Former Democratic National Committee chair Howard Dean continues to push for scraping the existing health care bills and start all over. Of course, his view points are from the progressive side, such as no public option, no Medicare buy in, etc. He also complains about older Americans would have to pay as much as three times the premium young Americans have to pay. But he also compares the current proposal on the table as the one signed into law in MA as expanding coverage with no cost control elements. Here's an interview of him on Squawk Box:
http://news.yahoo.com/video/business-15749628/17170409
See interview of Howard Dean on Good Morning America, http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerindex?id=9349688
The bottom line is that eliminating pre-existing conditions will cost more in premium and the more level the premium between young and old insureds would only mean the young will have to subsidize the old even more than it has been proposed. The half a trillion dollars cut to Medicare in the Senate bill and elimination of Medicare Advantage will hurt seniors.
In an interview with Florida Sen. Bill Nelson on December 16, 2009, the Senator said he had carved out language in the Senate bill to grandfather seniors in Florida so they can continue to participate in Medicare Advantage. He said several other states are also grandfathered, but did not name them. This is utterly unfair to treat seniors from different states differently, see 6 minutes into this video: http://gretawire.blogs.foxnews.com/will-there-be-health-care-reform/.
One Democratic freshman House member, Larry Kissell, voted against the health care bill and is taking heat in his district. His reason for voting against the bill? "... because it would have cut about $399 million from Medicare to find savings (in the House bill). He said he was not willing to renege on his campaign promise never to cut Medicare funding." See http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/17/AR2009121704799.html
Senator Bernard Sanders says, “I don’t sleep well, ...I am struggling with this issue very hard, trying to sort out what is positive in this bill, what is negative in the bill, what it means for our country if there is no health insurance legislation, when we will come back to it.”
The senator added, “And I have to combine that with the fact that I absolutely know that the insurance companies and the drug companies will be laughing all the way to the bank the day after this is passed.” See http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/18/health/policy/18liberals.html
For more on Democrat vs Democrat, see http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091218/ap_on_go_co/us_health_care_overhaul
Here is an article in the Wall Street Journal, titled "Angry Liberals Edge Toward a Mutiny"
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126110160499096559.html
And SEIU says it won't support the bill:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/17/seiu-urges-changes-in-sen_n_395411.html
