"Kill the Bill or Support Passage? A Debate on Healthcare Legislation Between Insurance Industry Critics" (with audio/video)

Democracy Now! with audio/video (18:56):

The progressive community is split over the $871 billion healthcare reform bill that passed the Senate last week. Some have lambasted the Senate for removing language that would have created a government-run health insurance program to compete with private insurers. Others believe the Senate bill is the biggest expansion of federal healthcare guarantees since the enactment of Medicare and Medicaid over four decades ago and should be supported as a first step toward reform. We host a debate.

Congress might be in recess right now but the debate over the final shape of health care reform is far from over. The $871 billion Senate bill that passed last week still has to be reconciled with the House bill. Democrats are hoping to be able to present a final version for President Obama to sign by late January or early February.

Meanwhile the progressive community is split about what to push for. Some have lambasted the Senate for removing language that would have created a government-run health insurance program to compete with private insurers. Others believe the Senate bill is the biggest expansion of federal healthcare guarantees since the enactment of Medicare and Medicaid over four decades ago and should be supported as a first step toward reform.

Today we host a debate between two outspoken critics of the health insurance industry. Both support the overhaul of the nation’s health care system. But they disagree over whether or not to “kill the Senate bill.”

Jon Walker is a policy analyst at the website FireDogLake who’s been closely tracking health care reform debates. He believes the Senate bill is deeply flawed and writes, “This Senate bill is not a step forward for progressivism, it is a step backward. It is part of the transformation of all-important public social responsibilities into a privatized profit- making machine that lives off of government money won through a corrupt cycle of lobbying, campaign donations, and corporate giveaways.”
He joins me from Washington, DC.

Wendell Potter is a Senior Fellow on Health Care for the Center for Media and Democracy. For 20 years he was a former executive at Cigna and Humana corporations, among the nation"s largest health insurers. Last year he left his job as head of communications for Cigna. Earlier this year he testified on the health insurance industry at a Senate committee hearing. In an op-ed published in the Huffington Post last week, he wrote, “It is tempting to join the "Kill the bill” folks, but it would amount to cutting off our noses to spite our faces." Wendell Potter joins us now from Philadelphia.

Jon Walker, policy analyst at the website Firedoglake

Wendell Potter, Senior Fellow on Health Care for the Center for Media and Democracy. For twenty years he was a former executive at CIGNA and Humana corporations, among the nation’s largest health insurers.