Tweet
I want to extend a warm thank you to everyone who voted for me in FDL’s "Fire Dog of the Year" contest. The FDL Fire Dog label is one I will wear proudly as we continue to march forward on health care, the economy, and the many ways that we are working together to create real and lasting change in America.
I’ll never back down from telling the Republicans where they can shove all their filibusters because health care reform strikes the very heart of so many challenges our nation is facing.
You can join me in this fight at CountdowntoHealthCare.com where you can find updates on our progress, learn about what I’m doing to keep the fight alive, and can sign my petition to keeping working for real reform.
Every year, we spend $145 billion on insurance company overhead and profits. That’s not money we spend on better care or vital procedures—it’s money we send straight to insurance company executives and shareholders.
As we face an economic crisis on one hand and rising governments deficits on another, this is money we should be saving and investing—not wasting on insurance companies. We’re only going to get back on track when this annual $145 billion goes back to American families who are struggling, back to the small businesses who drive our economy, and back to lowering government deficits.
But, as you know, we can’t truly contain health care costs until we introduce much needed competition to the insurance industry.
There is more than one way to do this. I’ve fought hard for a single-payer system like Medicare, because it shows that you can achieve better results than insurance companies with only 1 percent overhead. But I’ve also fought for common sense reforms like the public option or the Medicare buy-in—solutions that have been blocked by a broken Senate process that makes a majority out of the 41 senators who don’t want real health reform.
Thanks to the support of you all here at FDL and everyone at CountdowntoHealthCare.com, I believe we can win this fight.
I may count no friends in the insurance industry, but I’m grateful for the help of people like you–people who know real health care reform is long overdue. I’m not going to give up as long as you stand with me.
10 Comments
Thanks for being here, Congressman. As a fellow New Yorker, keep up the fight!
Thank you, Rep. Weiner, and congratulations on your selection as an FDL Fire Dog!
Well-earned and well-deserved, sir. I hope you’ll share your recipe for success in this contest with your colleagues for the next round. You set an excellent example. Others will profit from it if they choose to.
Congratulations, and please keep up the fight on our behalf.
Rep. Weiner, thank you so much for staying on message and fighting the good fight.
Certainly has a lot to do with your charm and popularity here, sir. :) You are one of the best advocates for health care reform!
Thank you for stopping by.
Rep. Weiner,
Congratulations on being chosen in the competition. I’ve appreciated your work for the last several months and look forward to learning more about your efforts going forward.
I’m really excited to read about the growing number of Senators who are signing on for public option. I hope that list grows, but I certainly hope that it’s a public option that is really worth something rather than the totally inadequate manifestations now in play.
Blessings,
Keep going on the Maddow show. I love it when you two discuss reality.
Thanks so much for all of your work on HCR!
Thanks for setting an example by putting the needs of the American people first. Your efforts have helped to keep the public option alive and viable. You are an example which others in Congress should emulate.
$145 Billion spent on insurance companies’ profits.
Let’s call it what it is.
Welfare.
“Dem Rep Anthony Weiner, one of the fiercest Dem critics of watered down reform, is now flatly predicting that the bill will pass the House, because Dems holding out for changes are now willing to erase their “lines in the sand.”
But he spoke about the overall bill almost like a foregone conclusion. “There are still some various and sundry things, but it’s mostly done,” he said, referring to efforts to merge the House and Senate bills. Negotiators will produce a final bill within days.
“A lot of people recognize that we can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good,” Weiner added.
Weiner had been one of the most determined holdouts for improvements to the bill — on the public option, on single payer, on abortion and so forth — so his prediction that Dems recognize the writing on the wall could carry some weight with fellow members.
http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/health-care/weiner-health-care-bill-will-pass-house/
Weiner:
“Every year, we spend $145 billion on insurance company overhead and profits. That’s not money we spend on better care or vital procedures—it’s money we send straight to insurance company executives and shareholders.”
…
“I’ve fought hard for a single-payer system like Medicare, because it shows that you can achieve better results than insurance companies with only 1 percent overhead. But I’ve also fought for common sense reforms like the public option or the Medicare buy-in—solutions that have been blocked by a broken Senate process that makes a majority out of the 41 senators who don’t want real health reform.”
Reforms such as Public option, Medicare buy in, and restricted Insurance and PhRMA profiteering, were not stopped when Scott Brown was elected in MA.
They were stopped long before, which is why Obama supported the Senate bill which included none of these reforms.
What kind of progressive pretends the election of Scott Brown was the cause of the fall of the P.O., Medicare buy in, and restricted corporate profits?
“A lot of people recognize that we can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good,”
That lack of principle is what caused reform to fall apart, and even caused the election of Scott Brown.
Weiner has it backwards.
Congressman,
We keep hearing that we should accept shit because 30 million more Americans will get crappy coverage from private insurers. They’re being treated like hostages. But they’re not hostages, and we shouldn’t be acting as though they are.
The fact is that it’s the other way around: private insurers need a fix for the health care system more than the American people do. If nothing is done, the system will collapse down the drain along with their profits.
Make a level-playing field and a progressive tax (no excise tax bs) the price for saving the private insurers’ asses.
They created the mess. It’s your job to fix it.
Tell Pelosi that you will vote against anything that does not have a strong public option and that you will vote against anything that taxes health care benefits.
If you’re not willing to stand up to the corporations and the sellouts in Congress, then please take your website down and step aside for a real leader to deliver on reform and change.