Arlen Specter against the public health insurance option

On Meet the Press, host David Gregory asks newly rebranded Senator Arlen Specter if it's true that he told President Obama that he would be loyal to his new party and support Obama's agenda and support health care reform with a public health insurance option.

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News & Politics

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• specter
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• gregory

[rs09985]

It is quite troubling that now he is for the public option all of a sudden.

[recompile]

You seem to have trouble with this concept. Let's try this again.

Some people are unable to buy health insurance because no one will sell it to them.

It doesn't matter how many pennies you toss toward health insurance if no one is willing to sell it to you.

Why?

Because sick people cost the insurance companies money. Healthy people bring in money. Insurance companies are under no obligation to sell you insurance, so they do their best to avoid selling it to sick people.

Simple enough?

[recompile]

Perhaps I was unclear.

We can not buy health insurance at any price.

It's NOT "I can't afford it"

It's "No one will sell it to me"

The uninsured aren't just a bunch of lazy people who make poor financial decisions -- that 46 million also includes the average middle-class folks who made the mistake of being sick.

[RuflessRecords]

recompile, I have no way of knowing if your alleged life story is true. Charity given to people as in the situation you imply must be 100% private charities without the govt involved at all. I'm sure you do eat pizza and watch movies. What was the last movie you saw? For those who need help paying their insurance, they must first eliminate all luxuries, then the rest of us will help make up the rest. Not one penny on any luxury if you're getting a handout.

[RuflessRecords]

recompile, sorry fraud, I said people have to eliminate all luxuries and pay every penny they can toward health insurance and then the rest of us will pick up the rest. Many do have the money to pay for health insurance completely and don't, it's at least 1/3 of the uninsured.

[recompile]

You clearly don't understand the public option. It's not free (someone else pays) like you imply above. It's on option to *buy* insurance through the gov't, just like private insurance.

The difference being, of course, that people who cannot get health insurance from the private system would finally have the opportunity to buy it.

You seem to believe that people without insurance are just people who waste their money on non-essentials. If this is true, you're very severely misinformed.

[recompile]

You might not realize this, but a significant number of people simply cannot buy health insurance at any price.

Because my wife is sick, no insurance company will take her (they'd immediately be paying out more than we'd be paying them). It wouldn't make good business sense to insure her. I pay all her medical bills out-of-pocket. We've burned through our savings and gone into debt to continue her care.

Needless to say, we're don't spend our money on luxuries "like pizza or watching movies"

[Cowboyboot1980]

No fan of this goon, what a sell-out. We dont need socialized health care, look at the disaster of medicade/medicare.

[RuflessRecords]

nonthi, what I know is that polls again and again, including a CNN one recently say 80% of Americans are satisfied with their own personal health care. The Democrats have succeeded in whipping up a frenzy over the 15% of Americans who are uninsured, and we should help those who are uninsured, but not screw up the whole system. I hope we have no new govt health programs, following the cost disasters of Medicare and Medicaid, and that we instead give more to health charities to help uninsured

[nonthiestnc]

hello Rufless: Its the walmart effect. people will go where its cheaper. i will too for the same coverage. you & i know most american pay too much for mediocre health ins now. these folks will go to gov insurance because its cheaper for the same coverage