Actually, that sounds like a good idea, but why wait?

Why not write a bill with global health insurance reform that affects all insurance, and with a public option that the states have to agree to join. People who don't want to have access to a public option won't have to, and if they decide that it looks good later on, they can join then.

It's a great idea! Let the folks in red states lose their health insurance coverage when they get laid off, while everyone else gets to keep it. Let them be declined due to pre-existing conditions. Let them be denied access to the health insurance exchange. And let them not have the choice of a public plan. Then let's see how long those states stay red!

YES! The Mark Sanford Strategy©. We've gotta be winning.

Someone asked earlier (I forget which article) how many people were in on the Bachmann/DeMint call: per AFP, it was over 20,000.

Interestingly, it appears to me that AFP (funded by billionaire oil/gas guys) is starting to pivot back from healthcare to the energy legislation. Their website is featuring their "Hot Air Tour" more prominently than their "Patients First". Last night's call is buried in a blog post about a Hot Air Tour rally (with about 200 turning out according to their estimate). They're definitely using the healthcare debate to slingshot their efforts to raise their full-of-hot-air efforts to defeat CO2 controls.

Here's their buried summary of last night's call: "Following the rally last night we hosted a national tele-townhall with Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina and Congresswoman Michele Bachmann of Minnesota. It was great to see over 20,000 of you participating on the call and asking these great free market leaders in Congress insightful questions about how we can beat a government take over of our health care." (http://americansforprosperity.org/082109-another-great-hot-air-tour-swing-wraps-roanoke-virginia-last-night)

Thanks, TPM, for reporting on the call - it is important that we know what they're saying to their faithful, and that they know that we are listening.

the repubs really seem to be throwing their lot in with a group of astroturfers who are only a few years away from medicare eligibility. meanwhile, "[a] report by the Commonwealth Fund last year showed that 34 percent of college graduates will spend some time uninsured in the year after graduation. The report also found that two-thirds of young adults ages 19 to 29 who spent time without insurance coverage in the past year had gone without needed medical care because it cost too much" (from CNN).

Woman brought up on charges for denying medical care to her 2 year old child who died of a treatable infection after having a high fever for 10 days. She was arrested at a health reform protest after her husband, hiking on the Appalachian Trail, returned home and called 911.

"I didn't take my sick baby to the hospital because I didn't want that Obamacare that Fox News warned me about, and I would do it again!"

Look, can we re-think the Civil War and just let some of these states head out on their own? It won't work for Looneytunes Bachmann, but she isn't representative of her state anyway. I realize this is somewhat hypocritical coming from someone who lives in Utah, but I am just full-up with these people at this point. They thump their chests for American democracy until they lose an election! Can we just set aside some of the states (particularly the ones who don't want to be a part of America with a moderately progressive Black guy as President)for those people who speak to God and will be leaving with the Rapture anyway. They can go have their own little country and leave the rest of us, who are hopelessly convinced that rational thought it a good idea, the fuck alone.

Let Texas break away and give all Bachman-Vitter-DeMint voters a free bus ticket there.

Talk about containing the seeds of their own destruction.

Ahhh, civil War, 21st century style. Doggone it though, something just feels a little bit lacking this time around.

So. . . they want to punish their poorest citizens and call it "freedom?" How long before those poor folks find out from their relatives up north that public health care is actually a boon, it didn't pull the plug on granny, and it maybe even saved them from being evicted? Then how will those elected officials appear?

Fine. Write it into the bill: any state can opt out of the plan. In fact let them opt out of all federal taxes and all federal programs. If they want services from the federal government, they pay for them. It will be interesting to see how their beloved Pay or Die Healthcare System works out for them. Self-inflicted eugenics is an interesting concept.

Just so people understand, states do differ right now in how much they get from the Feds to pay for healthcare in their states. Medicare is pretty similar across states because its a direct Federal entitlement, but Medicaid is a state/Federal partnership. The Feds only match state contributions ( not dollar for dollar, but to a percentage that depends on the overall health index of the state). So a state like SC probably gets more back on Medicaid than others because its overall score is really bad. Or it would if SC didn't have jackass GOP governors who think cutting services to the poor (and hence also losing Federal funding) is just a great example of "fiscal conservatism".

So if DeMint really wants SC to go it alone on anything beyond benefits citizens get directly from the Feds, he can get Sanford to do it. The fact they'd both be hung up like Mussolini from a flagpole within a matter of days shouldn't stop them - its the principle that matters, don't you know.