The End of Health Care Reform

Earthside Comments: There are train-loads of money for health care in this country. The insurance mega-corporations and the pharmaceutical mega-corporations make huge profits and contain huge 'administrative' bureaucracies.

But instead of boldly supplanting this wasteful interposition of profiteers and 'bean-counters' between doctor and patient, President Obama and the timid Dimcrats in Congress decided that the major part of reform would mean building an entirely new "public option."

Genuine health care reform means just one thing: single-payer. Either the trillions of dollars already being spent on our health care is devoted wholly to medicine, treatment and health ... or all you get is subtle variations on what we've already got.

The news today signals the end of real health care reform -- unless Obama and the Dimocrats 'reset' and start anew with a simple, clean single-payer proposal.

Lawmakers Warned About Health Costs | Washington Post

Congress's chief budget analyst delivered a devastating assessment yesterday of the health-care proposals drafted by congressional Democrats, fueling an insurrection among fiscal conservatives in the House and pushing negotiators in the Senate to redouble efforts to draw up a new plan that more effectively restrains federal spending.

Under questioning by members of the Senate Budget Committee, Douglas Elmendorf, director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, said bills crafted by House leaders and the Senate health committee do not propose "the sort of fundamental changes" necessary to rein in the skyrocketing cost of government health programs, particularly Medicare. On the contrary, Elmendorf said, the measures would pile on an expensive new program to cover the uninsured.

Though President Obama and Democratic leaders have repeatedly pledged to alter the soaring trajectory -- or cost curve -- of federal health spending, the proposals so far would not meet that goal, Elmendorf said, noting, "The curve is being raised." His remarks suggested that rather than averting a looming fiscal crisis, the measures could make the nation's bleak budget outlook even worse.

Elmendorf's blunt language startled lawmakers racing to meet Obama's deadline for approving a bill by the August break. The CBO is the official arbiter of the cost of legislation. Fiscal conservatives in the House said Elmendorf's testimony would galvanize the growing number of Democrats agitating for changes in the more than $1.2 trillion House bill, which aims to cover 97 percent of Americans by 2015. ... MORE

Centrist Dem Leader: Has Committee Votes To Block Health Bill | Dow Jones Newswire

U.S. Rep. Mike Ross, D-Ark., a leader of fiscally conservative House Democrats, said Wednesday a House plan to overhaul the U.S. health-care system is losing support and will be stuck in committee without changes.

"Last time I checked, it takes seven Democrats to stop a bill in the Energy and Commerce Committee," Ross told reporters after a House vote. "We had seven against it last Friday; we have 10 today."

Three House committees are slated to begin considering the $1 trillion-plus bill this week, but the Energy and Commerce looms as the biggest challenge. That's because it counts among its 36 Democratic members seven members of the Blue Dog Coalition, a fiscally conservative bloc that is opposing the House Democrats' effort.

Drug Makers Score Early Wins as Plan Takes Shape | Wall Street Journal

The pharmaceuticals industry, which President Barack Obama promised to "take on" during his campaign, is winning most of what it wants in the health-care overhaul.

The final contours of the legislation are far from settled, but the industry, led by a onetime powerful congressman, has notched a string of victories.

Legislation expected soon in the powerful Senate Finance Committee will leave out cost-cutting steps as part of an agreement with the industry and the White House, according to Congressional aides, industry lobbyists and others involved in the talks.

The missing items include two planks of Mr. Obama's campaign platform: allowing cheaper drugs to be imported from Canada and giving the federal government the right to negotiate Medicare drug prices directly with pharmaceutical companies. ... MORE

Obama's Doctor Silenced | Russell Mokhiber/CounterPunch.org

David Scheiner is a family doctor based in Chicago.

For 22 years — until 2007 — he was Barack Obama’s doctor.

On Wednesday June 24, ABC News held an hour long health care forum at the White House featuring an interview with President Obama — with questions from a live audience.

ABC News producers thought it would be great to surprise Obama by flying in his former doctor from Chicago.

Dr. David Scheiner could ask his former patient a question or two.

ABC News producer Annie Allen set everything up with Dr. Scheiner.

Dr. Scheiner was excited.

He canceled about 40 patient visits — two days worth.

It cost his practice about $5,000.

On the Sunday before the event, Dr. Scheiner talked with Annie Allen and everything was a go.

“They said I was going to be there at the White House and everything was fine,” Scheiner told Single Payer Action. “We talked for about an hour on Sunday. I was going to ask a question directly of the President. They thought it was great. I was his doctor for 23 years. And I was going to surprise him. Sunday night I got an e-mail from Annie Allen saying everything was okay.”

Only one problem.

Scheiner, it turns out, has been critical of Obama’s health care plan.

It won’t work, he says.

Scheiner says we need single payer health care instead.

On Monday — two days before the White House event — another producer from ABC News called — Scheiner can’t remember his name — and told Scheiner and told him he had been canceled.

“We have too many people, we have to cancel you,” the producer told Scheiner. “Maybe some day you will be on Nightline.”

“I was pissed,” Scheiner said. “The program was terrible. It was an informerical for the medical industrial complex. It wasn’t meaningful. The questions were softballs. There wasn’t one mention of single payer — as far as I could tell.”

Scheiner doesn’t know whether he got nixed by ABC News or someone in the White House.

“I don’t know who did it,” Scheiner said. “It could have been the White House. I could see [White House Chief of Staff] Rahm Emanuel doing something like that. That’s his style.”

Now Scheiner says that Congress should nix Obama’s health care proposal and start all over.

And pass single payer next time around.