{"id":2229,"date":"2009-05-20T18:52:09","date_gmt":"2009-05-20T22:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/?p=2229"},"modified":"2009-05-26T13:19:44","modified_gmt":"2009-05-26T17:19:44","slug":"gop-introduces-alternative-to-obamacare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/20\/gop-introduces-alternative-to-obamacare\/","title":{"rendered":"GOP Introduces Alternative to Obamacare"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Republicans in the House and Senate\u00a0 today announced an alternative to Pres. Barack Obama&#8217;s universal health care proposal. The   Patients&#8217; Choice Act, will be <a href=\"http:\/\/www.realclearpolitics.com\/articles\/2009\/05\/20\/an_alternative_to_obamacare_96575.html\" target=\"_blank\">introduced<\/a> in the Senate by Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Richard Burr (R-NC), and in the   House by Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Devin Nunes (R-CA) aims for universal coverage but without the government option favored by Democrats:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>While President Obama may believe the stars are aligned for major health reform this year it is far from certain whether Congress will pass a bill that works. The groups that are most likely to unravel this effort are not the president&#8217;s opponents, but his allies. Nothing will rally ordinary Americans against the president&#8217;s plan more than his allies arguing too forcefully for a system run by politicians and bureaucrats in Washington &#8211; what we call the &#8220;public option&#8221; in the Obama plan.<\/p>\n<p>It should come as no surprise that this ideologically rigid position is coming under fire. As the Washington Post recently wrote, &#8220;the fixation on a public plan is bizarre and counterproductive &#8230; It is entirely possible to imagine effective health-care reform &#8211; changes that would expand coverage and help control costs &#8211; without a public option.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>We agree. We have introduced a comprehensive health care reform bill, the Patients&#8217; Choice Act that, we believe, will bring us far closer to the goal of universal coverage than the Obama plan. Our bill, in specific legislative language, does the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Puts affordable coverage and choice within reach of all Americans.<\/li>\n<li>Prevents cherry picking by guaranteeing access to coverage.<\/li>\n<li>Strengthens the health care safety net.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>I&#8217;m not going to try and analyze the Republican plan here, Peter  Ferrara at the <a href=\"http:\/\/spectator.org\/archives\/2009\/05\/20\/the-republican-health-care-alt\" target=\"_blank\">American Spectator<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/rightwingnuthouse.com\/archives\/2009\/05\/20\/gop-unveils-health-insurance-plan\/\" target=\"_blank\">Rick Moran<\/a> have already done a better job than I could anyway.<\/p>\n<p>Suffices to say there isn&#8217;t anything new or revolutionary in the Republican plan&#8230; It borrows heavily from the plan offered by John McCain during the campaign and from ideas offered the American Enterprise Institute and Heritage Foundation over the years.<\/p>\n<p>Anyway the plan is pretty comprehensive and unlike the Democrats proposals it puts consumers in change. Regardless of how good or bad the Republican plan is It&#8217;ll never get a fair review in congress. Democrats will be just as dismissive of it as they were of the GOP&#8217;s alternative budget proposal.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Related<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/article\/SB124277551107536875.html\" target=\"_blank\">The GOP&#8217;s Health-Care Alternative<\/a> &#8211; Wall Street Journal<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/blogs\/2009\/05\/20\/politics\/politicalhotsheet\/entry5028816.shtml\" target=\"_blank\">GOP Health Care Plan Aims For Universal Health Care In The Private Market<\/a> &#8211; CBS News<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/stories\/0509\/22770.html\" target=\"_blank\">GOP offers preemptive health plan<\/a> &#8211; Politico<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Republicans in the House and Senate\u00a0 today announced an alternative to Pres. Barack Obama&#8217;s universal health care proposal. The Patients&#8217; Choice Act, will be introduced in the Senate by Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Richard Burr (R-NC), and in the House by Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Devin Nunes (R-CA) aims for universal coverage but without the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[43,7],"tags":[689,304,1366,518,690,571,688,463],"class_list":{"0":"post-2229","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-health-care","7":"category-politics","8":"tag-devin-nunes","9":"tag-gop","10":"tag-health-care","11":"tag-health-insurance","12":"tag-patients-choice-act","13":"tag-paul-ryan","14":"tag-richard-burr","15":"tag-tom-coburn","16":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pfpI7-zX","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3074,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2009\/12\/17\/tom-coburn-senate-health-care-bill-is-scarier-than-you-think\/","url_meta":{"origin":2229,"position":0},"title":"Tom Coburn: Senate Health Care Bill is Scarier Than You Think","author":"Jeff","date":"December 17, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I have no doubt that critics will claim Dr. Tom Coburn's Wall Street Journal op-ed is nothing but scare tactics... But the simple truth is if quoting from the bill scares people maybe the bill itself isn't such good idea: My 25 years as a practicing physician have shown me\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Health Care&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Health Care","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/health-care\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3058,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2009\/12\/16\/tom-coburn-fires-warning-shot-across-harry-reids-bow\/","url_meta":{"origin":2229,"position":1},"title":"Tom Coburn Fires Warning Shot Across Harry Reid&#8217;s Bow","author":"Jeff","date":"December 16, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Things got little interesting in the Senate earlier today when Senator Tom Coburn fired what can best be called a warning shot across Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's bow. Sen. Coburn refused to allow unanimous consent on Sen. Bernie Sander's single payer amendment to the health care reform bill and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Health Care&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Health Care","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/health-care\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1856,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2009\/04\/01\/paul-ryan-the-gops-alternative-budget\/","url_meta":{"origin":2229,"position":2},"title":"Paul Ryan: The GOP&#8217;s Alternative Budget","author":"Jeff","date":"April 1, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Paul Ryan the ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee lays out the GOP's alternative budget proposal in an Op Ed in Today's Wall Street Journal: Here's an outline of what we propose: - Deficits\/Debt. The Republican budget achieves lower deficits than the Democratic plan in every year, and by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Politics&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2409,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2009\/06\/15\/ap-key-health-care-senators-have-industry-ties\/","url_meta":{"origin":2229,"position":3},"title":"AP: Key Health Care Senators Have Industry Ties","author":"Jeff","date":"June 15, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I meant to post the story on Friday but I wasn't able to get to it so figured I'd lead off with today... The Associated Press reported last week on the ties between several key Senators and the health care industry. Among them Connecticut's own Chris Dodd. Sen. Dodd's wife\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Health Care&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Health Care","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/health-care\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1457,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2009\/02\/05\/tom-coburn-the-stimulus-package-is-more-debt-we-dont-need\/","url_meta":{"origin":2229,"position":4},"title":"Tom Coburn: The Stimulus Package Is More Debt We Don&#8217;t Need","author":"Jeff","date":"February 5, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I wanted to mention Sen. Tom Coburn's Op Ed in the Wall Street Journal yesterday, but I didn't get chance. Coburn gets right to the heart of the matter this pork stuffed crap sandwich \"will not only fail to stimulate the economy, but could seriously delay economic recovery.\" As the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Politics&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2271,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/29\/righto-sphere-poll\/","url_meta":{"origin":2229,"position":5},"title":"Righto-sphere Poll","author":"Jeff","date":"May 29, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Cassandra posted these questions from John Hawkins survey of rightwing bloggers at Villainous Company earlier and though I'd add my two cents. 1) Do you think the GOP will gain or lose seats in the House in 2010? They'll pick up a handful of seats. 2) Do you think the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Politics&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2229\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}