Today might be your last chance to make a difference for health care reform. I agree with everything that nyceve recommends, so please go read her diary at Kos and use your phone to do some good.
Switchboard: (202) 224-3121.
Guide for first-timers here.
Comrade Jake
OT, but this is balloon-juice bait if I’ve ever seen it. Unfuckingbelievable.
Mike Kay
@madmatt:
take a bath, hippie. And for a change, use some soap.
KDP
You can listen to Energy & Commerce Committee’s hearing on Anthem Blue Cross individual rate increases here:
http://energycommerce.edgeboss.net/wmedia-live/energycommerce/11990/100_energycommerce-2123_060901.asx
With respect to the increases in costs of care being a driver for premium increase, I have a good example of how this is NOT the case.
My husband had two stenting procedures at the same hospital, one year apart. In looking at the EOB for the procedures I found the following:
Stent procedure 1 in early October 2008 was billed at ~160k, insurer paid just under 25k.
Stent procedure 2 in late September 2009 was billed at ~163k, insurer paid just under 17k.
So, the insurer (Aetna, in this case) has reduced the rate of compensation to the provider for the same procedure by ~5.5%. My premium to cover my husband through my employer increased by almost 40% this year. The decrease in amount compensated to the provider was ~32% while the provider’s billed charges increased by a very moderate 2%.
So the provider’s negotiated reimbursement rate decreased from 15.5% to 10.5% in a one year period resulting in a net loss to the provider from the insurer. The insurer is paying out less to its providers for the same service and is receiving a higher revenue stream from beneficiaries even through employer-provided coverage.
Pass. The. Damn. Bill.
Sentient Puddle
@Comrade Jake: I was curious about that. When I heard the bill passed but was only hearing the cloture vote count, the first thing I thought of was when Obama was talking about how one of his nominees was blocked, but then later confirmed with 90-something votes.
It’ll be interesting to see who flopped. More reporting like this, please.
Comrade Mary
@Comrade Jake: I’ll see you and raise you: Meet Corporate Whore and Bully Conrad.
Anyone here from ND? I think he needs to hear from you.
Sentient Puddle
Alright, so from what I’m reading, Alexander, Cochran, Inhofe(!), LeMieux, Murkowski, Wicker, Burr, and Hatch all flipped on the jobs bill vote.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Comrade Jake:
If DC is wired for Republicans, then the Senate is wired for not taking responsibility for anything. All those secret holds, those decisive votes that aren’t votes, they are whip counts held behind the scenes before we even attempt to get cloture, etc. Everything that counts in the Senate is done behind closed doors, and the rest is for show. The Senate is not democracy in action (which would involve some sort of public accountability), it is the opposite. Why do Senators hate democracy? Why do they hate us for our freedoms?
gnomedad
Called Judy Biggert’s office and registered my support for the current bill.
Tim F.
Use the open thread to discuss random things. Thanks.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Mike Kay:
Dr Bonner’s?
Anthem Blue Cross is gearing up for more double digit rate increases in key states
So congrats on those moderate Republicans of yours, Mainers!
Mike Kay
@Comrade Mary:
see that’s what’s great about this debate. On one hand, corporate whore Kent Conrad is STILL trying to scuttle health care. On the other hand, the hippies, coughing on hash, insist health care is a corporate giveaway. Well, if it’s a corporate giveaway, then why is corporate whore Kent Conrad, in the service of his corporate masters, trying so hard to sink the bill.
Tim F.
Also FYI, I banned madmatt for advocating terrorism on another thread. It might or might not work; I have never used this latest version of WP before.
Mike Kay
@Sentient Puddle:
Shorter: they were against Jobs, before they were for Jobs.
Mike Kay
@Tim F.:
Oh the irony, peace loving hippies advocating terrorism.
What the hell did he say?
Jason B at Work
@Tim F.: Curiosity now fully piqued!
Tim F.
Phone your Congressman and your Senators and report back. Then I might tell you.
Ash Can
@Tim F.: If you repeat what he said, would you then have to ban yourself?
Xecky Gilchrist
Called my Rep. (Matheson, UT-2, backer of Stupak amendment then voter-against house bill), not holding my breath. But still, it needs doing.
Not going to bother with my senator, Hatch. His entire 36-year career, kicked off with the campaign slogan “eighteen years is long enough”, has been about obstructing Democratic legislation / nominations. He doesn’t even bother to have a staffer answering the phone, and his voicemail has probably been full since 15 minutes after voicemail was installed in his office.
Betsy
@Tim F.:
Being a proud Masshole, I’ve been trying to call Scott Brown’s office, but all I get is a recording saying that his voicemail is full. Do you have any suggestions? I tried to look for a # for his local office and couldn’t find anything; maybe he hasn’t had time to set one up yet.
Sarah in Brooklyn
I can’t get through anywhere!
aimai
I thought the conventional balloon juice position was that there was no use calling or phoning because the senate was going to do what the senate would do?
The jobs bill, which passed 70- to whatever after barely making the threshold of sixty for cloture, should have put paid to that kind of defeatist thinking. In essence once a bill gets all the way to the floor for a final vote we have to understand that an entirely different calculation gets made, individually, by each Senator or House Member. That’s why getting something like the Public Option, or the entire Senate Bill, over the hump past cloture and on to either a final vote or Reconciliation is a totally different process than whipping a cloture vote or even getting people to sign on to a letter. Its fatally easy for Senators to make the decision to kill a bill at the cloture point–its a lot harder to vote against a popular provision when its going to pass, or when your vote is actually going to be seen publicly. That’s why they are fighting so hard to keep cloture and the filibuster. And that’s why we have to keep fighting to get good policies all the way through the system to the final vote. Because a lot of rats are going to jump ship, and a lot of votes are going to switch at the last minute.
aimai
Chris Johnson
I called my guys. Granted, they’re Vermonters so I think every last one is solid (Sanders, Leahy, Peter Welch) but I’ve been so flattened with stuff to do recently that I even let a property tax bill slip a couple weeks (cost me $2.35 extra). I’m definitely feeling the stress of not going under, just freaking out trying to keep all the balls in the air, and I hadn’t called them but once.
Having paid the bill, and shoveled the driveway- I called my guys and told them if they can get single-payer/public option go for it, if not then get SOMETHING.
All the phone answerers seemed kinda chipper. I joked with one about me calling just so they didn’t only hear from teabaggers… It’s interesting to hear them sounding kinda upbeat. I wonder what their expectations are.
Patrick Lightbody
So this is day #2 of me actually trying to make a difference. I’m calling my other senator, Ron Wyden, and the switchboard says the number is busy.
WTF? Busy? We should spend $15B on a state-of-the-art switchboard system that doesn’t need humans operating, and certainly doesn’t give out busy signals.
GOVERNMENT CAN”T DO ANYTHING WRITE!1!1
Lurker
@aimai: Tim F. has implored folks to call the Senate for a few weeks, now.
I probably would not have called Senator Dianne Feinstein’s office multiple times in the past few weeks without Tim F.’s nudging.
robertdsc
The President showed some real leadership and gave direction to the situation?
Batocchio
Both my senators, Boxer and Feinstein, support using reconciliation to pass health care reform, as well as a public option. I left a message to thank Boxer, but Feinstein’s line was busy. I also called my congressman again, Howard Berman, who has co-sponsored bills for both single payer and a public option. He doesn’t have a public position yet on the reconciliation fix because they’re still haggling over details. I expressed my appreciation for his positions and support for Passing the Damn Bill. We’ll see how this all plays out.
mclaren
“The only way this works is for the House to pass the Senate bill and then, depending on what the package is, the reconciliation provision that moves first through the House and then comes here,” said Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND). “That’s the only way that works.” I pointed out that House leadership has repeatedly said they won’t take a flier on a reconciliation package–that they will only pass the Senate bill after the smaller side-car reconciliation bill has been all wrapped up.
“Fine, then it’s dead,” Conrad said.
Conrad added that he wouldn’t personally make any promises or symbolic gestures to House members to assure them that the Senate can or will take any action in a reconciliation bill to address House concerns.
“I don’t sign any blank check,” Conrad said.
Source: Talking Points Memo.
Keep wishing for that pony, guys. It’s bound to show up soon.
Tonal Crow
@mclaren: Flood his office with calls anyway. And all the rest of them, even if they’re not technically “your” representatives. When their phones don’t stop ringing, they begin to pay attention.
Susan Kitchens
Called the White House, Called Boxer’s DC line, and called the closest of Feinstein’s State office lines (4 around the state; easy to get therough there).