"Apparently, Mr. Kennedy doesn’t give a rat’s ass about President Obama’s promise of transparency and limiting the influence of corporate lobbyists in his administration. Mr. Obama is aware of these secret meetings with lobbyists but so far hasn’t expressed any concern or disapproval.

"Kennedy has been sitting at a table chatting with the corporate killers responsible for the deaths of between 18,000 to 100,000 people every year because they lacked access to health care, and moreover, are the cause of the escalating health care crisis that leaves over 50 million without health insurance. Ted is joined at the table by another group: the American Cancer Society, Easter Seals, the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), the American Medical Association (AMA), and the A.F.L.-C.I.O. Their presence at these clandestine gatherings is beyond shameful; it’s despicable.  They are supposed to represent patients and union members. How do they do it? How do they sit at the table and negotiate with an industry that has demonstrated for decades it cares only about profits and has made life for millions of people an agonizing, living hell? How many patients will they sacrifice and throw under the bus this time around in order to placate big PHRMA, AHIP, and employers and then tell us once again they have solved the health care crisis?

"Did you notice who is missing from the table: the California Nurses Association (CNA), the Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), and the grassroots, national organization Health Care Now! These groups want a single-payer, government financed health care system. Kennedy hasn’t invited these organizations to his top secret brainstorming sessions (by the way, they represent the views of the majority of people in this country) because single-payer is off his table. 

"A memorandum by the group stated 'While there is some diversity of views, the sense of the room is that an individual obligation to purchase insurance should be part of reform if that obligation is coupled with effective mechanisms to make coverage meaningful and affordable. The ideas discussed include a proposal to penalize people who fail to comply with the 'individual obligation' to have insurance… There seems to be a sense in the room that some form of tax penalty is an effective means to enforce such an obligation, though only on those for whom affordable coverage is available.'  

"The penalty provision promotes the ideas that people don’t have health insurance because they’re too cheap, lazy, or don’t care about health coverage until they’re ill. All lies. The health insurance industry denies millions coverage by screening out those with health problems and disabilities, and charges exorbitant premiums for those they are willing to insure. In New York State the average premium per month for a single adult is $900 a month according to the State Insurance Department. If you have a preexisting condition, forget about it.

"And only in America could the idea that people should be penalized for not buying a defective product become law. The mandate effectively criminalizes and punishes people that don’t comply. Punish, punish, punish patients, not the corporations that charge outrageous premiums, co-pays, and deductibles, invented the ass backwards notion of preexisting conditions, and routinely deny patients life-saving medical care.

"The chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program in Massachusetts just sent an open letter to Kennedy signed by 500 doctors explaining that a PNHP study shows unequivocally the mandate is not working and asking him to introduce H.R. 676 into the senate. PNHP will be lucky if Ted’s aides even show him the letter.