Are We Saved? Gov Palin’s ‘Death Panel’ KILLS Øbama’s Gov Option!

Annie Oakley could not have made a better shot.

Not yet!!! The bill needs to be defeated for good!

Don’t let Obama get away with his smoke and mirrors!

KILL THE BILL..KILL THE BILL
The ENTIRE bill is crap and needs to be thrown down the garbage disposal

Don't start counting your chickens people. These "Fannie Meds" or "Freddie Meds" would be equally pernicious and as prone to failure as their mortgage siblings.

Publicly funded health care is not dead until it is dead legislatively...and we ain't there yet.

These people never give up...remember Ronnie Reagan was arguing with them in 1961 over the same things. This is not over and it may even be a straw man claim to get us to relax our oppositions.

Welcome to FR.

One thing though, the “exchange” option shouldn’t be supervised by the government and no taxpayers’ money to subsidize it.

I don’t like the word “co-op” because it could have government “cooperation which isn’t required. Small businesses could pool together and get low rates, period.

Any involvement of Marxist should be refused outright.

I also don’t want 0dungo to get any credit to peddle to his far-left bastards by using “words” like collectives, co-ops, people’s xyz, etc. These are simply called insurance pools, like car pools, if you will.

Palin didn’t do a thing... nothing is dead yet. There are many ways the aholes in congress can repackage a pile of crap

I like Palin but aren't we a little premature here.

Palin didn’t do a thing...

I think you forgot the sarc tag.

Yep, 'Co-op' is too close to commune & marxism. Appears this is a smoke screen to pass socialized health care.

Don't stop attacking - moderation is NOT an option, comrades!

Yeah, I’ve been watching the changing language to the old, tiresome communist propaganda.

Non-productive -—> Counter-productive (counter to the wishes of the government!)

Choice -————> Peoples’ choice (why put “peoples’ in?)

I heard this before and 0dung0 should be called on it.

“Don’t let Obama get away with his smoke and mirrors!” ~ SolidWood

Exactly. And he’s not the only one. We have RINOS involved, too.

White House appears ready to drop ‘public option’
Yahoo News - AP ^ | 08/17/09 | PHILIP ELLIOTT
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2317307/posts

Apparently ready to abandon the idea, President Barack Obama’s health secretary said Sunday a government alternative to private health insurance is “not the essential element” of the administration’s health care overhaul.

The White House indicated it could jettison the contentious public option and settle on insurance cooperatives as an acceptable alternative, a move embraced by some Republicans lawmakers who have strongly opposed the administration’s approach so far.

Officials from both political parties reached across the aisle in an effort to find compromises on proposals they left behind when they returned to their districts for an August recess. Obama has been pressing for the government to run a health insurance organization to help cover the nation’s almost 50 million uninsured.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said the White House would be open to co-ops instead of a government-run public option, a sign Democrats want a compromise so they can declare a victory on the must-win showdown.

“I think there will be a competitor to private insurers,” she said. “That’s really the essential part, is you don’t turn over the whole new marketplace to private insurance companies and trust them to do the right thing. We need some choices, we need some competition.”

Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., said co-ops might be a politically acceptable alternative as “a step away from the government takeover of the health care system” that the GOP has assailed.

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Reject Health Care Cooperatives — Trojan Horse for the Public Option
Written by Larry Greenley
http://www.jbs.org/freedom-campaign/5165

It was just two weeks ago when I posted, “Oppose Obama’s Stealth Government Takeover of Health Care,” which warned about the intention of President Obama and Democratic congressional leaders to get Congress to approve health care reform legislation with a “public option” that would put our nation on the path to a completely government-run health care system (See also our newly posted, “Obama’s Orwellian Health Care Reform.”). Back then in mid-July it appeared that both the House and Senate would comply with the President’s strong request to pass health care reform bills with a public option before the August recess.

Nonetheless, during the past two weeks the wheels have begun to come off the health care reform juggernaut as grassroots opposition to the President’s proposal has grown rapidly. First, the Senate announced its committees needed more time to craft health care reform legislation and wouldn’t be considering a health care bill in the full Senate until September. Next, one of the House committees working on a health care bill, the Energy and Commerce Committee, has been prevented from finishing work on its bill by the opposition of Blue Dog Democrats.

Although the Blue Dogs have as many as twelve problems with the health care bill in their committee, one of their main concerns has been over the public option. In fact, just this afternoon Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark.), who has acted as a spokesman for the dissident Blue Dogs on the committee, announced that a deal had been struck for the committee to proceed on its markup of its bill as long as other Democrats on the committee agree to several demands including weakening a government-run insurance plan (also known as the public option) that would compete with private insurers and postponing a vote on health care reform by the full House until September.

Since the health care industry makes up 17% of our economy, comprehensive health care reform legislation is necessarily very complex. However, one aspect of the health care reform debate stands out in importance — namely, the extent of government involvement in our health care system. We already have a mixed system with both private funding through individuals, businesses, and private insurance companies and government funding through Medicare and Medicaid. President Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress are advocating any new health care reform bills include a “public option,” which refers to a government-run health insurance entity which would provide “competition” with private health insurance companies. Since no private insurance company could compete with the resources behind the “public option,” especially in light of extensive (and soon to be greatly increased, no doubt) government regulations on private insurers, this public option would set the stage for a transition to a completely government-run health care system over time.

Enter the Cooperative Compromise

The stage appears to be set for a great, deceptive compromise which would address the concerns many Americans, most congressional Republicans, and apparently many congressional Democrats have with increasing government involvement in our health care system and which would, behind the scenes, also provide a path to a completely government-run system that President Obama and most congressional Democrats prefer.

As evidence of just how much traction the opposition to a government takeover of health care has gotten, consider that a few days ago my Democratic congressman stated in a letter to me that “I do not support a government-run, single payer system.” Although he is representing a historically Republican district he is not listed among the 50 plus members of the Blue Dog Coalition. Based on his past performance, I assume he will be a solid vote for any health care reform bill endorsed by the Democratic leaders; however, at this point he is clearly stating his opposition to a “government-run” system. He would clearly be most comfortable voting for a health care reform bill that appears to avoid enlarging the government’s role in health care.

Now imagine a compromise health care reform bill that seems to prevent a government takeover of health care but at the same time provides a platform for transitioning to a government-run system. That’s a bill that President Obama could endorse and that virtually all congressional Democrats, including the Blue Dogs, and many Republicans could vote for. And, there’s no need to imagine this bill. It’s being crafted right now by three Republican and three Democratic senators, who are members of the Senate Finance Committee. The key to this compromise bill is the provision for “health care cooperatives,” which would replace the “public option.” In recent days several members of this group of six senators have made it pretty clear that health care cooperatives will be a key provision in their bill.

Here’s a video of an interview on July 27 with Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Senior Republican on the Finance Committee and one of the three Republicans working out final details in their committee’s health care reform bill:

VIDEO http://www.jbs.org/freedom-campaign/5165

Notice that in this interview Senator Grassley likes to point out that his committee is restructuring one sixth of the U.S. economy, which goes to show just how important the health care industry is to our economy. He also sees his committee’s role as that of crafting a workable compromise health care bill based on health care cooperatives that can be supported by many Republicans as well as Democrats. He prides himself as being ahead of the curve in helping produce the compromise that many Republicans will end up supporting this fall. And, he’s also very certain of success in getting this bill approved by the full Senate. He points out that only once during the past ten years has a compromise bill crafted by Senator Baucus and himself failed to pass in the full Senate.

So, in light of the Democrats’ current difficulties in getting health care reform legislation with a public option (read government-run competition to private insurance plans) passed in either house, it seems likely that Grassley’s health care cooperative compromise will be incorporated in the health care bills that are actually voted on by the full Senate and House this fall, either in the initial bills or in a final conference report bill.

I won’t take the time in this article to document how well the concept of health care cooperatives engenders thoughts of private, non-governmental, consumer-driven health care. That’s what Grassley and the other senators working on this compromise are counting on to make their health care bill attractive to congressional Republicans.

What’s more interesting is how these health care cooperatives could be used as a transition to a completely government-run health care system.

First, here’s an interesting perspective on why these cooperatives would be doomed to failure:

[W]hat would Conrad’s non profit (really for-profit, tax-exempt) co-ops be able to do that the Blues plans couldn’t and didn’t? How would they cut costs more than Kaiser’s plans (non-profit insurers that make their docs rich)? The simple answer is that they wouldn’t survive long, and they wouldn’t make health insurance more affordable, because politicians would require them to provide incredibly expensive coverage with low co-payments and deductibles. Consumers would have no incentives to curtail health care expenditures, and the co-ops would have tremendous incentives to be the most rigid and nasty HMOs in history until shell shocked politicians put them out of business.

Second, here’s a very interesting analysis of how the cooperatives could easily lead to a government-run health care system in an article entitled, “Co-opting the Co-op: That kooky health care cooperative idea is still the Democrats’ best shot at bipartisanship.” Here’s the very telling conclusion:

Still up in the air is what a national co-op would look like. Would it be truly nationwide or would each state have its own? How much startup funding would it get from Congress? Will the government have a hand in running it, or will it be entirely patient-controlled? Would it have the power to negotiate the best rates, to make it competitive with private plans?

Depending on the answers to these questions, the cooperative proposal could be the Democrats’ greatest defeat or biggest victory. It could be as unambitious as adding another private plan to the mix. Or it could be nearly synonymous with public-option itself. (emphasis added)

So there you have it. The cooperative compromise proposal could end up being “nearly synonymous with public option itself.” Which means that the cooperative compromise proposal could end up ensuring passage by Congress this year of a comprehensive health care reform bill that would lead to a completely government-run health care system over time even though most grassroots Americans and congressional Republicans would have been deceived into thinking the bill would prevent a government takeover of health care.

The bottom line for those of us who are opposed to a government-run health care system is that we cannot be content to rail against a “government takeover” of health care. The Democrats are already well aware that a government-run health care system doesn’t play well with the American public. And, key Republicans, such as Senator Grassley, are already hard at work crafting a health care reform bill with a deceptive, health care cooperative compromise which they expect will be passed by Congress with bipartisan support. So, we need to be opposing “health care cooperatives” in addition to “government takeover,” “government-run,” “single payer,” “universal” health care legislation. Although health care cooperatives could be useful theoretically, in our political and regulatory environment they would only prepare the way for a government-run system.

Click here to contact your representative and senators in vigorous opposition to President Obama’s and the congressional Democrats’ “public option” health care proposals and also the Republican “health care cooperatives” alternative.

Exactly. This bill along with any other bills Congress is trying to pass should be DOA and we should go back and look at what’s really in TARP and the Stimulus bills so we can reverse them. After all, they passed these two bills without much notice so that we could not see what was in them and it’s probably gives them the ability to add amendments we know nothing about.

We should look into Obamas executive orders too as they will probably not be in Americas best interest.

Hang on there, pal. Don’t underestimate the willingness of republicans to sell-out the nation, their constituents and the American public in general. Stick around. Those brave patriots like Lindsey Grahamnesty and Juan McCain will sign onto ANY betrayal of our rights and liberty Hussein can invent, all in the name of BIPARTISANSHIP!!! If single payer really is gone—and I wouldn’t bet that it won’t simply be renamed something really clever and virtually untraceable till too late—anyhow, limp-wristed republicans will give away the FARM, just to get a few “moderates” or “undecideds” over to their side. After all, look how well that worked out for McCain!!!

Right on. In fact, I just heard that the “death panels” are in the Stimulus Package passed earlier this year.

No, we aren't saved yet. Yes, they took it out of the House bill, but the White House shoved it up our rear ends through a back door councel being funded with 1.1 billion of our dollars. And- Rahm Emanual's hack brother is one of the key players on this council-

http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/08/death_panel_is_not_in_the_bill.html

Keep up the good work, Gov. Palin. We are with you!

All good comes from God. Has God been using Sarah Palin's criticism of death panels to get them removed from the proposed "health care" legislation?

Consider Isaiah 28:14-15: "Wherefore hear the word of the Lord, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem [City of Peace]. Because ye [Democrat leadership and wimpy RINOs] have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell we are in agreement; when the overflowing scourge [angry citizens] shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies [promoted by the liberal media] our refuge, and under falsehood [not reading the bills] have we hid ourselves..."

Sarah Palin's Facebook Memo about death panels stirred up wild criticisms and charges of stupidity. Yet within a few days her comments were proven to be accurate, the death panels were removed from a Senate version of the bill, and the public option of "health care" legislation is now in danger of being removed! What happened in so short a time?

Consider Isaiah 28:18: "And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreeement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through [tea parties and town hall meetings], then ye shall be trodden down by it."

If the Democrat and RINO representatives and senators don't want their public careers to be rejected by an angry public, I would suggest that they read the bills, see them for what they are, and stand with those carrying signs reading "Don't tread on me!"

As for Sarah Palin, I believe that she is a servant of God.

We can’t let up until the whole 0bamacare load of crap is flushed. The left never gives up, they may retreat a few steps, but they don’t give up, and neither should we. The townhall patriots need to keep up their tremendous work, and Sarah Palin has to keep up the firing barrages of facts, until the whole thing is sunk.

Palin,and the townhallers have done tremendous work, and they need to be given the credit and the thanks they deserve.