Health Care Reform: The Dismal Dregs of Defeat

Expect much more on this later today on Hit and Run, but quickly: Pelosi admits defeat.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi just told reporters that she does not believe she has enough votes in the House to pass the Senate health care reform bill as-is -- at least not yet.

"I don't see the votes for it at this time," Pelosi said. "The members have been very clear in our caucus about the fact that they didn't like it before it had the Nebraska provision and some of the other provisions that are unpalatable to them."

"In every meeting that we have had, there would be nothing to give me any thought that that bill could pass right now the way that it is," she said. "There isn't a market right now for proceeding with the full bill unless some big changes are made."

UPDATE: Peter Suderman explained why this annoucement was pretty inevitable yesterday.

Comments

[Pro Libertate]

"Market?" Does that word burn her lips when she speaks it?

Hey, Nancy, the solution is in the market. How about you guys deregulate healthcare and work to remove barriers to entry in medical services and health insurance? I'm sure some of the GOP will go along.

[John]

Yes. And she spent the afternoon choking on her own vomit as a result of speaking the word which shall not be named.

[Alice Bowie]

The Market will not do anything to help this.

[Pro Libertate]

It isn't and won't be allowed to, no.

[ed]

"Market?" Does that word burn her lips when she speaks it?

Her lips are made of asbestos. Don't ask me how I know this.

[2999]

Oh well, maybe they'll have the votes to pass it after the GOP picks up a bunch of seats in 2010.

(snickers, walks off)

[Kyle Jordan]

To quote Megatron once again...

"Their defenses are broken! LET THE SLAUGHTER BEGIN!!!"

[Johnny Longtorso]

MNG? Chony? Anyone?

Bueller?

[Pro Libertate]

I'm enjoying 2010 so far.

[R C Dean]

I was until yestyerday, when my phat portfolio gains began to vanish. By the end of the day today, I expect to be no better off than I was three weeks ago.

MARKET FAILURE! MARKET FAILURE!

[Johnny Longtorso]

Mass elects a Republican that kills ObamaCare, or AWG shown to be a lie by the ClimateGate emails just before Copenhagen.

Maybe there is a God after all.

[Johnny Longtorso]

Add "Which do I enjoy more" to the first sentence above.

[TrickyVic]

Obamacare is only down, not out. Brown will help it become Obama/Romney care.

[brotherben]

I've wondered about that myself. I don't know if the Rs are silly enough to try to get in on it and steal some thunder of passing landmark human rights legislation in an effort to portray themselves as caring for the little guy for the 2012 cycle.

that run on made my fat ass tired.

[TrickyVic]

Brown has already said such.

He's for univeral health care, just not the current bill.

[Dagny T.]

Agreed, Pro L. Citizens United, this, all we need is a victory in McDonald v. Chicago, and it will be a pretty good year so far.

[John]

Don't forget the decision today gutting McCain Feingold. Perhaps there will be a pause in our spiral towards the abyss.

[Pro Libertate]

That's Citizens United, John.

[brotherben]

I wonder how senator Brown feels, being the most powerful man in the D.C.?

Oh, about the article, does this mean thatthe blame game has officially started in earnest?

[Johnny Longtorso]

I wonder how senator Brown feels, being the most powerful man in the D.C.?

Are you saying Twain was wrong?

"Clothes make the man, naked people have little influence on society"
-Mark Twain

[Vehical Driver]

This is good news for the Democrats. If they passed the bill, when it turned out to be a disaster, they would have taken the blame.

This way they get the benefit of looking like they support "health care reform", without actually having to deal with the technicalities of making it work.

[2999]

Or from another perspective, they will lose the enthusiasm of the progressive base and the voters will still think that the Dems are fucktards.

[smartass sob]

Good point. Plus they can blame the Republicans for Congress's failure to reform health care. Ought to be good for a few votes in 2010.

[Ben]

Wrong. Bad law gets past; bad law stays on the books forever.

[wingnutx]

Or, they vividly demonstrated the sort of sleazy tactics they would resort to, pissed off their leftist base with broken campaign promises, and now have nothing to show for it.

Passage would have been a pyrrhic victory. This was a fucking debacle.

[smartass sob]

That was in reply to Vehicle Driver. (damn threaded comments.)

[Alice Bowie]

I keep saying this here.

My opinion (and this is a matter of opinion, I'm not wrong/right and you are not wrong/right), the free market of health providers and drug companies would have been in a position to maintain costs and things would have NEVER COST what they do today if INSURANCE COMPANIES did NOT get involved in this.

The same reason you Libertarians note that caused cost to go out-of-control (the fact that patients are disconnected with the true cost of healthcare services) was CAUSED BY THE INSURANCE COMPANIES.

Had we had a TRUE free market solution (that is, people pay providers directly), this would have never had happened.

I just simply want the Insurance Companies to STOP PROVIDING HEALTH INSURANCE. This will STOP the out-of-control cost because people would have to pay directly out of their pockets. This will result in Doctors/Hospitals/Drug Companies having to charge significantly LESS.

[wingnutx]

Get the .gov to stop carving out lucrative fiefdoms for them.

[Ben]

You don't get to interfere in my right to purchase home owner's insurance, car insurance, boat insurance, life insurance, or health insurance.

So save yourself some breath and stop saying the same thing over and over and over and over cause no one is really listening.

[Alice Bowie]

Hey man, I don't want to deny u of purchasing anything that you want.

I'm just saying that Health Insurance is a snake-oil that has spiraled medical costs completely out of control.

This is only my opinion.

[j.i.am]

Actually Alice it is legal to go to a doctor and pay him cash. Many doctors will give you a discount for doing so, relieving him of the burden of collecting the money from your insurer. I have done this many times.

I have also read that some hospitals will perform surgery at a discount if you skip the insurance.

[Alice Bowie]

That's exactly what I do.

I stopped paying $600/month for family converage in NYC. I now pay $117/month and pay for EVERYTHING in cash. I shop around for doctors by telling them that I don't have insurance but I do have a credit card. This actually works.

[Mike M.]

So what the heck is the problem then?

[Hazel Meade]

I don't have a problem with insurance so much as insurance provided by someone else, such as employers. If we didn't have third parties paying the cost of insurance, insdividuals could more easily evaluate if their premiums made more sense than paying out of pocket for routine care.

As it is, someone else is paying the bill, so they opt for comprehensive policies that cover everything, and then abuse them, with the collaboration of providers - charging the insurance company for unnecessary procedures, and going to the hospital for minor illnesses.

If people bought their own insurance, two things would quickly happen.
1) Most people would scale their policies back to high-deductible plans. The way insurance traditionally has worked.
2) People would be more stingy with what they spent their money on. That means opting more often for ghome treatments, and shopping around when it came to doctors.

This would put downward pressure on prices for basic medical care, as wells as disincentivize doctors from tacking on additional testing when it isn't warranted.

[Alice Bowie]

The Libertarian in me (ha ha ha) says that we should get rid of that HOAX called Health Insurance and just pay out of our pockets. THAT WILL DEFINITELY BRING DOWN COST.

[CoyoteBlue]

I keep hearing Private Hudson:

Well that's great, that's just fuckin' great, man. Now what the fuck are we supposed to do? We're in some real pretty shit now man...

That's it man, game over man, game over! What the fuck are we gonna do now? What are we gonna do?

[Alice Bowie]

That is so funny.

[TrickyVic]

At lest you're not hearing him say,

In case your not up on current events, we just got our asses kicked.

[Slut Bunwalla]

Is she serious? Is she serious?

[TrickyVic]

Insurance usurps the market by allowing the medical industry to charge more than you can afford if you didn't have the help of the insurance cash pool.

If you get rid of insurance all together, many doctors would have to make their rates more affordable or go out of business because many people just couldn't afford it.

Not that I think that's the way to go. Personally, I'll like to see more open competition between insurers in all states.

[Wellescent Health Forums]

If the Democrats don't wish to look completely incompetent on this whole health reform issue, they should try to bring forward a bunch of small reform bills that could get bipartisan support. At least if one bill cannot be passed, the American public could still get some benefits of reforms rather than simply watching politicians spinning their wheels and spending taxpayer dollars doing so.

[Rebecca]

I don't think Incremental reform will be effective- see this article: http://swampland.blogs.time.co.....and?chn=us

What's more, I think it will alienate a lot of people, including myself. They pushed for this and as much as people think the Massachusetts special election was a referendum on the bills, they still need to man up and stand by what they passed and work to explain it to people.

I work for the health video website icyou ( http://www.icyou.com) and my opinions aren't necessarily representative of the website.

[R C Dean]

If the Democrats don't wish to look completely incompetent on this whole health reform issue

Too late!

[Jim]

There is a lot of money going into false propaganda against reform.
I suppose it must be billions. How much money did the insurance company pay the politicians to defeat health care reform?

Those politicians want their Mega Yachts.
I guess that explains the big increase in premiums.