out of it".. he's pressuring himself out.

Almost seems like there is collusion with you know who and you know who. Who'd a thunk it!

But nothing surprises me anymore.

and hiring “lock her up” Tad Devine who worked with Paul Manafort to install Putin’s puppet in Ukraine. And didn’t Jill Stein offer him to take over the Green Party ticket in 2016? The same Jill Stein his surrogates voted for? The same one at Putin’s table with Michael Flynn?

He can save his legacy and be a national hero by dropping out. Or we can always wonder about connecting all the dots.

Joe was saying the younger generation does not vote or get involved like they used to.

at this point, it's not unreasonable to question his motives.

more of a collation than 35%.. nor does he want to.. and one of the reasons his campaign didn't grow is how he and his jill stein staff run their campaign.. with these kinds of fake vid .. and he hasn't learned ONE THING.

Putin-style misinformation is being used? Hmmm, who'd a thunk it?

weigh in on that in general. They wouldn't have to examine him personally to discuss types and traits.

Why he wants to destroy Obamacare is a question that has recurred a bunch of times. MfA isn't real and almost certainly never will be; Sanders himself can't want to fight for most of his 80s to create another of the for-profit capitalist institutions he hates, or to even just watch. Is it really just a handy wedge issue to run on, chosen for its utility for his target demographics, or does he have deeper personal reasons?

While actually giving the insurance industry a huge boost and I imagine they'll line his pockets for it.

Anyone who has Medicare knows you need supplemental (PRIVATE) health insurance policies to get it to work worth a damn. Even then, those extra policies are not enough to cover everything that even the average retiree with a moderate chronic condition needs to stay healthy.

I have multiple relatives on Medicare, most of whom are diabetic. They all have multiple supplemental policies that they pay for out of pocket. And they all wind up taking turns going to Mexico to get the medications that they all need. My mother routinely comes back with hundreds of dollars worth of meds for herself and the other relatives who will go in a few more months to spend hundreds for meds again. Because it's still cheaper for them to get those meds in Mexico than it is to get them on Medicare here in the US.

They also go to Mexico for dental care, because Medicare doesn't cover that and it's cheaper, still, to pay out of pocket in Mexico for dental work than it is to pay the premiums for a supplemental policy and then shell out the deductibles & co-pays on top of that.

seemingly understandable and reassuringly familiar. It was always understood by everyone who read even five minutes, though, that it would be a whole new program. Both populist leaders, in fact, told their followers Obamacare must be destroyed so they could replace it with far better coverages for far lower cost. Neither has a genuine plan or a path forward, Sanders' explained means of making it happen jaw-droppingly unicorn time (threatened citizen uprisings to force congress to do what the president said).

Fwiw, and however I question his motives, I doubt money for himself is among them. He's always been too focused on his ideological passions to care much about anything else. He might want to fund his ongoing revolution, use money to build power as a kingmaker, but I doubt the insurance industry would be interested in donating to that.

I wish we were closer to Mexico. We'd be going there.

I think he is being advised to keep his campaign going so they can keep getting paid.

There've been a fair number of allegations of financial misbehaviors among the various groups that make up his "revolution," and I wouldn't put anything past some of them. They're making full use of the corrupt systems the Republicans set up to hide their dark money from scrutiny.

And of course Sanders himself has the 9 Superpacs Biden charged him with after he hypocritically attacked Biden for being associated with two. One thing I know, the ones that work to elect Biden abide by the law, because that's how Biden himself rolls and he'd insist on it; and I'd be extremely surprised if the 9 Superpacs formed around Sanders did. Not with the kind of people he draws involved.

Whatever, their ruthless and unprincipled aggression disappointed must be a really ugly scene.

IF his programme (MFA) was actually passed, it would end 98% of most private insurance (only elective surgery types of PI would be left).

I am all for that, I have lived most of my entire life with basically free or near free universal healthcare on a single or semi-payer model (UK and Sweden), it is vastly better than the US for profit model, BUT it (MFA) will never pass atm in reactionary USA. There is zero chance even Biden's Public Option will pass. They could not get the PO passed when we has SIXTY seats in the Senate.

It is a pipe dream to think that even very Democratic Senator will vote for the Public Option now. Zero chance.


here:


Biden in Cross Hairs of the Partnership for America's Healthcare Future

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1287207761

“Unfortunately, Vice President Biden’s proposal for a new government insurance system through a ‘public option’ would undermine the progress our nation has made and ultimately lead our nation down the path of a one-size-fits-all health care system run by Washington. From driving up premiums in the private market, to threatening our nation’s already at-risk hospitals, to diminishing Americans’ access to the quality care they need, research warns that such an approach could be disastrous for patients and consumers.
https://americashealthcarefuture.org/partnership-statement-on-biden-health-care-proposal/



and

here:


https://www.democraticunderground.com/1287207761#post9

they are going after Biden's public option plan, just as I predicted for months, and this group Partnership for America's Healthcare Future is partially backed by Blue Cross/Blue Shield and AHIP, (America's Health Insurance Plans), who spent over 100 million USD in the last 14 months (prior to it's passage) trying to defeat the ACA and ever since then have vowed they will do the same to quash the public option.


Here is a direct quote from the OP's link

The institutional power players are staunchly against even the slightest diminution of their extractive abilities within the for-profit health care matrix. The public option is a massive threat to them.

The co-chair of Biden's kick-off giant fundraiser in Philadelphia (at David Cohen's, the Comcast executive, home) was Daniel Hilferty, the Independence Blue Cross CEO and an executive director of AHIP. He was a key driver against the ACA, and now is helping lead the charge against the public option (not to mention he is obviously against MFA as well, which is not my preferred thing anyway).

Hilferty is bad news, and is just hedging his bets with Biden, as he almost always gives mostly to Rethugs like McTurtle. I am absolutely sure Hilferty will pop a 5000 USD bottle of some rare vintage of Dom Pérignon or other champagne if/when the SCOTUS invalidates all of the ACA, especially the pre-existing conditions clause. Biden should really disown him publicly, and anyone affiliated with Partnership for America's Healthcare Future and AHIP. It is a really bad look IMHO to have them involved to a point where he (I do not know about others) was a fundraising co-chair.

https://web.archive.org/web/20190503175136/https:/twitter.com/hollyotterbein/status/1121232294801547265



https://web.archive.org/web/20190503222233/https:/twitter.com/hollyotterbein/status/1121203315067490306




As Dems debate Medicare for All, a less radical idea stalls in blue states

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/04/08/health-care-blue-states-1308730

This was supposed to be the year blue states created government-run health insurance plans, after health care-fueled midterm election victories.

But legislation around the country to craft a so-called public option — a longtime progressive goal — has stalled over political and financial roadblocks, underscoring the challenge of creating coverage expansions even less comprehensive than the "Medicare for All" plan championed by Democratic presidential contenders and progressives in Congress.

Legislative proposals in New Mexico, Nevada and other states to set up a public option to give people more choices — and insurers more competition — have been watered down or shelved as lawmakers struggle to design affordable plans building on Obamacare. And multiple Democratic governors who backed the idea during their campaigns haven’t pushed it since taking office.

“When you’re dealing with a new issue — and this is a new idea — the biggest problem around the idea is one of cost," said former Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear, a Democrat. "Where is the money going to come from? And obviously every politician is concerned about that, rightfully so."

The public option has appeal among some moderate Democratic officials hoping to harness the base’s energetic support for Medicare for All in the 2020 elections — while skirting the political risk of embracing the full single-payer overhaul that Republicans decry as socialism. Democrats who have embraced less radical overhauls hoped to leverage the party’s newfound advantage on health care to make progress toward universal coverage this year while contrasting it with Republican efforts to repeal Obamacare.

snip

There already are troubling signs that the 2009 tactics (where the public option was taken off the table due to immense pressure from the lobbyists) are being baked in the cake yet again.


https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/individual-contributions/?two_year_transaction_period=2020&contributor_name=Hilferty%2C+Daniel+&min_date=01%2F01%2F2019&max_date=12%2F31%2F2020





Hilferty's group America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), pumped in $102 million in 14 months to try and block Obamacare, now they are doing the same with MFA and even the much milder buy-in option.


Health Care Insurers Spent $100 Million To Defeat Obamacare


https://www.democraticunderground.com/1002805314

As the Supreme Court readies to announce their decision on the individual mandate portion of the health reform, it has emerged that the largest health care lobbying group in the country spent a total of $102.4 million in just 15 months to prevent Obamacare from becoming law in the first place.

In 2009 alone, America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) pumped $86.2 million into a conservative lobbying group, the US Chamber of Commerce, to combat President Obama’s health care reform plan. But with the added months of 2010 prior to the ACA’s March passage, AHIP piled on an additional $16 million to be used against the bill.

That staggering total, which the National Journal’s Influence Alley uncovered today, was not out in the open — rather, the funds were transferred through a secretive process and listed only by the organization as ‘advocacy’ spending:

The backchannel spending allowed insurers to publicly stake out a pro-reform position while privately funding the leading anti-reform lobbying group in Washington. The chamber spent tens of millions of dollars bankrolling efforts to kill health care reform.


more at link
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/06/13/499093/health-care-insurers-spent-100-million-to-combat-the-affordable-care-act/




https://www.opensecrets.org/search?order=desc&q=daniel+hilferty&sort=D&type=donors







They are still at it (trying to destroy the public option)


AHIP mobilizes industry opposition to public option (2016 efforts)

https://www.healthcaredive.com/news/ahip-mobilizes-industry-opposition-to-public-option/426659/


Dive Brief:

The leading health insurance industry trade group, America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), launched an effort last week to mobilize members against the growing push for a public option, which would create a government-run health insurance plan to compete with private plans on the ACA exchanges.

AHIP's action alert last week asked its members to contact Senate offices and provided a list of talking points to assist in arguments against the public option, The Huffington Post reported.

The move came within hours of the introduction of a resolution by 27 Senate Democrats, led by Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley, calling for the public option--an idea that President Barack Obama and presidential nominee Hillary Clinton have also recently joined forces to support.

Dive Insight:

AHIP's swift action suggests the group sees the groundswell of support for a public option from legislators and advocates as a real threat. The concept has essentially come back from the dead after raising major debate during the crafting of the ACA, but subsequently being left out of the health law due to concerns among lawmakers, including some liberals, as well as opposition from industry groups.

snip


2019


Partnership Statement On Introduction Of Senate Medicare-X Legislation A Public Option Would Restrict Patient Choice of Plans and Access to Care

https://americashealthcarefuture.org/partnership-statement-on-introduction-of-senate-medicare-x-legislation/


ICYMI: “Medicare Buy-In, Public Option Proposals Would Harm Our Health Care System”

https://americashealthcarefuture.org/icymi-medicare-buy-in-public-option-proposals-would-harm-our-health-care-system/


they also will fight to stop the US government from having the ability to negotiate lower drug prices


A BITTER PILL: HOW BIG PHARMA LOBBIES TO KEEP PRESCRIPTION DRUG PRICES HIGH

https://www.citizensforethics.org/a-bitter-pill-how-big-pharma-lobbies-to-keep-prescription-drug-prices-high/



PARTNERSHIP FOR AMERICA’S HEALTH CARE FUTURE.

https://americashealthcarefuture.org/about-us/





The American Medical Association, BlueCross BlueShield and the Federation of American Hospitals are behind this PAC that is constantly buying ads on YouTube against Obamacare and single payer healthcare.
They also don't like Biden's plan to repair Obamacare."

So much for that right? LOL

His attitude toward ACA and other healthcare proposals though is an internecinal nightmare. Will he try to push M4A in the Senate in opposition to a future President Biden's healthcare plans? I think you know the answer.

Sen. Sanders refuses to support House ACA 2.0 bill even though he cosponsored the Senate version

http://acasignups.net/19/03/27/sen-sanders-refuses-support-house-aca-20-bill-even-though-he-cosponsored-senate-version

Last edited Wed Mar 18, 2020, 08:44 AM - Edit history (1)

him pushing MfA in the senate in opposition to improving the ACA. He's a self-disimpowered caucus of one.

I am wondering if he's now addicted to national attention and also how he'll regard the future of his socialist revolution. He is getting votes. Otoh, he spent 25 years mostly vegging in congress, just doing whatever he needed to keep his gold-ring job. He might just return to his previous pattern of badmouthing Democratic legislation, voting for it, then returning to badmouthing it, but with an attention and devoted audience for his remaining years that he never had before.

Apparently a lot more people are on to him than we realized, though. How contemptible is that to refuse to support better coverages and lower premiums for the ACA because they'd undermine support for destroying and replacing it?

Even if possible, and not an almost insanely dysfunctional choice Democrats in congress would rightly refuse, it'd have taken at hopeful minimum another 8 years after he took office to make happen, during which time a number of elections and potential power shifts would take place, and of course many legal attempts to destroy all and parts of it, some successful.

All the while, Sanders would be trying to keep the necessary enthusiasm for MfA pumped up by sabotaging the ACA.

I'm looking forward to all the carefully researched books that will dig into motives and much more. From the safety of my armchair in a stabilized society, of course. But this dangerously reactionary transitional era is a wonderful gift to historians and researchers into the psychology of mass movements, extremism, etc. It'll be fascinating to view what we're going through with the insights of the future. Once we're safe past.

...basically concluding that those efforts would ultimately lead to no healthcare at all. LOL That's subsided now with his tanking. But it was thinkable there for a while.

'...refuse to support better coverages and lower premiums for the ACA because they'd undermine support for destroying and replacing it?' Stuff like that drove me up a tree. Especially when seeing this kind of stuff:



Yeah, right! Do you think these people will ever look back and feel embarrassed?

I think only 15 Senators originally signed on to M4A, and a few of those (Booker?) have already jumped ship since. I know 3 Democratic Senators have publicly said no. So tough sledding already.

'...historians and researchers into the psychology of mass movements, extremism, etc.' I'll bet they'll find fewer young people joined evangelical religious groups in the last 6 or so years. Just a hunch. Thought of it when trying to come up with an upside to all this.

embarrassable and is sastisfied with success. He's no kid any more. And he knows how to get people who read him to pivot with him to whatever his new themes will be.

Absolutely no doubt the Repubs would have hoped to use a transition to MfA to destroy it and the ACA, and all chances of a universal system. But I really doubt they believed for a minute that congressional Democrats would hand them that outrageous opportunity.

I think the worse of them for doing it since I believe Sanders' attempt to take out the ACA is extremely immoral and...etc, but our candidates who "endorsed" MfA were trying to use an idea that had caught fire in order to jump start their campaigns. It was without real form, allowing them to muse on a wide range of personalizations.

My best guess, though, is that that anyone "stuck" with this campaign promise might have kept the popular name "MfA" and used it to sell what amounted to expansions on the ACA, using congressional realities as an excuse but making good on promises of big advancements to or toward universal healthcare.

For sure none of our Democratic senators and governors, etc., had the slightest intention of going to war with congress over what is probably the worst political campaign promise made by any candidate under the Democratic label in my lifetime. Anyway, we're going to need every bit of our political capital to battle climate change and meet dozens of the critical needs that have grown desperate.

Can't wait.

But Bernie's still got many more promises in him. Given opportunity, I think he could take all time crown.

geniuses added this wowser to it? Thanks for the laugh. You're right about Sanders, of course, and I'm at least grateful for whatever kept him obscure and quiescent all those years in congress.

Joe has the mo and anything petty like this has the stink of sour grapes on it. Sorry but that's how it is.

Follow the money.

He needs someone to turn off his tap.

He seems to have great disdain for democrats.

Providing Republicans/Russia/others with attacks to use against Biden.

And accusing Joe Biden of not having empathy or being dishonest -- ridiculous.

Like Bernie, Beale's angry, populist spiel won over viewers for a while. In the end Howard was warned by CEO Arthur Jensen, Ned Beaty's character: "You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I won't have it! Is that clear?" If elected, I imagine Bernie would also find out his pie-in-the-sky policies won't fly in the real world.