West Virginia Blue
The Best Blogging Community in West Virginia Democratic politics, progressive policies, the good life and free living in Wild, Wonderful West Virginia.
CA_Berkeley_WV in the comments of One Citizen's post:
I watched the Senate Finance and Health Committee markups live blogging most of it before that big check for Soros arrived I bought new pajamas and a case of Cheetos.
I watched the voting patters of West Virginia native Sen. Tom Carper D-DE, MR Ducks Sen. Blanche Lincoln D-AR, very serious Sen. Jeff Bingaman D-NM and budget scold Sen. Kent Conrad D-ND.
Did you watch all the HELP and all the Finance markups to come to this conclusion? Do you know what amendments were defeated? Rockefeller offered his, made his pitch, and then acknowled that it would be defeated. So did Sen. Wyden D-OR. Sen. Schumer D-NY did not have much luck either, and he may end up the next majority leader.
Would the general public know as much as we do about rescission without the Commerce Committee hearing Sen. Rockefeller held that took testimony from Wendell Potter, whistleblower? Around midnight that last night another thought this was a great Rockefeller quote:
Children from CHIP shouldn't have to go to the exchange, where "insurance companies would...have them for lunch."
Statements in the press are often directed to other members and are the best window we have on consensus building. How a bill gets cobbled together is ugly. Sen. Wyden certainly was not happy with the concessions given between 11:30PM and midnight to Sen. Rockefeller the last night. I know Conrad's legislative director. He got the concessions he wanted. You can't manufacture votes.
Public Option cannot be introduced into the sidecar. It will not stand a Byrd Rule and a point of order. Parliamentarian Emeritus Robert Dove cannot remember being overruled by the chair alone on one of these. This whip got to 51 last fall, John Tester D-MT last one counted. Waiving the Byrd Rule is a 60 vote lift. CBO score on the sidecar today. House vote next week.
States can setup single payer under the Senate bill, so some focus should shift. Congress is not doing this this term, but the long term effort is worth it. Intimating that Rockefeller benefited from stock trades during the markup by linking to Page Not Found Error 404 as a bludgeon, unwisely wielded at this time.
reflecting subsidies provided through insurance exchanges, increased net outlays for Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and tax credits for small employers
That is what Rockefeller traded. Add that to Sen. Sanders I-CT community health clinics and I am not ready to cut off my nose to spite my aching toe.
While coal supporters tout the supposed economic benefits to the state that coal produces, West Virginia's coal counties are a very unhealthy place to live.
To paraphrase a catch phrase from a famous wrestler, "Can you smelllllllalalala what the Jay Rock is cooking?"
Senator Rockefeller goes upside the head of Senator Conrad with some serious smack:
"I'm really very tired of hearing about that from him," an exasperated Rockefeller told reporters. "And it's always about North Dakota, and it's never about any other part of the country. And I thought, you know, that's what we're trying to do--we're trying to do the best thing for the country as a whole."
On October 29th, WV-Citizen Action Group, CWA Local 2001, WV AFL-CIO, Direct Action Welfare Group, and other concerned citizens came out for a Halloween themed health care rally/protest at U.S. Rep. Shelley Moore Capito's office in Charleston.
But Rockefeller gets something better than almost anybody I've seen--something he's expressed in interviews and, most recently, during this weeks hearings of the Senate Finance Committee. It's how everyday people, particularly those without a lot of money, interact with the health care system. It's easy to treat health care as an abstraction--to make it all about economic theories and Congressional Budget Office projections. (I'm surely guilty of this myself.) Rockefeller sees it through the eyes of West Virginians making $30,000 a year--people who just want to know they can pay their premiums and that, if they do, the insurance they get will protect them when they get sick.
Rockefeller's ability to channel these feelings may seem odd, given his privileged pedigree. But it makes sense given what he's done with his career. Remember, West Virginia didn't choose him. He chose West Virginia, starting with his service as a VISTA volunteer. He knows his constituents very well. And he acts that way.
You see this in his advocacy for the public plan. The arguments you hear in the debate are mostly about costs, payment rates, and how best to make a market function. But for Rockefeller, it really boils down to a simple proposition: A public plan is good because you know it will always be there for you.
The government isn't going to point to an obscure provision on page 152 of your manual and deny you essential services. The government isn't going to comb through your medical records and decide that, having taken your premiums for several months, you're not eligible for coverage after all. The government isn't going to stop offering coverage next year because it can't make a profit big enough to satisfy Wall Street.
There's a big vote on the public health insurance option tomorrow--can you
call Senator Jay Rockefeller's office right away?
Here's what's happening:
The Senate Finance Committee, of which Sen. Rockefeller is a member, is debating an
awful health care bill that doesn't include the public option--the key to
expanding coverage and bringing down costs.
Sen. Rockefeller and other progressives are proposing amendments that would add the
public option to the bill, and the committee will begin voting on them
tomorrow. But conservatives are countering with a bogus "trigger"
amendment that would kill the public option through indefinite delay.
Can you call Sen. Rockefeller to thank him for fighting for a strong public
health insurance option that's available immediately--and urge him to
stand strong against the trigger?
Here's where to call:
Senator Jay Rockefeller
Phone: 202-224-6472
District Offices:
Beckley: 304-253-9704
Charleston: 304-347-5372
Fairmont: 304-367-0122
Martinsburg: 304-262-9285
Four other congressional committees have already passed good bills that
include the public option, but the Finance Committee has been dragging its
feet and considering half-measures--like the trigger--that won't fix our
nation's broken health care system.
Make no mistake: the trigger is a Trojan horse designed to kill the public
option by delaying its availability and then offering it only in a limited
number of states after certain conditions are met.
So we need to send a strong message to the Senate Finance Committee that
health care reform must include a strong public health insurance option
that's available immediately--not a trigger.
Sen. Schumer and Sen. Rockefeller seemed surprisingly confident that the health care bill will contain a real public option on a conference call that ended a short time ago.
I just got off a conference call with Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Jay Rockefeller (D-WV). They are confident -- very confident -- that health care reform will include a public option.
"The health care bill that is signed into law by the President will have a good, strong, robust public option," Schumer said.
How that will happen remains an open question. But the Senators assured reporters on the call that we're all going to get a taste of their passion and persuasiveness on this issue at the ongoing Senate Finance Committee hearings on Friday.
"I think it's a great idea," Rockefeller said of the public option. "Chuck Schumer thinks it's a great idea. And we're going to be all over it tomorrow."
I like this version of Sen. Jay Rockefeller. From Huffington Post:
Reacting to an amendment proposed by Sen. Jon Cornyn (R-Texas) during the Senate Finance Committee's markup of health care reform legislation on Thursday, committee member Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) called his colleague a pawn of the health insurance industry.
"This is a very, very important amendment and it's a very, very bad amendment," said Rockefeller. "If there's anything which is clear, it's that the insurance industry is not running this markup, but is running certain people in this markup."
People have been saying all sorts of untrue things about me lately, so I
decided it was time to stand up and set the record straight.
First off: the reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated. I'm
happy and healthy. And I'm proud to play a starring role in four of the
five health reform bills currently on the table.
Second: I have a lot of friends. President Obama and House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi support me--as do 77% of the American people.1 In fact, I'm feeling
pretty popular.
But there is one area where I could use your help. Your senator,
Jay Rockefeller, sits on the Senate Finance Committee, which is considering a
"trigger" proposal that could kill me through indefinite delay.
Sen. Rockefeller is a strong supporter of the public health insurance option. Can
you call to thank him and urge him to keep fighting against the
"trigger" proposal?
Here's where to call:
Senator Jay Rockefeller
Phone: 202-224-6472
District Offices:
Beckley: 304-253-9704
Charleston: 304-347-5372
Fairmont: 304-367-0122
Martinsburg: 304-262-9285
A "trigger" that would make me wait to become available is just a trap
designed to kill me. As Senator Charles Schumer has pointed out, "any
reasonable criteria for triggering a public plan has already been met"
because insurance companies have already failed to rein in costs and
expand coverage.2
Here are some other things you might not know about me:
* I like candlelit dinners, overseas travel, and long walks on the
beach. Whoops, sorry--wrong email.
* Some people say they don't like me because I'm too expensive, but
that's just a flat-out lie. Keeping me around will actually save
money--I'd cost 10% less than the typical private plan.3
* I'm the best way to keep insurance companies honest. Like Sen.
Rockefeller himself has said, "Without the steady, positive influence
of a public plan option in the marketplace, we will never truly solve
the health care crisis in this country. Private health insurance has a
long history of cutting people off or charging too much for too
little."4
* Over 60 House progressives have publicly pledged to only vote for a
bill that has me in it.5 So without me, health care reform doesn't
have enough votes make it through Congress.
And I'm counting on your help to make it through the Senate. Can you call
Sen. Rockefeller today?
Senator Jay Rockefeller
Phone: 202-224-6472
District Offices:
Beckley: 304-253-9704
Charleston: 304-347-5372
Fairmont: 304-367-0122
Martinsburg: 304-262-9285
The New Numbers: Health Insurance Reform Cannot Wait in West Virginia
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today released a new analysis of last week's U.S. Census numbers regarding the uninsured. The results are sobering and confirm that health insurance reform cannot wait another year. Nationwide, the number of uninsured increased from 39.8 million in 2001 to 46.3 million in 2008.
"These numbers only serve to further confirm a reality that far too many American families live with every day," said Secretary Sebelius. "Our health care system has reached a breaking point. The status quo is unsustainable, and continuing to delay reform is not an option."
The analysis below underscores the urgency of health insurance reform for residents of West Virginia.
The status quo is not an option. The number of uninsured in West Virginia has increased from 226,000 in 2001 to 271,000 in 2008. The percent of non-elderly adults without insurance increased from 18.1% to 22.2%. And this number only considers people who are uninsured for an entire year - it does not include people in West Virginia who have more recently lost coverage through the recession, or who had shorter gaps in their coverage.
More workers are being left without protection from health care costs. Too many workers in West Virginia do not have health coverage, at 164,000 in 2008. And the proportion of workers from West Virginia without insurance has increased, from 19.3% in 2001 to 21.3% in 2008.
The problem of the uninsured is a problem that crosses income brackets. The new Census numbers also drive home the fact that everyone in West Virginia is vulnerable to losing health insurance. An additional 22,000 people from high-income households are now uninsured.
"In states across the country we've seen the health care coverage situation go from bad to worse," Secretary Sebelius added. "And it's clear that losing insurance isn't a problem that plagues only the poor or the unemployed - it could happen to anyone."
Rockefeller told reporters he was unhappy with the lack of a government-run "public" insurance option in the bill, which is scheduled to be made public on Wednesday, and had problems with some of its changes in children's health insurance and Medicaid, or healthcare for the poor.
"There is no way in its present form that I will vote for it," he told reporters.
But Rockefeller reiterated his previously stated concerns that Baucus's bill does too little to ensure that health insurance would be more affordable for middle-class families and that the measure does not adequately strengthen Medicaid and would transition too many kids from the Children's Health Insurance Program to private insurance.
snip
Rockefeller commented he will not vote for the Baucus bill during the committee markup that will begin next Tuesday unless the measure is changed in "vast amounts," he said.
Rockefeller may well get his wish. Baucus expects Finance Committee members to offer numerous amendments during the markup. After meeting with Baucus on Tuesday evening, several committee Democrats identified misgivings similar to Rockefeller's and made clear they expect the bill to undergo significant changes during the markup.
Rockfeller said he'll sponsor an amendment in committee to add a public option to the bill, and will have other amendments as well.
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