Is The White House Preparing To Miss The August And October Health Care Deadlines?
In an unscheduled White House health care speech this afternoon, President Obama reiterated his commitment to accomplishing health care reform "this year."
Notably absent from his statement was any reference to the looming August congressional recess, or the mid-October deadline he and Democratic leaders had set for signing a bill into law.
The House of Representatives will recess on August 3, and the Senate on August 10, and Obama has insisted in the past that both chambers complete work on individual health care bills before adjourning for the summer.
As I've detailed previously, there are a number of reasons the administration wants swift action, and today's speech is among the first public signs that the White House might be girding itself for possibility that Congress will miss its deadlines.
In a nod to new concerns that House and Senate proposals don't do enough to curb long-term health spending, Obama noted his work with Congress on an initiative that would create an "Independent Medicare Advisory Commission" which would have the power to set the rates Medicare pays for services. Currently, Medicare seeks advice on those issues from MedPAC. This plan would strengthen that commission, and make its findings binding, unless overridden by the President or Congress.
Josh
Matt
Eric
Brian
This is great news. . .
. . . for insurance companies.
July 17, 2009 4:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Change we can believe in!
July 17, 2009 4:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Might as well wait, it's a shitty bill. No reform for the average Joe. How about growing some balls and introduce single payer. It's the only way to keep costs down.
July 17, 2009 4:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
How about doing some more ecstasy and join Glenn Beck on Planet Glog?
You can board the Cuckoo Choo Choo departing every hour on the hour
July 17, 2009 4:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
How about providing some facts. How is the proposed bill an improvement for Average Joe with health insurance?
July 17, 2009 5:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
From another Planet:
The bill will prevent insurers from dumping people when they get sick for "prexisting conditions" or jacking up rates for their employer so that the employer has to cancel coverage. If you can't be dumped because you work for the federal gov't or a large state or corporation, it would extend these benefits to other people you presumably care about.
Most people don;t realize the current system isn;t going to just go along as it is. It is goikng to change in much less desirable ways (into more of a 2-tier system) if there is no reform.
July 17, 2009 5:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
I concur.
This bill is about helping people who are sick and preventing the kind of PREDATORY practices from the "health cartels".
This stuff matters. There are real people dying from poor or no health care as we speak.
July 17, 2009 8:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Pre-existing is HUGE. That alone is worth reform.
July 18, 2009 8:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
i agree 100%. althogh single payer would be nice...
July 19, 2009 1:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
My bad
I just noticed the user name
fromanotherplanet
Right that
July 17, 2009 4:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
I see: All or nothing. Your view is curiously compatible with the GOP and insurers. How about we all hold our breath for a few decades until it's done "right".
July 17, 2009 5:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
My comment was to the alien, not you
July 17, 2009 5:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Stop making mountains out of mole hills Buetler
The real problem as I said yesterday is PETER ORZAG (I should add Rahm)...
It isn't the Gang of Six Wankers..It isn't the President (close)..it isn't Harry Reid
It is Peter Orzag and Rahm Emmanuel who at least should have known what Elemendorf was going to say yesterday and have been prepared to deal with it
Peter Orzag - BUDGET DIRECTOR, former head of CBO, noted HEALTH CARE expert
The President should not have had to interrupt the Gaggle today
IN a way Grassley's right
July 17, 2009 4:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
fromanotherplanet is 100% correct about the only effective way to cut costs, whether you nitwits choose to believe it or not.
July 17, 2009 5:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, I believe. I just don't think it will ever happen all at once. Baby steps, unfortunately.
July 17, 2009 5:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
I agree. If it's this difficult to get this through, there is no hope of getting single payer through.
And on a similar note, Obama never campaigned in favor of single payer - never.
July 17, 2009 5:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Anyone who doesn't agree with you is a "nitwit"?
Too bad we don't have an asshole like you running things. I'm sure it would all go so well.
July 17, 2009 5:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Again, it's a fact. You can swear about it all you want, but it's a fact- it's the experience of literally dozens of countries.
I'm not talking about politics- there may be different ways of eventually getting there- but about economics. Ultimately it's where we MUST go to contain costs. Tinkering with the for-profit system won't get us there.
July 17, 2009 7:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
I was commenting on your tone.
And actually sufficiently strict regulation could solve everything. Germany doesn't have single payer and has some of the best care in the world. It's because health care is basically locked in a regulatory vise.
Not that this Congress seems eager to gut these predatory health insurance cartels.
July 17, 2009 8:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's not about believing it or not, it is the absolute fact that it is not going to happen. The bill that Obama signs this year will not be single payer. Even if the CBO comes out with great numbers for single payer, it is not going to happen. THAT is what you choose not to see.
July 17, 2009 6:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
"It's not going to happen" should be the motto of the Democratic Party. Democrats negotiate from the sticker price and go away happy when the salesman throws in free floor mats.
July 17, 2009 6:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
And you are helping exactly how? By sitting around nay saying for the past year?
It's one thing to bellyache and badmouth. I guess it's another thing to engage and actually try to make a difference. To each his own.
July 17, 2009 8:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sadly, I agree. But what you refuse to see is that half a loaf really can be worse than no bread- much worse. Passing a crap bill that conspicuously fails either to help most people or to control costs will simply end up discrediting both the Democratic Party and the whole idea of health care reform.
July 17, 2009 7:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
In order to get it done this year he will have to make one of those two deadlines- that is how I interpreted those remarks.
I guess it's a matter of interpretation. I agree this maybe a bit of "mountains out of mole hills".
He's put on a couple of months, at most. Hopefully, a couple of months to smack the "gang of six" around.
July 17, 2009 5:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
But isn't the whole point of current deadlines to keep reconciliation open as an option? If the opponents buy themselves enough time, even with seemingly good pretense, then they can fillibuster.
July 17, 2009 5:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm confused by this bit you quote on the front page:
Is this even possible?July 17, 2009 5:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Is TPM asleep?
"You heard it here first: Primetime presidential news conference at the White House, Wed. 7/22 @ 9PM EDTabout 1 hour ago from Tweetie "
http://twitter.com/whitehouse/status/2694756439
Time for some push back.
Worrying thing is, the weasles in the senate keep watering down and wavering, and Obama needs to personally rescue. Meanwhile MSM always salivating, parroting GOP talking points, eager to torpedo health care. WTF??
July 17, 2009 5:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Conference is what really matters, just getting a bill through the Senate will be a good thing. Conference is where we need to lay every last bit of us out.
July 17, 2009 5:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wow your intuitiveness on the matter SUCKS TPM. It sounded to me like Obama is saying congress won't be going home until a bill is passed. I'd wager with anyone that this statement is true.
July 17, 2009 5:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think TPM has gone home for the weekend.
July 17, 2009 5:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Second that.
The headline could easily have been, "Obama reaffirms support for health reform--pushes back centrist delays."
And BTW--where did the coverage of the news conference go on this site? The link to the live stream disappeared, Josh posts three "live blog" comments, there's only a 30-second clip, and then this off-base story.
Let's see the full vid!
July 17, 2009 5:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here's the vid:
http://tpmtv.talkingpointsmemo.com/?id=2977095&ref=fpa
Josh skipped ouit early.
I know he has a kid and all, but they should hire some weekend staff. TPM goes on autopilot.
July 17, 2009 8:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
I agree. You stated it better, but that was essentially the point I was trying to make.
July 17, 2009 5:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
was brezhnev standing next to kosygin?
you are reading way too much into that.
if he wanted to not turn on the pressure, he wouldnt have bothered to do an event on it.
he said this year. he has always said this year. her repeated it.
the august piece is part of that.
July 17, 2009 6:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well the GOP admits that the insurance companies call all the shots on health care.
As if no one could guess. And the GOP as well as a few democrats want to keep it that way.
C
July 17, 2009 8:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Anyone who just wants to carp and criticize and doesn't want to get on board the president's train must answer these questions: First, what's your plan?
http://www.hopeandchange.net/2009/07/fired-up.html
and second, how are you going to get it enacted?
Ask yourselves if all the name-calling and grousing is really productive.
July 17, 2009 8:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
One thing no one seems to talk about is the positive effect this health reform would have on the country. It would lower insurance rates, particularly the public option, and by doing that, put more money in consumer's pockets.
My personal example of this is the giant rate hike I just got. My healthcare premium now costs 77% of my income. I'm 60 years old and my insurance is age rated. Before that increase, I was having work done on my home, using 2 construction workers. Those workers were buying the material for the job, eating in restaurants nearby, using gas, etc, etc, etc. The point I'm trying to make is that all of that was contributing to the economy; now it's not. Work came to a screeching halt, 2 construction workers out of a job, no more material or gas purchased, no more restaurant meals. The insurance company is taking all the money it wants and we are helpless.
Save the economy, pass healthcare reform now!
July 17, 2009 8:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
"It would lower insurance rates, particularly the public option, and by doing that, put more money in consumer's pockets."
Not to mention that the uninsured going to the ER is passed along to the insured in their premiums and lower wages.
July 17, 2009 9:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
The ER visits by the uninsured are not only passed on to the insured, but in many places these are county hospitals which are typically funded by local property taxes.
People are bitching about having to pay for someone else's healthcare....do they really not think they're paying right now?
July 17, 2009 9:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
What is amazing is that this is apparently too complex for the likes of Jake Tapper and Wlf Blitzer. The MSM keeps parroting the GOP about "Expense" and ignores the fact that there is no free lunch.
Obama is right. Either we will reign in costs now, or we will be bankrupted.
July 18, 2009 9:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
Watch Ron Christie make an outrageous statement about being more concerned about cost of health care reform, and less concerned about people dying.
This is insane.
http://progressnotcongress.org/?p=2194
July 17, 2009 8:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
seems to me this hedline is more spin that news.
not sure whether I should recharacterize this place as a result of it.
July 17, 2009 8:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
I do not think he is wavering at all. He is, IMO, letting all the "no" people know that this is the year we do healthcare reform. I still think the deadline is the same.
July 17, 2009 9:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
@Mimi katz
"prexisting conditions" --- good
"jacking up rates"--- good, but how will that be controlled? Just follow inflation,
Will we still be stuck with COBRA? What about all the unemployed?
In it's current form will anybody be able to choose the public option? Or is that just for currently uninsured?
I just feel that this isn't much of a reform. Yes, great that more people will be covered after 2013 (why so late? Why not 2010?). But where are the cost savings? A major problem is that health care costs are ~17% of GDP and increasing, in 2020 will it be higher than 17% of GDP? It needs to go down to 12% in order for the US to be competitive with other OECD countries. I'm sorry but I don't see a "reform". I may be missing a lot but this isn't much change to believe in.
July 17, 2009 10:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
"I just feel that this isn't much of a reform. "
I assume you aren't uninsured or waiting for that heart surgery.
FWIW, the all-or-nothing crowd mostly gets nothing.
July 18, 2009 9:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
Correct, I'm a "healthy individual" with insurance, but could be unemployed tomorrow. I would prefer everybody insured well before 2013. However, real reform is needed in order to keep down costs. And I don't see much of "reform" in the bill. Instead I see increase costs, which will be funded with increased taxes. It's about creating a sustainable system, that follows CPI.
July 18, 2009 3:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
"And I don't see much of "reform" in the bill."
You don't see "much" -- a very subjective notion, you must admit; For people with pre-existing conditions, reforming that scam is obviously reform -- but you cannot claim to not see "any". If you have a feasible option that works right now, including politically, I'd be glad to hear it.
But come on -- Obama is having a hard time getting less-than-universal care passed. Would the gang of six and other anti-health cowards/crooks/assholes be more eager to go along with some single payer plan?
I'm sure for the people in dire straits due to lack of health care, waiting a few years for another bite at the apple is not a viable option.
July 18, 2009 4:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
"but you cannot claim to not see "any"."
->I'm not, "And I don't see much of "reform" in the
bill. " I never wrote "any reform".
"I'm sure for the people in dire straits due to lack of health care, waiting a few years for another bite at the apple is not a viable option."
->But that's exactly what the current bill will do.
It won't expand coverage for uninsured until
2013. Please read the proposed bill.
"But come on -- Obama..."
->I have yet to see a public option for the
average Joe with insurance. I'ld consider
switching if I could. But as you know in most
states there's only one or two major insurance
companies. And currently I can't find anything
in the proposed bill about this option.
July 19, 2009 8:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
This will give insurance/pharm giants the added time to drop tons of money in Washington and over the air to keep their hegemony in place. Stand up Obama and Senators and give us real health care reform NOW! Don't wait, vote and seal the deal for us not them.
July 17, 2009 11:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Single payer, which keeps being brought up (and I agree with) was never, and is never going to happen. It was never seriously on the table. We will be lucky to have a public option.
July 18, 2009 8:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
I party disagree. It wasn't going to happen this time but Kucinich has gotten an amendment passed that will allow a state to try their hand at SP if they choose so. That will be a catalyst to SP in this country.
July 18, 2009 9:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
SP will most likely have to be a state by state experiment, given our national population size. Japan manages unversal health care, but without the military black hole. The public option should be tied in as an incentive for states to leapfrog into SP. Then the MI complex needs to be diminished and cami-collar jobs can metriculate into green jobs.
July 19, 2009 2:11 PM | Reply | Permalink