George Orwell called it, and now Speaker Pelosi rolls out the Newspeak. The public option, is now apparently being rechristened, the “competitive option.” From the story:
In an appearance at a Florida senior center, the Democratic leader referred to the so-called public option as “the consumer option.” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., appeared by Pelosi’s side and used the term “competitive option.” Both suggested new terminology might get them past any lingering doubts among the public—or consumers or competitors.A government-sponsored “public option” for health care lives, though it may be more attractive to skeptics if it goes by a different moniker, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday.
Love is hate, war is peace, public option is a competitive option!
The real competative option would be to permit private companies to sell across state lines. That would lower prices and increase innovation in writing policies as the many companies–profit and non profit alike–contested for increasingly larger market shares. But the powers that be won’t consider it. They want to cause private insurance to wither on the vine. Hence, the need for Orwellian euphemism.
October 26th, 2009 | 5:16 pm
This is an emotional issue for many Americans. This so-called “public option” in Government run health care presents serious challenges for us. As Consumers we should be able to compare the cost and quality of health care services. How much is a specific surgery at one hospital, as compared with another? http://www.friendsoftheuschamber.com/media/
October 26th, 2009 | 5:23 pm
[Stuart T: If you want to post here, you are welcome. But control your emotions and write without crudity and irrelevant attacks on people not in office now. Thank you. I have edited your post and posted it, and gee, nothing of substance was lost.]
How dare you quote Orwell in regards to health care for all Americans? Were you completely asleep w [crude imagry deleted]. during 8 years of bush:
[Irrlevent comments deleted]
I haven’t seen a doctor since 2006, NO chance for a full time position with benefits, pre existing conditions are honed in to a fine art of rejecting VALID health care bills, insurance companies are doing all of this in the name of profit; they have been the REAL “death panels” for 20 years or more.
Are you for REAL? Wake the hell up fool.
October 26th, 2009 | 5:32 pm
Moderation? Don’t you mean censorship?
I dare you to post what I wrote, and challenge you to deny that health care is a RIGHT, not to be used as a benefit for those who haven’t been railroaded by corporate greed post 9/11.
We are DYING out here, and you are NOT IMMUNE. Your jobs, wealth and health are subject to a simple twist of fate, you could be in the same situation as I and the 50+ million americans who do not have anywhere to turn but to an emergency room when it is too late.
You call yourself a christian? a conservative?
I say you are neither.
Jesus was a HEALER, not someone who judged people on wealth or position, he challenged the system and was murdered for it.
A REAL Conservative would believe that a 30% profit middleman would not be as frugal as a national health care alternative like ALL the other modern allies we have in this world enjoy. Europe, Asia, Scandinavia ALL take care of their own, people do NOT become bankrupt over health issues.
We are no longer number one, haven’t been so in YEARS; I say we can do better so does our president, who the MAJORITY elected. So stop calling it Obamacare, and pray that you do not lose your job, get sick, lose your house, your loved ones, and be a part of the solution, not a corporate cheerleader protecting profits over HUMAN LIFE.
October 26th, 2009 | 7:44 pm
Nothing of substance was lost?
You edited my words, I didn’t use profanity, yet you felt the need to omit my asking you why all of a sudden you are so concerned with the direction of this country while a president who was put in power by the supreme court allowed us to be attacked on the American mainland for the first time in modern history, took us in to 2 failed wars, implemented torture, manipulated the news, and took away american civil liberties.
You say your main concern lies with the importance of being human?
You are no better than the imagined leaders in the novel 1984, did you even READ it? You censored my post and made it look as if I was being crude because I called you out on your hypocrisy.
October 26th, 2009 | 7:57 pm
No, I didn’t edit anything relevant to the topic. Attacks on Bush are irrelevant to this. And you were crude.
It is my blog and I don’t allow that kind of imagery. Sorry if you don’t like it.
October 26th, 2009 | 9:15 pm
Health Insurance = a right? where is that written in the constitution? Access to free clinics and health departments. Even our small town has a free clinic.
Over profit by insurance companies, better check your facts. 6-8% what a windfall. The government created this problem in the first place. Universal health (medicare for everybody) the only people who will make good are the criminals. Did you catch the piece on 60 min? The government can’t even run Medicare without 60 billion in fraud. What happens when criminals take an even bigger slice of Trillion$? We need to fix the system we have one peace at a time. More free clinics, national insurance policies (like car insurance), a high risk pool for the ill and disabled. Open and honest pricing on procedures, and tort reform. Get our economy out of this debt ridden mud whole so you can get back to work. I feel your pain I really do.
October 26th, 2009 | 11:38 pm
“The Constitution of the United States of America
We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
ALL of our allies do it, why can’t we?
What do you think this country will look like with all the jobs being shipped to Asia? I get taxed up to 40% when I do work, and where does it go? War? Corporate welfare?
We POOL our tax dollars, it takes the pressure off of ALL business and individuals like me that are forced in to becoming free agents with no benefits. If we the uninsured get ill, do you think it’s cheaper at 400% cost in an emergency room?
How much is YOUR health care? Has it risen in 3 years?
I do not believe for a moment that the health care industry would fight SO hard if profits for them were not so good; sure they will cry poverty, but they are bloated and overpaid, reject claims and KILL people, for instance, Cleve L. Killingsworth, chairman and chief executive of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts, increased 26 percent last year, to $3.5 million, even though the health insurer’s membership declined and its net income fell 49 percent. Is this fair?
What about the CEO of United health care? Total compensation 5.03 Million.
It gets WORSE- Ronald A. Williams- Aetna38.12 Million, 5 year pay: 77.86 Million
You believe that they arent making a killing in the “health care” field? As a conservative, do you believe that a pooled resource using our tax dollars couldn’t put the compensation in to better proportion?
You are right- government DID create this by not creating a national health system in the last 4 decades. NIXON even was on board to do it. But we kept arguing and fighting over the details and now we are faced with a labor force that can not afford it, jobs shipped to countries like Chine who HAVE health insurance covered. We have more bankruptcies due to health care issues (most HAD insurance), than any nation on earth, we spend more money than any other nation on earth and yet there are more than 50 million without health care, the lowest age in life expectancy of all our allies that have national health care, and we also have the highest infant mortality.
We CAN do better, stop protecting these corporations who gouge us for health insurance and come up with terms like “pre existing conditions” while people die.
http://www.forbes.com/lists/2009/12/best-boss-09_CEO-Compensation-Health-Care-Equipment-Services_9Rank.html
October 27th, 2009 | 8:05 am
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Erwin Mcken, Mission Urgent Care. Mission Urgent Care said: Urgent Care News: Obamacare: Roll out the Newspeak! “Public Option,” now … http://bit.ly/1EhOla [...]
October 27th, 2009 | 11:02 am
Stuart – you want government run healthcare, but this week’s news about H1N1 vaccines alone shows you what you should expect from a ‘government option’:
“In July, Obama administration officials said companies could make 80 million to 120 million doses by mid-October. They outlined an aggressive response to the pandemic, spending more than $2 billion to buy 250 million doses of vaccine and promising enough to inoculate every American.
But only about 16.5 million doses have become available so far, putting the administration in an uncomfortable political position regarding what President Obama declared last week to be a national emergency.”
Gee, that sounds to me like our government has wasted $2B, and wholly screwed up this immunization process.
I also must call you out on your claim that health plans make 30% profit margins. They don’t get even close. Average is 2-4%, well below most American company averages. And non-profit health plans cover more than a third of Americans. You need to wake up and realize that it’s not just about the insurance companies. Don’t you understand that 86% of the money that health plans take in (premiums) goes right back out for care? Which leaves 10% for administration – paying docs, enrolling members, answering the phone, etc. Gee, Stuart, do you think the docs and hospitals where that 86% is going might have something to do with the neverending cost spiral? Insurers have actually cut their admin burden down by 5-10% over the last 10 years, which means more money for care. Oh, but I forgot. It’s all their fault. Wes – thanks for trying to keep things orderly.
October 27th, 2009 | 7:47 pm
Wow! Silly stuff! I have worked for several major insurance companies and I can tell you that we cut cut cut what we pay docs and providers but we NEVER cut premiums. Never. You are a dream to these companies. UHG covered both sides in the election and will come out just fine either way but if you are really worried about them, you could put out a collection bucket in front of stores and take a collection for their CEO. He gets 9.4 million in salary and more if your side wins. They made a $5 billion profit this year. If the govt just matches what they charge in premiums and cover what they cover, we the people will make $5 billion with no change at all in what we get. Maybe we could cover some more people with that. My roomates job was to deny coverage all day long.
So, if you are talking about language like Orwell uses, how about “death squads”, “death tax”, “no child left behind”, “activist judges”, “government takeover”, even “Obamacare”. Frank Luntz was the master at it. The Dems will never come close.
October 28th, 2009 | 9:13 am
Profits are just excess waste then? Why not nationalize everything?
If you think the government can manage an insurance program as well as an insurance company, then perhaps you’ve never worked in government. A cranky building inspector would make your roommate look like a powder-puff. They enjoy telling people “no.”
And what’s so different from people working in government and people working in corporations? Absolute power apparently only corrupts individuals in the private sector who have to convince people to do business with them. Absolute power in government, where people have no choice but to submit, yes, that will done with the utmost benevolence…
Looking at the polls, people don’t want to do away with the private sector in the medical field, and no amount of word-play will convince them to change their minds.
For the hundred of people criticizing insurance companies, why don’t they start one themselves? I think they would be able to pool enough capital to get it off the ground. Why not try that first before insisting the government take action?
October 28th, 2009 | 11:17 am
I have dealt with discussions lists and been a moderator before – every time someone had to be moderated in the forum they squawked about my denying them their “freedom of speech”.
Yet the First Amendment to the Constitution says that “Congress shall make no law, etc.”
Last I checked, Wesley wasn’t Congress and on his blog or in his home can require anything he wants.
It is the government that is force. Since we the people are supporting this government (it being a representative Republic & all), the power still lays with the people. How do you control the people? By public opinion. So now profits are a bad thing – a thing to be taken from those who made them and used “for the common good” – this is the description for oil companies and Health Insurers – the villan du jour is the the corporate big wig. How dare they make a profit for their share-holders – how dare they live the American dream?
The entitlement mentality is controlling us- its what caused THOUSANDS of people to line up for “Obama money” in Detroit and yet not one of them seemed to consider that the money has to come from somewhere and that it is tax dollars – the Federal Government doesn’t earn money – they have nothing that we do not give them voluntarily (taxes) or they take by force (regulations).
Loving ones neighbor has now been twisted into “let the government take it from those that are deemed unworthy” – the question is: Who will be unworthy next?
Wesley – Orwell is very appropriate and he seems to have been a bit of a prophet…
November 12th, 2009 | 4:49 pm
Orwell was describing in no lack of detail what I saw in the Bush years. Terrorism was the same catalyst for total control as the perpetual war with Oceania and Eurasia, complete with goverment surveillance, the Ministry of Truth (homeland security), and mind control (Fox “news” propaganda, beefed up with color coded threat levels that changed with public opinion of the commander in chief).
The current crop of New-speakers post Bush era 9-11 hysteria machines have simply changed gears to keep their control on the submissive and their corrupt republican party, and select 40 or so “democratic” representatives on capitol hill.
The author of this blog in my opinion is part of this machine. Someone to keep cranking out the propaganda to keep the south U.S., the bigots, the greedy small change rich who support all things Wall Street in line so that their multinational corporate slave owners will stay in business with the labor staying in the poorest countries with the least amount of compensation or restriction. The insurance slave masters need good little worker ants like the “tea partiers”, the Sarah Plains, and people like you who write the most ridiculous claims about Insurance company profits being less profitable than a news stand.
Administrative costs in the health care LACK of a system in the USA comes in at about 22% of cost (source: PBS, Frontline: Sick Around the World), where as in a well manages Single Payer system like the Swiss enjoy comes in at around 6%.
You don’t have to be an economist to make the assumption that if the United States wanted to model a real health care system based in part on all the other best systems out there, we could do it better. What happened to your faith in humanity, the doctors of America and our ingenuity as a charitable society ? When the world is in crisis, they turn to US, your neighbors need YOU and all you can do is criticize and make up cute names like “Obamacare” and obstruct the right to LIFE?
Shame on you.
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