office will come back with possibly 'reasonable costs' to the plan that does not fund low income in a significant way, but, places people at continued risk and outside the point of access, ULTIMATELY, the health care legislation that will reach the President will be considerably higher than EITHER the House or Senate Bill alone.
The compromise is a 'sellout' to the tactics of Republican Cronies that are running ads in the media to make them appear as though they are invaluable to the American people. They are not and can easily be replaced with BETTER options as proposed in the House Bill.
Medicare Advantage is working to survive this Bill and they are pulling every stunt in the book. The Senate Republicans are not only allowing Medicare Advantage to manipulate the outcome of the bill, but, are using that priority as a stall tactic against specific instructions from the President to move this along to save lives and bring health care costs down.
The Republicans are corrupt and should not be in any office in the land. This is the nonsense the American people have to put up with from 'The Party of No.' They are oppositional and the truth be known they are not only WORTHLESS as a political party, but, they cause wars, poverty and deaths to Americans. The Republicans do not save lives of any Americans, they cause them.
With this provision the Senate Bill accomplishes NOTHING, puts the country right back in the same hell hole and throws greater and greater emphasis on a Medicare Advantage Plan that we know for a fact is dangerous. The fact is Medicare Advantage can collapse by the laws it can break leaving the USA Government as the sole entity to cover people should Medicare Advantage implode no different than Wall Street.
Medicare Advantage is becoming, IF NOT ALREADY, another private entity in this country TO BIG TO LET FAIL. It is time it is stopped and eliminated from the American Landscape.
When Medicare Advantage fails, and it will fail, due to corrupt practices the people currently insured by them and NOT regular Medicare will be completely liable for all their health care costs. That means their SSI check will no longer be theirs, but, instead belong to their health care providers, along with their home(s), car(s) and any other possession they currently own. Medicare Advantage is the WORST health care insurance any person in this country could have. It is vulnerable and counts on 'bail outs' when it fails due to its own corrupt practices.
Medicare Advantage should be removed from the options of health care choices to any citizen currently eligible for Medicare. If a private health insurance corporation is found to be involved in criminal practices, as Medicare Advantage is, they should be permanently removed from any option to consumers.
This is the history of Medicare Advantage. It started as a 'savings' to the Federal government, but, has grown into a nightmare due to the dynamics I already stated. The only reason Republicans want to preserve, protect and expand this program is because it is a 'step' into privatizing ALL the insurance of the American people and casting them into hell forever.
The Balanced Budget Act (BBA) of 1997 renamed the Medicare private plan options “Medicare+Choice”,(click here) and authorized Medicare to contract with local preferred provider organizations (PPOs), private fee-for-service (PFFS) plans, and medical savings account (MSA) plans. The Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA) renamed the program “Medicare Advantage”,
The American people need to seek the options of impeachment of every Republican Senator currently standing in the way of the passage of desperately needed change to the health care industry in the USA. And this is a primary reason why.
authorized two additional plan types (regional PPOs and special needs plans), and boosted federal payments to plans to encourage plan participation. The Medicare Improvements for
Patients and Providers Act (MIPPA) of 2008 added consumer protections, focusing on marketing practices. Over the course of the past several decades, Medicare payment policy for plans has shifted from one that produced savings to one that focuses more on expanding access to private plans under Medicare and providing extra benefits to Medicare private plan enrollees. This shift in policy increased costs to the program, an issue that has emerged as key in the health policy debate.
By increasing the cost of Medicare to the Federal Budget it serves to make the 'health care entitlement' to the elderly unaffordable and puts it into dire issues of potential bankruptcy of the law sooner. Expanding the cost of Medicare Advantage does two things, it puts more Federal money in the hands of Republcan cronies sooner and it implodes the entitlement sooner. If the providers to Medicare Advantage can 'bank roll' federal dollars now, they can expand their programs after they bankrupt the country and be the ONLY surviving entity to any insurance for the elderly. The current measure to eliminate Medicare Advantage from the federal options protects the entitlement, better funds it and incorporates the well being of elderly Americans differently into the Federal Budget to insure it will be funded and not abandoned.
The nation needs to get rid of the Republicans. They priorities are costing the government plenty of money needed for change the country needs.
