vibinc

Category: Policy

  • One Billion Dollars

    As H.R. 3200 plods it’s way through Congress, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce has emerged as a stumbling block. The opposition, led by Democratic Representative Mike Ross (AR-04), centers around Medicare payments to rural communities and the assurance that the measure will be deficit neutral. Ross is a member of the Blue Dogs,…

  • Healthcare and The Land of the Disintegrating Talking Point

    Is it just me, or are conservative TV talking heads and Blue Dogs the only people who are sticking to the talking points set up to kill Healthcare reform? It seems like it. Hell, even Republicans are having a hard time staying on point. Case in point, tin foil hatter and Minnesota Representative, Michelle Bachman…

  • Healthcare Debate to Heat Up in July

    There are a lot of things going on with the effort to reform the nation’s healthcare. Probably more than I’ll be able to distill here. Here are some of the highlights. Some of you may remember that Democratic House leaders pledged to address healthcare by July 31st. For those of you without the benefit of…

  • Profit Over Wellness

    A little birdy dropped this fine piece of testimony in my lap overnight. In it, former CIGNA executive Wendell Potter describes just how important profit is over care in the current healthcare system in the US. From the testimony: The average family doesn’t understand how Wall Street’s dictates determine whether they will be offered coverage,…

  • The Ghost of Nominees Past

    Affordable, portable healthcare has been an issue in American politics since long before the 1990’s. Unfortunately, little, if anything has been done in that time to ensure that Americans have access to insurance coverage, despite a great deal of support for reform. Today NBC News and The Wall Street Journal published a poll stating that…

  • This Trigger’s Already Been Pulled

    About two weeks ago I wrote about the public option. Around the time I was writing that, I started seeing some discussion of putting a “trigger” into any legislation that included a “public option”. I could go off and spend a lot of time trying to explain what a “trigger”, but I’ll let Igor Volsky…