Angry with Sen. Nelson?

[HuskerMoon]

If you are among the majority of Nebraskans who are irate over Sen. Nelsons recent announcement to jump the fence on the Health Care reform bill there is something you can do.

 

Contact your state representative at the Nebraska Unicameral and inform them you would like to see legislation that allows Nebraskans to recall a sitting U.S. Senator.

 

18 States and the Dist of Columbia currently have laws that allow voters to recall sitting U.S. Senators. Why not Nebraska?

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://nebraskalegislature.gov/

[AngryHusker88]

WTF happened? Did Nelson vote yes to the new health care bill? I havent been paying attention to the news...

[HuskerMoon]

Nelson has changed his official position and now supports the Health Care Reform bill. There are rumors that he was cohersed by the administration.

 

http://vodpod.com/watch/2708632-extortion-...ir-command-base

[AngryHusker88]

Ben Nelson = scum

[HuskerNCo]

Bought and paid for actually...I can't explain the specifics but he is just one of many that were bought for their vote for this stupid assine waste of time massively expensive piece of sh#t legislation...

it is all over talk radio out here in CO.

[holvy83]

I don' tend to be political at all nor do I lean to the left or right, but seems to me that republicans have kept quiet until a Democrat took office... to me the big picture is the our government as a WHOLE is a big shame, they are all out for their greater interests right now anyway.

[strigori]

The only thing I'm annoyed with is the dropping of the public option.

[sarge87]

The only thing I'm annoyed with is the dropping of the public option.

The public option was an unsustainable pipe dream which would have been Medicare on steroids.

[sarge87]

#@$%#$ Dble Post

[sarge87]

Nelson has changed his official position and now supports the Health Care Reform bill. There are rumors that he was cohersed by the administration.

 

http://vodpod.com/watch/2708632-extortion-...ir-command-base

He wasn't coerced, he was outright bought off....

Ben Nelson’s “Cornhusker Kickback,” as the GOP is calling it, got all the attention Saturday, but other senators lined up for deals as Majority Leader Harry Reid corralled the last few votes for a health reform package.

 

Nelson’s might be the most blatant – a deal carved out for a single state, a permanent exemption from the state share of Medicaid expansion for Nebraska, meaning federal taxpayers have to kick in an additional $45 million in the first decade. Update: CBO pegs Nelson's Nebraska Medicaid deal cost at $100 million

 

But another Democratic holdout, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), took credit for $10 billion in new funding for community health centers, while denying it was a “sweetheart deal.” He was clearly more enthusiastic about a bill he said he couldn’t support just three days ago.

 

Nelson and Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) carved out an exemption for non-profit insurers in their states from a hefty excise tax. Similar insurers in the other 48 states will pay the tax.

 

Vermont and Massachusetts were given additional Medicaid funding, another plus for Sanders and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) Three states – Pennsylvania, New York and Florida – all won protections for their Medicare Advantage beneficiaries at a time when the program is facing cuts nationwide.

 

All of this came on top of a $300 million increase for Medicaid in Louisiana, designed to win the vote of Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu.

 

Under pressure from the White House to get a deal done by Christmas, Reid was unapologetic. He argued that, by definition, legislating means deal making and defended the special treatment for Nelson’s home state of Nebraska.

 

“You’ll find a number of states that are treated differently than other states. That’s what legislating is all about. It's compromise," he said.

 

It was Nelson who proved that he who plays hardest to get, gets the most.

 

He forced Reid to redraft the bill’s restrictions on federal funding of abortion. And while most insiders were focused on that deal, Nelson was quietly ensuring that his state would never have to pay for the Medicaid expansion being written into the bill – an agreement that had been in the works for weeks.

 

Medicaid is usually paid for with a mix of federal and state funding, but Nelson's carve out means that any Medicaid beneficiaries who join the program under the bill will be fully paid for by the federal government.

 

It's an important deal considering that many governors are worried that the Medicaid expansion will further strain already stressed state budgets – and one that came after Nebraska Gov.Dave Heineman called on Nelson to vote against the bill.

 

"The State of Nebraska cannot afford an unfunded mandate and uncontrolled spending of this magnitude,” the governor wrote to Nelson.

 

Nelson deferred all questions on the provision to Reid, saying only that he was “comfortable” the deal took care of Nebraska.

 

But Nelson’s deal could be a pittance compared to where the Nebraska compromise might ultimately lead – to 49 other states demanding that the feds pick up their share of health reform’s new Medicaid burden when it kicks in during 2017.

 

"When you look at it, I thought well, God, good, it is going to be the impetus for all the states to stay at 100 percent [federal funding]. So he might have done all of us a favor," Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said of Nelson’s dealings.

 

Nelson and Levin also pushed a provision that exempts non-profit insurers in Nebraska and Michigan from an annual multi-billion dollar excise tax on insurance companies.

 

Not surprisingly, both states are home to non-profit insurers who control a high-percentage of the industry’s profits. In Michigan, non-profit insurers control 76 percent of the industry’s profits – one of the highest percentages in the nation – while Nebraska non-profits control 46 percent of their state’s profits.

 

And in an example of how closely senators guarded details, Levin’s office did not answer any questions about the proposal when asked about it on Friday.

 

Republicans, meanwhile, expressed outrage at the wheeling and dealing, as if their party had never cut a legislative deal in its 150-year history.

 

“This bill is a monstrosity, a 2,100-page monstrosity full of special deals for people who are willing to vote for it,” said Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell. “And they’re playing these kind of games with the nation’s health care. This is an outrage.”

 

But Sanders didn’t sound outraged when he talked about the extra Medicaid funding Vermont will get for six years. Massachusetts, meanwhile, received three years worth of additional Medicaid funding. Under the original bill, neither state had qualified for the money.

 

Republican Sen. Mike Enzi accused Democratic leaders of favoring Medicare Advantage beneficiaries in Pennsylvania, New York and Florida at the expense of seniors in other parts of the country.

 

“The Democrats are playing ‘Let’s make a deal’ with trillions of your hard-earned tax dollars. You and all the American people should know that the majority leader is buying his votes with your money,” said Enzi (R-Wyo.) “The Reid bill gives sweetheart deals to a few states and the rest of the country will foot the bill. Making unfair deals like this is the wrong way to legislate and the American people know it.”

 

And while there were plenty of state-specific deals, some of the changes were clearly aimed at pleasing specific Democratic factions. For instance, tightened insurance regulations went a long way toward putting a smile on the faces of liberal senators who have lost their much-loved public option.

 

The amendment mandates that insurers spend no less than 80 percent of their premium revenues providing medical care. Currently, insurers spend about 70 percent of their premiums paying for health care. The bill also eliminates insurers’ ability to cap annual coverage amounts.

 

In brief remarks at the White House, President Barack Obama also highlighted some new provisions, including penalties for insurers who “arbitrarily jack up rates” and an immediate prohibition on insures’ ability to deny children coverage.

 

Obama, too, talked of the deals as just the cost of doing business in Washington.

 

“As with any legislation, compromise is part of the process,” Obama said. “But I'm pleased that recently added amendments have made this landmark bill even stronger.”

Politico.com

Then had the gall to blame Governor Heineman for the idea....

Nelson defended the provision during an appearance on CNN on Sunday, saying he was simply seeking to work with Nebraska's governor and fellow senators to secure fair treatment.

 

"Well, you know, look, I didn't ask for a special favor here. I didn't ask for a carve-out," Nelson said. "What I said is the governor of Nebraska has contacted me, he said publicly he's having trouble with the budget. This will add to his budget woes. And I said, look, we have to have that fixed."

 

Nebraska's governor, Dave Heineman, a Republican, rejected that characterization.

 

"Nebraskans did not ask for a special deal, only a fair deal. Under no circumstances did I have anything to do with Sen. Nelson’s compromise," he said. "Sen. Nelson negotiated this special deal, rather than a fair deal for both Nebraska and America. The responsibility for this special deal lies solely on the shoulders of Sen. Ben Nelson.”

The Hill

So tell me again how this whole thing is going to be budget neutral and absolutely no tax hikes for the middle and lower class taxpayer?

[strigori]

The only thing I'm annoyed with is the dropping of the public option.

The public option was an unsustainable pipe dream which would have been Medicare on steroids.

Its an inevitability. Think about it. When all the baby boomers are retired and on medicare, with everyone else qualified you will have over half the population on it anyway. And when you actually look at the numbers, medicare is much, much more efficient than the private companies are. If the difference is you pay in taxes the same amount you would pay for ins coverage, whats the issue?

[sarge87]

dbl pst

[sarge87]

The only thing I'm annoyed with is the dropping of the public option.

The public option was an unsustainable pipe dream which would have been Medicare on steroids.

Its an inevitability. Think about it. When all the baby boomers are retired and on medicare, with everyone else qualified you will have over half the population on it anyway. And when you actually look at the numbers, medicare is much, much more efficient than the private companies are. If the difference is you pay in taxes the same amount you would pay for ins coverage, whats the issue?

The data doesn't back up your claims of efficiency. AMA's 2009 study National Health Insurance Report Card

 

The AMA concluded a study of the top 6 insurance companies in the US and compared them to Medicare.

• Aetna
  
• Anthem/Blue Cross Blue Shield (Anthem/BCBS)
  
• Cigna
  
• Coventry
  
• Humana
  
• United Health Care (UHC)
  

Timeliness of Payment from the time of received claims (in days/2009).

1. Coventry - 4
   
2. Anthem/BCBS - 8
   
3. Humana - 9
   
4. UHC - 9
   
5. Aetna - 12
   
6. Cigna - 12
   
7. Medicare - 14
   

It takes Medicare a full 14 working days to pay their claims - still 2 full working days more than the private insurers. So this meme of more efficient will be even a larger moot point if they plan on adding another 50 million patients to their rolls, as they would have to hire additional staff and resources to serve this influx of people. If you ever had to deal with the IRS or the State Dept. with their bloated bureaucracies, you would know what I mean.

 

Claim Denials in % of claims (2009)

1. Aetna - 1.81%
   
2. UHC - 2.02%
   
3. Humana - 2.03%
   
4. Cigna - 2.56%
   
5. Coventry - 3.99%
   
6. Medicare - 4.00%
   
7. Anthem/BCBS - 4.34%
   

This is the statistic that is the most important when buying insurance, denial of claims. Medicare has made some improvement over the last year, but still falls way under the average of the privately held companies (2.79%).

 

Now we'll compare these numbers to an AMA chart from last years report card (2008).

Medicare scored worse than all the privately held insurance companies, and nearly doubled the average of all in claim denials. The average claim denial by the privately held insurance companies was at (3.89%).

 

The fact that Medicare denies more claims than privately held insurance companies should dispel the myth that the government is simply some benevolent entity, and privately held insurance companies are ruthless, profit-hungry fat cats, who are looking take your money without paying the piper. This flies into the conventional wisdom held in Washington DC and the media those greedy insurance companies are out to get you.

 

When all the baby boomers are retired and on medicare, with everyone else qualified you will have over half the population on it anyway.

It makes a huge difference when most Senior Citizens on Medicare still have some private coverage they are paying for. Medicare acts as a gap coverage for those people. We are talking about throwing uninsured people on the rolls where Medicare will have to pick up 100% of the cost of medical care instead of 20% - 50% of the costs if they had privately held insurance.

 

Let's say I agree with you for a moment, which I don't, but for argument sake, let's say I do. We are going to put 50 million non-elderly people on the government dole for health care. My question to you is: Does the government have the right to tell those 50 million people how to live their lives (nutrition, lifestyle, bad habits, ect....) since they we the people are picking up the tab for their health care?

[Vince from ShamWOW]

WTF happened? Did Nelson vote yes to the new health care bill? I havent been paying attention to the news...

 

 

Yes, the coward caved in big time.

[Husker_x]

The Ben Nelson Cornhusker Kickback is just one in a string of political back room payoffs. Remember, the Meidcaid Special is just one of the angles, and the public payoffs are only the ones we know about. Make sure to pay attention down the line to see who gets Ambassadorships or other nice retirement packages thanks to their service to Obama and Reid.

 

I'm not a Nebraskan anymore, but I intend to do my part to see this snake is thrown out of office as soon as possible. The corruption under the Obama administration is simply staggering. Nelson is complicit. Make sure to contact your House reps if you want to see this monstrosity defeated. The House is not a sure thing quite yet.