Friday, February 26, 2010
Congress / Woods CoverAmerica: Bredesen's Solution to the Health Care Mess
Posted by Jeff Woods on Fri, Feb 26, 2010 at 7:39 AM
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Gov. Phil Bredesen has been engaging in one of his favorite pastimes: complaining about President Obama and undermining Democratic efforts to reform health care. This time in Washington for the National Governors Association meeting, he tells Fox News' Morton Kondracke that he feels dissed by the president.
One of four governors sent by the association to talk with the White House, congressional leaders and staff about health care, Bredesen says, "I had the feeling we were a base to be touched, not that they were listening."
"The governors have been shunted aside" in the debate, he says. So what would Bredesen say if anyone were listening? How should we fix health care? Why, we should go "incremental" of course, exactly the solution Republicans claim to favor.
And Bredesen has the perfect little plan in mind. He thinks Congress should reproduce his CoverTN program, the one he implemented after gutting TennCare. We could call it CoverAmerica. Catchy, isn't it?
"You could move forward, the president could get a victory and Republicans could be seen as cooperating on a more limited benefit for a population that everyone agrees is deserving."So politically, it's a win-win. There's only one small problem: the health insurance coverage would suck. Here's what Families USA has to say about CoverTN's "bare bones" coverage. Before his next national interview, someone in Bredesen's crowd of minions should whisper in his ear that Democrats are trying to find a way to provide affordable, quality health care for everyone. Any ideas on how to do that, governor? Update: Here's another thing: How many times will Bredesen allow himself to be used in this way by the right-wing media? They're looking for a Democratic dupe to stick it to Obama, and he falls for it every time. And one more thing: it's a little ridiculous that the go-to guy for health care advice is the same guy who presides over the state whose children's health is just about the worst in the country.
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