Left In Lowell

Just How is the MA Health Care Reform Not Perfect, Niki?

11 Responses to “Just How is the MA Health Care Reform Not Perfect, Niki?”

1. grizzled veteran Says:
   July 17th, 2007 at 6:47 pm

   Gee Lynne, take a deep breath. Your attacks on Niki are sounding a little shrill. Maybe if everyone calmed down you could ask for a follow up conversation with her or her HC adviser. Were you at the debate?

   Eileen had the same position until she said she’s not really against single payer. And she serves on a hospital board that isn’t exactly protective of women’s rights. Does she get a free pass?

   Jamie’s web site says he supported the Massachusetts plan:

   “Voted in favor of the new state health care plan which guarantees quality health care to 99% of residents…”

   Now he sees flaws… isn’t 99% almost perfect… can you ask what Jamie means?

   I agree on Barry. I’m not sure about his plan - think he’s for the three state solution - but he does talk a lot about the qualify of health care his grandfather got. I like that.

   God, does that mean it’s Tom Tierney or Jim Miceli?

   One thing I know, as frustrated as you are, George Bush doesn’t need another friend in the Congress and Jim Ogonowski is sounding a little too much like that friend.

   I’m for Niki, but I could support Barry, Eileen or Jamie if they win. Hope, if it comes to that, you can bury the hatchet and work against the Friends of George with the knowledge that good people have the capacity to listen, grow and to honestly serve.

   Can anyone say, “kumbaya?”

   Grizzled Vet

2. Mr. Lynne Says:
   July 17th, 2007 at 7:21 pm

   There’s a lot of equivocating on this issue going around. The only candidate with b@lls on this is Jamie. Its a real problem and I want people to do something about it,… anxious people who don’t what to just stand around.

3. Lynne Says:
   July 17th, 2007 at 9:03 pm

   I’ve been to many, many forums (five or six now?) plus I interviewed Niki this past spring, plus I’ve read her website, plus her literature.

   She is soft on taking real actual stances on many issues. Niki is of a neo-liberal bent, on quite a lot of issues.

   I have a problem with that, especially on health care. You want shrill? I spent 6 years without health insurance, because the market is a terrible way to deliver guaranteed and necessary services. It’s why we’ve had a regulated market in MA with car insurance - with a state mandate stating all autos must be insured, forcing people to pay what the market decides is their risk (based on geography, especially) is a hardship.

   If Niki had the b@lls, as my husband put it, to say what she believed, she’d tell us that she’s for the status quo with tweaks. She’s pro-market on this and so many more issues. She’s a neo-liberal. But taking a stand of any sort can be controversial - and what’s more, dangerous if you can’t back it up with real honest arguments and facts, or if, say, the public is ahead of the politicians by leaps and bounds.

   Jamie has always bemoaned the major gaping flaws in the MA health care reform, since I first started hearing on this issue. You see, Jamie’s a policy wonk. He dove into the core problems underlying the concepts and understands where the conflicts are. He voted for it because it got a whole mess of lower income and struggling people on SOME form of health care. But he does NOT want to stop there.

   My problem with the MA reform is that other pols think, hey, we did something about it, even if it doesn’t really work, so we’re all done. Jamie knows otherwise, and what’s more, he’s not willing to export a very poor model to the rest of the country either.

   Niki, however, apparently would be oblivious to how stupid this health care reform in MA would be to implement everywhere. (Bankrupt the government with corporate welfare, anyone?)

4. Turch Says:
   July 17th, 2007 at 9:33 pm

   Lynne, you’re right to put these questions to Nikki. You know that I am backing our hometown candidate, Eileen, in this race, but I share your concerns about Nikki’s inability to give a straight answer or take a definitive position. The tscoop seems to be that we can’t get a tstraight answer from her, nor will we until the coronation is either completed or derailed to the point where she has to start answering questions. When this race started, Jamie wasn’t even on my radar screen and I was leaning towards Nikki because I remembered great things about her late husband. Now I like him and I’ve learned that she’s on a HMO board and on the board of the Concord Coalition, which supports Bush’s plans to privatize social security - and she’s come out in opposition to workers rights to unionize at Verizon and in favor of raising the age to access social security, just when my generation is about to qualify. Is Nikki Tsongas a Republican in Democratic clothing? Let’s just say I’m pretty thoroughly disenchanted at this point. And I’m more than disappointed in Barney Frank and Scott Harshbarger!

5. Lynne Says:
   July 17th, 2007 at 9:42 pm

   Barney and Scott are insiders, it’s not surprising they would back an establishment candidate like Tsongas. More to the point, did any Dems advocate for taking away Loserman–er, LIEberman’s committee chairmanships or seniority when he lost the Democratic primary in CT and still decided to run on his vanity party, Connecticut for Lieberman?

   That’s what’s at stake in this election…insider vs. fresh face outsider who doesn’t owe the establishment - or big business - too much. You see, it’s not always about the most liberal or moderate candidate. It’s who’s got what in whose pockets.

   Tsongas, and to a large extent Finegold, are the consummate insiders. (Finegold, if you recall, got the instant shiftover of Coxian Lowellite GOBs supporting him when superinsider DiPaola dropped out…that wasn’t coincidence.) And if you look at their financial supporters, you’ll see far too many of them from outside the district, and a lot of them are large donors.

   Political temperatures are moving away from favoring the beloved of the top tier politicos, but the holdovers are still running the race. That’s my biggest concern - these are the timid, finger-in-the-wind pols who will only stand up for what’s right - no matter how much they know better - when it becomes totally uncontroversial. They will stand fast to the status quo because that’s where their real bread and butter is. And you will see them flit between high political office and private boardrooms because they peddle their influence like a cloak of cheap wares.

   That’s what’s at stake, and that’s why I am tired of puttering around when it comes to Tsongas.

6. grizzled veteran Says:
   July 18th, 2007 at 8:24 am

   Turch, for an Eileen supporter, you’ve spent a whole lot of time saying nice things about Jamie and repeating a lot of his very specific criticisms of other candidates. Why then do you support Eileen?

   Lynne, I hear your plea and appreciate your response. You have a gut feel for this stuff and that’s your absolute right. You should be careful, however, about stating Tsongas’ position on healthcare as ‘let the market take care of it.’ That’s your interpretation, but she never said that if you check the record. She said the market has a role, which you can agree with or disagree. Eileen and Barry have the same position.

   As to Niki being a closet Republican philosophically, that too defies the record. I mean, just listen to Mitt Romney as a litmus for Republicans. On the war, veterans, global warming, taxes, etc., she’s not even close. Heck, her first job was a social worker in NYC and she campaigned for Gene McCarthy in NH. And she wasn’t the Dem who registered as an Independent.

   The only point I was making about Jamie was that he claims credit on his web site for the Massachusetts plan and credits it for covering 99% of the population. The Mass plan is not single payer. No argument that no one can take away Jamie’s definitiveness about health care or many other issues. Everyone may not agree, or may wonder about his ability to compromise and get things done, but you can’t dispute that if you listen to him, you know what he’s for.

   Thanks for hearing me out. Keep the faith.

7. Jacob Says:
   July 18th, 2007 at 9:50 am

   Lynne,

   Are you suggesting that it is perfect?

   Feh.

8. Lynne Says:
   July 18th, 2007 at 12:39 pm

   I didn’t say she was a Republican. I said she’s of the neo-liberal stripe. Totally different.

   Neoliberals have some of the same attributes of conservatives on economic and other issues, but that doesn’t make them Republicans. But they do believe a lot more heavily on relying on the market forces for things like economic equality, ie free trade, health care, welfare reform, even education reform.

   What neoliberals have yet to understand is that markets supposedly deliver efficiency (don’t get me started on how that’s largely a myth) but they also deliver pretty immoral behavior. Choose between paying out an expensive medical claim or pay a worker a fairer wage in Mexico, or making more profit? Profit wins every time. But we were sold a bill of neoliberal goods in the 90s which has just not panned out. It doesn’t mean the system needs a modicum of tweaking; it means the system needs a fundamental overhaul. But Niki is of the old school of thinking the market can deliver on some of these fundamental moral issues.

   You didn’t address the other, much more disturbing aspect of Niki’s campaign, or Finegold’s for that matter, however: the insider, establishment, to my mind compromised nature of the way they both are campaigning, who they get their money from, and how such a candidate is not only compromised, but unable or unwilling to stand up for their beliefs when it counts (like, say, the original vote on the Iraq war). Can you picture Niki standing up and voting against the Iraq war back then? I just can’t imagine it. She’s relying too heavily on not rocking the boat and on establishment support to ever have made such a huge break with conventional wisdom of the pundit, media, and consultant class at the time. I don’t want such a person representing me.

   As to Jamie’s claim on the MA reform, again, he also says that it’s seriously flawed whenever he mentions it. Doesn’t mean he wasn’t in the thick of the formation of that law, albeit in its flawed final form. To me, that means he’s willing to engage in the real work of governing, while at the same time recognizing that the fight ain’t over yet.

9. Lynne Says:
   July 18th, 2007 at 12:43 pm

   Oh, to Jacob: Huh? I’m supposed to understand your non sequitur?

10. grizzled veteran Says:
    July 19th, 2007 at 12:40 am

    Re: Would Niki have been against the war…

    First, she said she opposed it and certainly consistently does now.

    Second, she campaigned for Gene McCarthy who was an anti Vietnam War candidate, so her anti-war record goes way back.

    Third, she has not been afraid to criticize Bush, Cheney and the neo-cons.

    Paul Tsongas was hardly an establishment kind of guy. He was in the Peace Corps. He went to Latin America to try to broker peace, and met with Begin and Sadat to do the same. He was unafraid to go against the tide, locally or nationally. I don’t think Barney’s very establishment either. He’s been a leader on rights and he’s been attacked in the nastiest ways.

    Again, I respect your view and choices. I have faith due to character and history. You want to see risk and initiative demonstrated on the campaign trail among other things. Curious as to your thoughts on how that plays out on say, Obama and Clinton? What’s your take?

    Grizzled Vet

11. Norma Says:
    July 25th, 2007 at 6:33 am

    I can’t understand the people in massachusetts why they are letting lobbyist set the laws for our medical insurance. we are the only country in the world that does not care for it’s people.where is the outrage? when are we going to make our lawmakers accountable? they do what they want and we are their sheep. I am sick to think I have no say on my coverage or cost. all other states have some sort of groups trying to get their lawmakers to wake up to the facts Americans deserve better healthcare. I have been on line all month and cannot find even news about this sham so called health reform law. where’s the outrage?wake up people of massachusetts.

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