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Whoa, Trigger--The latest gimmick to disguise a health-care 'public option.'
Wall Street Journal ^ | September 8, 2009 | Editorial

Posted on 09/08/2009 10:09:08 AM PDT by jazusamo

President Obama has decided that another oration will rejuvenate his health-care agenda—despite having given 27 speeches entirely on health care, and another 92 in which it figured prominently. We'll see how tomorrow night's Congressional appeal works out, but the important maneuvers are taking place in the cloak rooms, as the White House tries to staple together a majority.

The latest political gimmick is the notion of a "trigger" for the public option: A new government program for the middle class would only come on line if private insurance companies fail to meet certain benchmarks, such as lowering overall health spending or shrinking the number of the uninsured. This is supposed to appeal to Maine Republican Olympia Snowe, who could end up as ObamaCare's 60th Senator, while still appeasing the single-payer left.

Liberals should love the idea because a trigger isn't a substantive concession; it merely ensures that the public option will arrive eventually, instead of immediately. Democrats will goose the tests so that private insurers can't possibly meet them, mainly by imposing new regulations and other costly burdens.

Keep in mind that every version of ObamaCare now under consideration essentially turns all private insurers into subsidiaries of Congress. All coverage will be strictly regulated down to the fine print, and politics will dictate the level of benefits as well as premiums, deductibles and copays. Under the House bill, a "health choices commissioner" will have the final say, no doubt with Democrats Henry Waxman and Pete Stark at his elbow, if not another part of his anatomy.

The same bill also rewrites the 1974 federal law known as Erisa that lets large and mid-sized employers offer insurance with little regulation. Many businesses—including Safeway, General Mills and Marriott—are finding innovative ways to drive down spending...

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Government
KEYWORDS: healthcare; healthcontrol; obamacare; publicoption; trigger

1 posted on 09/08/2009 10:09:09 AM PDT by jazusamo
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To: jazusamo

I thought trigger was in Roy Rogers museum in California


2 posted on 09/08/2009 10:12:19 AM PDT by phormer phrog phlyer
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To: jazusamo
The latest political gimmick is the notion of a "trigger" for the public option: A new government program for the middle class would only come on line if private insurance companies fail to meet certain benchmarks, such as lowering overall health spending or shrinking the number of the uninsured. This is supposed to appeal to Maine Republican Olympia Snowe, who could end up as ObamaCare's 60th Senator, while still appeasing the single-payer left.

It's the same f****** thing! Just a little delayed..!

3 posted on 09/08/2009 10:12:43 AM PDT by cardinal4 (Dont Tread on Me)
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To: jazusamo
No matter how they rephrase the dogma it's still the same old con...The ends will still justify the means.


4 posted on 09/08/2009 10:13:26 AM PDT by darkwing104 (Lets get dangerous)
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To: jazusamo
If there is a trigger to implement a 'public option,' there HAS to be a plug to automatically sunset the law if costs ever exceed estimates.

Garde la Foi, mes amis! Jamais reculez á tyrannie un pouce!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! Never give an inch to tyranny!)

LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)

5 posted on 09/08/2009 10:16:37 AM PDT by LonePalm (Commander and Chef)
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To: phormer phrog phlyer

Yikes, I’m not the only one who thought of Roy Rogers!


6 posted on 09/08/2009 10:20:43 AM PDT by stayathomemom (Beware of cat attacks while typing!)
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To: cardinal4

Worse yet, if the private insurers see their failure to meet these benchmarks as a foregone conclusion, they may elect to cut to the chase and surrender to the gov’t just so they can put together a new business plan with a new reality in mind.


7 posted on 09/08/2009 10:20:58 AM PDT by Rutles4Ever (Ubi Petrus, ibi ecclesia, et ubi ecclesia vita eterna!)
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To: socialismisinsidious


Socialized Medicine aka Universal Health Care daily digest PING LIST

FReepmail me if you want to be added to or removed from this daily digest ping list.




8 posted on 09/08/2009 10:54:51 AM PDT by socialismisinsidious ( The socialist income tax system turns US citizens into beggars or quitters!)
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To: jazusamo

Sounds to me like the “trigger” is a version of WH COS Rahm Emanuel’s plan to force nationalized healthcare. As reported by The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder on CBS News’ web site June 12, 2009:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/06/12/politics/onthemarc/main5083352.shtml

“White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel has floated the idea of a public plan that would be weak for a while — perhaps five years — and give the insurance industry the chance to cut costs, improve the quality of care and increase access (there would be metrics). And then, if the private sector failed, the public plan would suddenly be placed before the American people as an alternative to their current plan — and it would be heavily subsidized, would cost less, and would cover more things.”

You can be sure the WH and dems will set up the “Trigger” plan to fail.


9 posted on 09/08/2009 11:38:30 AM PDT by Gothmog (I fight for Xev)
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To: Gothmog

I have no doubt that’s correct.


10 posted on 09/08/2009 11:45:13 AM PDT by jazusamo (But there really is no free lunch, except in the world of political rhetoric,.: Thomas Sowell)
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To: jazusamo
We must remember that words are just the vehicles that carry ideas.

If a person is intent on taking his cargo from Point A to Point B, and finds there are such obstacles to traveling by airplane that he decides, for expediency's sake, to take it by bus instead, except for the time involved, there is no difference in outcome. The cargo still goes from Point A to Point B. Changing the mode of transportation didn't change that fact.

Changing the semantics of the mode of getting the billions (trillions) of dollars involved in health care in America under the control of powerful "people controllers" in Washington, D. C., will not change the outcome and consequences. It will only serve to delay the onset of those consequences.

Calling the vehicle a "public option," a "trigger," a "cooperative," or by any other word should not confuse Americans about the cargo's eventual fate. The Far Left wants to transfer this large percentage of the American economy to the control of the state. Congress, the Senate, and the Administration need to be told "no" in no uncertain terms.

Changing the description is just an exercise in semantics. The destination already has been made clear, and it's not in the direction of liberty.

11 posted on 09/08/2009 12:31:15 PM PDT by loveliberty2
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To: loveliberty2

Well said and the RATS are bound and determined to pass some form of government controlled healthcare, these bills must be killed.


12 posted on 09/08/2009 12:42:57 PM PDT by jazusamo (But there really is no free lunch, except in the world of political rhetoric,.: Thomas Sowell)
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To: jazusamo
It is still "socialism on the installment plan".

The goal remains the same; only the tactics and timetable have changed. The Democrats wish to use Federal laws and regulations to make it impossible for private companies to compete effectively, then blame the companies for failing, and finally institute the "single-payer" system they've desired all along. That's what you call "transparency".

13 posted on 09/08/2009 12:50:21 PM PDT by andy58-in-nh (America does not need to be organized: it needs to be liberated.)
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To: jazusamo; Jet Jaguar; NorwegianViking; ExTexasRedhead; HollyB; FromLori; ...

The list, ping


14 posted on 09/08/2009 9:18:10 PM PDT by Nachum (The complete Obama list at www.nachumlist.com)
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To: jazusamo

install a commie trigger lock and throw away the key!


15 posted on 09/08/2009 9:25:08 PM PDT by dalereed
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