Obama Approval Moving Noticeably Upward

Check out the current trend estimate of Barack Obama's approval rating from Pollster.com:



Judging by the more sensitive graph, the inflection point at which the President's approval rating began to increase rapidly occurred roughly one week ago, with his previous approval slide having all but stopped roughly one month ago. It is not likely entirely coincidental that the period of growth in the President's numbers has coincided with a period of increasing optimism about the chances healthcare reform will become law -- and increasing support for such reform (with even Rasmussen Reports finding an 8-point increase in support for such legislation in just the last month). With numbers like these, it's not at all a stretch to argue that opposing reform is bad politics for individual lawmakers, or that the key to the success of the President is closely tied to the success of the legislative push for healthcare reform.
http://www.mydd.com/story/2009/9/14/173414/692

If anyone is supporting the President's administration merely because they think they like the healthcare proposal that's a generally sad commentary on the President's administration. But I think anybody who supports the President's healthcare proposal with the public option included they just don't understand the proposal. Heck even members of Congress claim they don't completely understand all the proposals.

Tonight there was a compromise proposal in the Senate that I'm sure will be tomorrow's news. As I understand it the proposal does not contain a public option but the possibility for some sort of public option masked as a co-op may yet be possible. It limits the cost to under $900 bil and requires verification to prevent illegals from being covered.

Here's my 1 concern over preventing illegals from being covered. Since they will still be using medical services will state & local government still be forced to pick up the tab like they do now? So either way the cost to the public for illegals remains unaddressed in reality.

And why this attempted rush to pass something that won't take effect until after the next Presidential election? They tried to push it through before the Labor Day recess. Since illegal immigration is 1 major factor in passing nationalized healthcare seems like that issue needs to be resolved first.

Remember the rush to bailout banks to get bad loans off the books? Yet they didn't really do that and yet another bailout could well be on the horizon in the not distant future to address the bad loans. So I hope we can all agree that rush to passage was a disaster! And I feel rushing in haste to pass a healthcare bill will be a far bigger mistake.

Passion wrote:

And why this attempted rush to pass something that won't take effect until after the next Presidential election? They tried to push it through before the Labor Day recess. Since illegal immigration is 1 major factor in passing nationalized healthcare seems like that issue needs to be resolved first.

Yeah, well first of all, there is no proposal to "pass nationalized healthcare." What the various bills are trying to do is put in place health care insurance reform, which cannot be described as "nationalized healthcare" by anyone who is rational. The President has said that it will probably take 4 years to get the insurance exchange marketplace up and running. not 4 years before anything at all happens.

From his speech to Congress....

President Obama wrote:

This exchange will take effect in four years, which will give us time to do it right. In the meantime, for those Americans who can't get insurance today because they have pre-existing medical conditions, we will immediately offer low-cost coverage that will protect you against financial ruin if you become seriously ill. This was a good idea when Senator John McCain proposed it in the campaign, it's a good idea now, and we should embrace it.

I don't see illegal immigration as being important at all in this debate over insurance reform. In fact, it's irrelevant. It's frankly ludicrous to hold up health insurance reform that provides some much needed protection to American citizens because of illegal immigration.

Passion wrote:

But I think anybody who supports the President's healthcare proposal with the public option included they just don't understand the proposal.

Really? What exactly do you feel is wrong with a "public option?" Since you "think" that others "just don't understand," it should be easy for you to point out what's wrong with it. I'm sure that will help us all to "understand."

It all boils down to this. The public option would eventually kill private insurance and because the pressures to abandon private insurance will effectively have the result of eventually putting everybody into the government plan in time that does make it nationalized healthcare.

As for illegal immigration I think the only people who don't see it as a big problem are those who like things the way they are. I'll not go into more detail here so as to not go way off topic except to re-state it is a very important concern in the healthcare "reform" debate due to the cost concerns.

Instead of all of this why don't we open insurance territories up so that they can compete across state lines? Why not eliminate policy penalties and exclusion clauses for preexisting conditions? Why not make your current insurance fully portable? Why hasn't the administration considered more solutions along these types of lines? Simple. Because there's no path to nationalization and no new massive bureaucracy in a practical private sector solution.

Passion wrote:

It all boils down to this. The public option would eventually kill private insurance and because the pressures to abandon private insurance will effectively have the result of eventually putting everybody into the government plan in time that does make it nationalized healthcare.

No,the public option will force insurers to compete,like FedEx and UPS do with the post office.

Quote :

As for illegal immigration I think the only people who don't see it as a big problem are those who like things the way they are. I'll not go into more detail here so as to not go way off topic except to re-state it is a very important concern in the healthcare "reform" debate due to the cost concerns.

For the umpteenth time...Illegal immigrants will not be covered.

Quote :

Instead of all of this why don't we open insurance territories up so that they can compete across state lines? Why not eliminate policy penalties and exclusion clauses for preexisting conditions? Why not make your current insurance fully portable? Why hasn't the administration considered more solutions along these types of lines? Simple. Because there's no path to nationalization and no new massive bureaucracy in a practical private sector solution.

I don't think that the administration is against any of those things. Obama has already said that he wants legislation that will make it against the law for insurance companies to deny coverage because of a preexisting medical condition.

Artie60438 wrote:

For the umpteenth time...Illegal immigrants will not be covered.

They already are covered...No emergency room is turning them away, and that practice will continue...

LoisLane wrote:

Artie60438 wrote:

For the umpteenth time...Illegal immigrants will not be covered.

They already are covered...No emergency room is turning them away, and that practice will continue...

That has nothing to do with the health care reform currently being considered. But since you brought it up...

Quote :

"There would be no change in the law that requires emergency rooms to treat people who need emergency care, including undocumented immigrants. There is already a federal grant program that compensates states for emergency room costs associated with treatment of undocumented immigrants, a provision sponsored by a Republican lawmaker."

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/09/white-house-says-illegal-immigrants-will-be-explicitly-barred-from-using-health-insurance-exchange.html

"For the umpteenth time...Illegal immigrants will not be covered."

How do you know that will be the fact without a verification process?

Passion wrote:

How do you know that will be the fact without a verification process?

I don't remember anyone saying there definitely won't be one; I've heard the opposite. Jonathan Blazer of the NILC has been quoted as saying:

Quote :

The appropriate verification mechanism depends on the structure of the subsidy and its delivery system in the final bill; most importantly whether the subsidy comes through the tax system…The federal government already has several verification mechanisms readily available, and it will chose which mechanism best matches the underlying process for getting a subsidy. This better ensures that the system will ‘work’ in the real world.

I'm fine with this, considering that a poorly executed verification process could cost more than it fixes in addition to hurting actual citizens. Also, the White House recently issued these:

Quote :

Undocumented immigrants would not be able to buy private insurance on the exchange. Those who are lawfully present in this country would be able to participate.

Undocumented immigrants would be able to buy insurance in the non-exchange private market, just as they do today. That market will shrink as the exchange takes hold, but it will still exist and will be subject to reforms such as the bans on pre-existing conditions and caps.

Verification will be required when purchasing health insurance on the exchange. One option is the SAVE program (Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements) which states currently use to make sure that undocumented immigrants don’t participate in safety-net programs for which they are ineligible.

Iron clad? Probably not. But they certainly aren't ignoring the issue.