() Senate Democrats made a case for legislation to revamp the nation’s health care system in a parade of floor speeches aimed at cementing party unity ahead of a first crucial vote. Full Story »
Posted by Samuel W. Velsor IV - via OneRiot, Pierre Omidyar, OneRiot (Health & Medicine), Publish2 (Politics)
One glaring omission to the article is the quote that Medicare covers those over 65 -- with no mention to the millions who are disabled and are granted coverage for health care, after a long waiting period.
“Last year 750,000 Americans filed bankruptcy,” Mr. Reid said in a speech opening the debate. “Over half of those bankruptcies were because of medical expenses. Over half of the people who filed bankruptcy because of medical expenses had health insurance. Don’t we need to do something on health insurance reform? Of course we do.”
The republicans and most people have their collective heads stuck in the sand if they think we can continue on the current path any longer
Senator Mike Johanns, Republican of Nebraska, said, “The motion to proceed is the key vote on abortion in the health care debate — the most important vote a pro-life senator will cast.”
As the President has correctly stated this bill is a Health Care Bill and not a vehicle for Abortion reform – which with absolute fact is what the republicans are trying to do among other lies they are spouting.
Senator John Thune, Republican of South Dakota, said: “Many revenue components in the bill begin to kick in next year, on Jan. 1, 2010. But much of the spending in the bill would be deferred until much later, not taking effect until Jan. 1, 2014. That distorts the true picture of what this legislation would cost.” The $2.5 trillion figure reflects the cost from 2014 to 2023, Republicans said, while the $848 billion figure is for 2010 to 2019
On balance I here have to agree with the republicans and strongly feel that the 2014 effective date for benefit is very wrong; for sure when you consider the Medicare “Donut Hole” provisions that are stopping people from getting life supporting medications at all now
It also seeks to slow substantially the growth in government spending on Medicare, which covers Americans 65 and older.
This quote is a total lie as Medicare also covers millions who are not 65 but have been granted Disability Status and need its benefits to survive since they were never able to form a “Retirement Nest Egg”
My strongest view is that the additional year before this plan goes into effect that Reid has moved back to 2014 in fact should be moved in the other direction, there are just to many human soles suffering and is it not only been done to, shall I say balance the ten year books?