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August 22, 2009 07:10 PM UTC

Salazar and the Public Option

  • 21 Comments
  • by: ClubTwitty

(I worry that my dog is blue… – promoted by ClubTwitty)

From today’s Sentinel

Salazar to highlight local health system in letter to Obama

[Headers removed]

The Grand Junction health-care system will be highlighted in a letter from U.S. Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo., to President Obama – much to the delight of the physicians, nurses, insurance company officials and others who met with Salazar on Friday.

Salazar said he’ll take the ideas he heard at the roundtable at Grand Junction-based Rocky Mountain Health Plans first to the Blue Dog Coalition and ask those conservative Democrats to sign on to the letter to Obama.

Although the article, by Gary Harmon, mentions the public option, it remains unclear–from the reporting–where exactly Rep. Salazar stands.

UPDATE- Ralphie’s comment, below, pointed toward an article, wherein Rep. Salazar expresses support for a public option, but doubts that it will pass.  That article was written before Salazar met with healthcare folks in Junction, and the Harmon piece was written afterwards.  

Rather than calling to ask, it is more likely time to urge that Congressman Salazar join the growing number of his colleagues in the House, and push for meaningful healthcare reform that includes a public option.  

Now back to the original…

The article continues:

The Grand Junction system – the result of a collaboration of several nonprofit organizations – could be mimicked elsewhere, Salazar was told.

One thing that would be of little help and possibly of harm to Grand Junction and similar systems would be the so-called “public option,” [emphasis Twitty’s] a government-run health insurance company that Obama has supported, but from which the president seemed to distance himself one week ago at Central High School.

So, is this Harmon’s opinion?  The “doctors and nurses,” or Salazar’s?  One cannot tell from the article.  Two paragraphs later we get a clue, in the words ‘Salazar was told.’

Improving the cost effectiveness of the health care system would require tort reform that would free physicians from the demands of defensive medicine and include incentives to encourage collaboration among professionals and patients taking better care of themselves.

Legal barriers such as antitrust kinds of actions to which the Grand Junction system was subject more than a decade ago also need to be removed, Salazar was told.

Making a statement–on a key policy issue–as fact, with no citation until two paragraphs later, and then somewhat vaguely (is this stated in the letter, by a specific person, by a group??) is poor reporting (or editing).

It leaves the reader wondering about a central question–Does Rep. John Salazar support or oppose a public option?

It may be time for those of his constituents who do to contact the congressman and get an answer.

Phone numbers for Rep. John Salazar

DC: 202-225-4761

GJ: 970-245-7107

Pueblo:  719-543-8200

Alamosa: 719-587-5105

Durango: 970-259-1012

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21 thoughts on “Salazar and the Public Option”

    2. Salazar’s statement was published only one day before he met with providers in Grand Junction.  It’s not like it was ancient history.

      He said it, it was reported in several newspapers and I assume he was quoted correctly because neither he nor his staff has said he was quoted incorrectly. I’m going to hold him to what he said if he tries to weasel out of it.  I expect others will too.

      RE contacting Salazar’s staff to express support for a public option, my wife and I have already done that in separate calls.  We did it two weeks ago.

      I have contacted Bennet’s and Udall’s offices as well.

  2. for a public option in the Steamboat Pilot and Craig Daily Press this week as well http://www.craigdailypress.com…

    Gary Harmon blurs the lines between commentator and reporter more than anyone I have ever seen.  It is unbelievable that the Sentinel has given him even more reign over the past couple years since George Orbanek retired.

  3. Here it is – we discussed this Pueblo Chieftain story on AM760 when it came out a few weeks ago:

    Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo., is willing to support a government-run health insurance “option” for Americans, but he doesn’t believe the Senate will go that far and he expects the final health-care legislation to focus on strengthening private insurers and cooperatives.

    “I would support a public option if I thought that would get through, but I don’t think they have the votes in the Senate,” Salazar said Friday, when reached at his San Luis Valley potato farm. “If we can create enough competitiveness through insurance companies and cooperatives then that might do the same thing. That’s where the Senate is probably headed.”

    So basically, he’s saying he conceptually supports the public option, but doesn’t think it will pass, and thus is trying to equate the bullshit co-op idea to the public option (which, again, is a lotta bullshit).

    1. with this part:

      “I would support a public option if I thought that would get through,

      Nothing like fighting for what’s right, eh, congressman? His constituents need to let him know that we’re not afraid of the insurance companies, even if he is. Call him, tell him : No public option…no deal. No next term.

      1. He’s in a district that leans a bit Republican. Saying he would vote for a public option puts him quite a bit to the left of the voters in his district. I’m satisfied with that – for his district.

        1. There are actually several deep blue counties in his district, Pueblo has lots of labor (and is the most populous), several counties are swing districts.

          Salazar runs from having to take a position on everything–here he is saying: I support this but I won’t work for it, because it’s too hard.

          It’s not the first time…

  4. “It’s very hard to address and say this is where the legislation stands today,” said Salazar, referring to the fact there are five versions of a health care reform bill in the House and Senate. “We don’t even know what we’re commenting on.

    Unfortunately he completely ignores two facts.  One, he isn’t supposed to hold town halls to make a speech.  He’s supposed to hear, and where possible, address the concerns and suggestions of his constituents.  Also, there are five bills in congress, all of which are very similar.  It doesn’t matter if it’s going to  change–if it did, it would be because public support wouldn’t warrant attempting to pass what they have currently.  And where do you find suggestions that might be popular among your constituents?  Asking them seems like a good idea to me.

    1. Now, not saying the communications shouldn’t flow TO him, mostly, but it would be weird for him to not address those concerns.

      It’s not like it’s law or anything, what he can do.  

  5. Give it up.  The public option is dead.  I encourage you to hate on and primary any Dems that don’t want it.  Donate money to their opponents.  Lots of it.

    1. you mean Republicans…you have said a very funny thing. Now if someone in the Democratic party WERE to primary him, a NO vote on health insurance reform might come back to bite him in the tush.

      Oh, LB, by the way:

      I encourage you to hate on and primary any Dems that don’t want it

      This is the Democratic party we’re talking about here. Disagreement does not generate hate in my party. You are thinking of the Republican Party.

    2. …we let it die.

      And, tell me – how happy are you really with your insurance company?  How much have you had to use it?  How happy does it make you that your premiums keep going up and up and up?  As do your deductables?  All the while, what is covered keeps diminishing.

      It’s the public option vs. the insurance companies.  I know which side I absolutely don’t trust.

        1. I was covered under a single-payer system. I had at least a dozen insurance options to choose from. I was able to select a package that was best for me. It was great.

          All our federal employees and elected officials currently are covered under a single-payer system.

          Why isn’t this good enough for the rest of us?

          And why don’t our good capitalist Republican elected officials disavow their single-payer health coverage?

            1. At least as envisioned by many.  Admittedly in ardy’s case, it was single payer provided by the employer.  But the concept is no different – the money withheld from your paycheck goes to the government, which is directed by you to pay a private (or public) insurance option for your coverage.

              Single payer does not necessarily mean government becomes the insurer.

              1. Government-employee insurance is a model for single-payer, but it’s just not what anyone means when they discuss single payer. When you’ve got federal employee insurance, you can go to lots of doctors and hospitals that have MULTIPLE PAYERS. Canada has a single-payer system. In most aspects, Medicare is single-payer. The VA system is single-payer. Health insurance for federal employees just isn’t.

                1. I believe the VA system is different, but Medicare is a “single-payer” system in the same way that Federal employee insurance is.

                  Unless I’m misunderstanding government workers’ insurance, that is.  You choose from a number of plans; the government pays that plan for your insurance.  The government negotiates the rates and policy with the carrier.  You go to your doctor/hospital covered by that carrier.

                  Medicare under Medicare Advantage works that way.  (Traditional Medicare was/is strictly government-run, with an insurance company doing the paperwork.  It is the likely model for the public option.)

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