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Thom's blog
How We "Blew It" On Obamacare
Democrats blew it on Obamacare. That's according to retiring Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, who told The Hill today that he regrets that his party didn't go far enough back in 2009 and 2010 when it was trying to push the Affordable Care Act through Congress
Pointing out the massive filibuster-proof majorities that Democrats had in the House and the Senate during that time, Harkin said about Obamacare that, "All the prevention stuff is good but it's just really complicated. It doesn't have to be that complicated.... [We should have enacted] single-payer right from the get go or at least put a public option would have simplified a lot. We had the votes to do that and we blew it."
Harkin is right, and not just about how Democrats probably had the votes to pass truly progressive healthcare reform.
That's because for all the very good things Obamacare does - things like expanding Medicaid access to the working poor and requiring insurance companies to accept people with pre-existing conditions - Obamacare still doesn't go far enough. The biggest flaw in Obamacare, of course, is that it is centered around for-profit insurance companies.
Now, there's nothing wrong with a doctor or a drug company making a profit off a job well-done or a life-saving medicine, but there's absolutely no reason why anyone in the private sector should get rich off paying - or refusing to pay - medical bills, which, ultimately, is all insurance companies really do. They're just fancy banks. The fact that insurance companies do get rich off allowing or denying health care payments, though, is at the core of what's wrong with our healthcare system. It's the reason why we spend so much more on healthcare than any other developed country in the world, and it's the reason why people continue to get screwed over by their insurance companies despite the new protections in Obamacare.
-Thom
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Tonight on The Big Picture on RT TV at 7pm and 10pm... The Grand Climate Conspiracy (check your local listings for stations or stream at RT or Free Speech TV, and catch past shows on Youtube)
Need to Know: The Grand Climate Conspiracy
Lone Liberal Rumble: - Kris Ullman, Conservative Commentator/Activist  - Horace Cooper, National Center for Public Policy Research
The Best of the Rest...
Daily Take: How "We Blew It" on Obamacare
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Hour One: Who's really manipulating the new world order?
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Hour Two: oil prices and the world economy
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Watch & Listen to Thom
Why the Housing Bubble is About to Burst Again
The Media is Lying to You About Black Friday
Is Extinction on the Table at the Lima Climate Talks?
Politics Panel - GITMO is a National Embarrassment
Politics Panel - The Problem w/Body Cameras
The Good - the Bad - and the Very Very Intersilliently Ugly
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Thom discusses the UN Peru Climate Change talks with Greenpeace International's Kaisa Kosonen and if we're about to see the next great crash with the Campaign for America's Future Richard Eskow. Tonight's "Politics Panel" discusses whether police should be required to wear body cameras, whether Obama will close Guantanamo Bay and how Republicans don't love all tax cuts. In tonight's "Daily Take" Thom discusses how Black Friday chaos is a sign of troubling economic times.
THU Book Club: The American Revolution of 1800 Chapter 5
Caller: Thom, You're Overthinking the Oil Price Plunge...
Who's Really Manipulating the New World Order? p1
Who's Really Manipulating the New World Order? p2
The Secret ALEC Conference you Need to Know About...
How you can Help Stop Arctic Drilling...
Caller: Police State? Welcome to Black America...
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