Lieberman Spox: Public Option Is “Agenda of Narrow Ideological Interest Groups”
A spokesman for Joe Lieberman, whose talent for annoying liberals seems to have grown exponentially in the heat of the health care fight, is now responding to a liberal group’s new ad hammering the Senator by dismissing the public option as the “agenda of narrow ideological interest groups.”
The ad in question: The new spot being aired in Connecticut by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which rips Lieberman as a narcissist who’s betraying his own constituents with his opposition to the public plan:
“We know that Connecticut voters support it, three to one,” the ad says. “But Joe never forgets who he ran to represent: Himself.”
“Joe has a message for Democrats, and all the voters who want him to support the public option,” the spot continues. “It’s not about you. It’s all about Joe.”
Asked for comment, Lieberman spokesman Marshall Wittmann emails a response:
“Senator Lieberman supports health care reform that will expand access, improve quality, lower costs and will not burden the economy or increase the debt. That may not be the agenda of narrow ideological interest groups but those are goals that the Senator believes are in the interest of the people of Connecticut.”
The shot at “narrow ideological interest groups” appears to be directed at PCCC, and the response seems to sidestep questions about the public option’s popularity with Connecticut voters, instead claiming that Lieberman’s opposition to the provision is rooted in what the Senator himself believes is in their best interests. Which, of course, won’t do anything to mollify Lieberman’s enemies.
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“was I supposed to call every hospital in the area and ask…what are your charges for private room and board…how about a double room? What are your charges for Medical supplies…durable medical equipment…sterile supplies (those 2 alone represented $1500 of my bill in the second hospital) anesthesia supplies..recovery room..radiology…should I be entitled to call all the hospitals and demand an estimate for them to treat a relatively simple kidney stone…which while painful..left no permanent damage…but could have been life threatening if left untreated.”
C’mon, ruk – think outside the box! Think about how one can now search online and instantly compare hundreds of auto insurance providers. Everything you mention above could be searched for online in a matter of moments.
SBJ, The Faux Libertarin, sure loves those Republican proposals, which they only offer, when they are out of power, but never when they are in charge.
edit;
Faux Libertarian.
AKA: Fibertarian.
Right winger “sbj” starts with misleading assertions, and then when called out for his falsehoods he changes the subject.
For the record:
Republicans have always been against Medicare.
Republicans repeatedly tried to eliminate Medicare.
But Republicans will stand in front of you and tell you they aren’t even there. And that’s what “sbj’s” job is: To lie and tell you that the Republican standing in the way of progress aren’t even there.
As right winger “sbj” has said himself: “How much would YOU be willing to pay for my lies?”
And “sbj” even conceded what the Republican health care plan really is: “Just let them die!”
Go quick death!
Everything you mention above could be searched for online in a matter of moments.
But it’s silly! Without the education to evaluate what should & shouldn’t be considered in your treatments are you possibly ever going to be in a position to make a worthwhile evaluation?
It’s a ridiculous idea.
Of course a true Libertarian would be calling for no Federal Government involvement, and would insist that it was up to people to take care of their selves, which once again proves that SBJ is just Fibertarian and A Selfish Prick.
(how are you possibly)
“It’s a ridiculous idea.”
It’s a ridiculous idea that I am capable of comparing prices for the same services?
(I did not write that the patient is best educated to determine the best treatment…)
SBJ…”Either we do that – reduce payments to doctors – or, inevitably, we need to ration services (further) to reduce the Federal liability.”
WE AGREE!!! That’s exactly what we need to do and inevitably will do because any other direction will simply bankrupt us.
You’ve already conceded rationing is a fact of life already. Rationing when done as “evidence based” medicine makes complete sense. We simply cannot afford to keep veggies like Terri Schaivo alive for decades with no hopeful outcome…it’s not only fiscally demented it’s also morally outrageous…death is as inevitable as life and we need to accept that and get on with it…of course when rationing is referred to as “death panels” all logic…all rational scientific discussion goes out the window…but what would Sister Sarah know about science..NIL!!!!
And yes SOME doctors will take a hit. We need to get away from procedure based medicine and move to a Mayo or Cleveland Clinic model where the Docs are compensated nicely but are not paid 3/4 to a million dollars as are some specialist today…
Letting private insurance companies determined what gets covered is absurd…they only have profit in mind…letting Docs get paid by the number of tests and procedures they do is equally absurd.
I do not believe the government is perfect SBJ but if you look at the satisfaction rates of today’s systems you’ll see that our socialized medicine the VA comes out highest in customer satisfaction…Medicare..single payer is next..with the privately insured far less satisfied.
This is really common sense if we could get the politics out of it..we should have gone for a single payer system…calling it Medicare for all so folks would understand.
As a liberterian I understand you don’t trust or respect the government…well how hypocritical of you to trust them in Afghanistan and Iraq…at least Ron Paul is consistent. The money being wasted in those two places is outrageous because of the influence of the MIC. Alas we citizens are too slow to organize and used our combined financial power to combat highly organized and powerful special interests like the health insurance industry!!!!
BTW The idea of me going online to check out all the hospitals and their prices…which of course is not available now…but even if it were…you’ve obviously never had a kidney stone…you don’t give a fk about anything except making the pain go away. You’re not exactly in a position of being a rational qualified consumer.
I’m not a dentist or a mechanic so I’m not in the best position to evaluate what services I am going to need prior to the dentist visit/repair, but I sure can compare prices before I head out!
When you need a crown at the dentist you can shop around to find out who is going to charge the least amount (typically) for a crown. You’re not going to know ahead of time if you will need a root canal to go with it, but you can choose your dentist based on cost if you’d like.
Before you get your brakes replaced you can shop around for the best price on pads, labor, planing, flushing, and so on. You can’t be sure ahead of time if you are going to need all of these services, but you can compare prices and then select a service provider based on it.
@ruk: “you’ve obviously never had a kidney stone…you don’t give a fk about anything except making the pain go away. You’re not exactly in a position of being a rational qualified consumer.”
I guess the idea here is that if prices for procedures were posted and comparable then you would have already (before the kidney stone pain) selected the best health insurance plan for your particular situation.
The analogies don’t work. Sure, if you have something a layman has a grasp of while the details may not all be well understood in advance you can still have a tolerably accurate rough idea of what to expect.
Doesn’t work that way when the problem is more complicated and more poorly understood. I was apparently born with epilepsy (I had my first seizure at nine months old, the first time I got sick with a cold, or flu, or some such). Fifty years later, and despite much improved understanding of how the brain works, epilepsy is still mostly a mystery. You can’t go to a doctor and know in advance whether this doctor is a better value for treating your epilepsy than that one is.
There are jillions of diseases like that.
@odd: “You can’t go to a doctor and know in advance whether this doctor is a better value for treating your epilepsy than that one is.”
Perhaps so but perhaps not. (For instance, if I can select Mayo I will know up front that they use a combined approach that will be better for me in the long run.)
With your condition you can have an idea of what the potential complications are. If you combine that info with readily available pricing info then you can make a more informed choice of both health insurance plan and health care provider. I’ve got a genetic condition that makes it very likely that I will get cancer. If I could see differences in coverage, differences in pricing, and if I got the tax credit instead of my employer – I might pick an entirely different plan, a different health care provider, and the whole thing might be at a lower cost.
As I’ve said elsewhere:
Under Democratic President Clinton’s leadership the government run VA became an extremely effective, life-saving, cost-efficient government run healthcare provider.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_29/b3993061.htm
And again:
Under Republicans we got the Walter Reed Hospital scandal where wounded American troops were neglected.
Republicans deliberately destroy good government institutions in order to discredit them and replace them with predatory, profiteering corporations.
That right wing mammon worship gets Americans killed is unconscionable.