10/7/09: TWD's Agenda For The Day- Third Way For The Corporate As Always

One of the real reporters on health care has been FDL's Jon Walker. His reporting and analysis has been immense in this whole thing, and it is a testament to Jane Hamsher again with how she finds these people and how they provide the "on the hill" insider journalism that the corporate media just wouldn't want to give you.

Again, Walker displays the BS ways of Third Way, and their status quo, keep the power mentality to screw all of America and real change.

Just look all how they basically follow AHIP's talking points/wants and needs:

No, their suggestions are straight from the health insurance industry:

This policy memo offers four ideas for maintaining a robust coverage requirement while minimizing its burden on the middle class:

• Option 1: Instead of assessing a penalty, eliminate or reduce tax breaks for people who don’t buy insurance
• Option 2: Allow young people to pay lower premiums
• Option 3: Ease the minimum benefit requirement
• Option 4: Allow more people to buy catastrophic coverage

Let me translate this from Third Way inside-the-beltway talk into plain English:

• Option 1: Instead of assessing a penalty, eliminate or reduce tax breaks for people who don’t buy insurance. Translation: Have harsh financial punishment for people who don't buy private health insurance, just be sneaky about it and try to pretend it is not a direct fine. (AHIP demands a strong individual mandate.)

• Option 2: Allow young people to pay lower premiums. Translation: Increase the community rating ratio so that older people can be charged much more. That way, those sick, old people who need medical treatment will have a tough time buying real coverage. (AHIP's letter asks for a larger community rating ratio.)

• Option 3: Ease the minimum benefit requirement. Translation: let insurance companies not really cover anything. We can just pretend that we expanded insurance coverage by having people buy worthless policies that don't cover their medical problems.

• Option 4: Allow more people to buy catastrophic coverage. Translation: We should force people to buy high deductible (high profit margin) junk insurance. (AHIP's reform proposal ask that they be able to sell super-bare-bones, high-deductible "essential benefits plans," which do not need to follow state minimum benefits laws.)

Third Way, again, says that they represent the Democratic party and real people.

They sure know how to lie to the people. Thank goodness there are people like Jon Walker who knows how to report on them, and expose their lies.