Larger lessons? It’s always dangerous to see too big a trend in off-year elections. But there might be one for Democrats: You are on your own. Barack Obama’s popularity–or his political operation–do not transfer when he is not on the ballot. This election could make Democrats more attuned to the political rhythms of their home states, …
Health Care
A Health Bill This Year? New Doubts
This from Harry Reid today.
Chuck-ing Health Care
We’re in the grip of election fever here in DC. Could (gasp!) Jon Corzine lose the governor’s race in New Jersey? What might a Bob McDonnell victory in Virginia mean for Republicans? For that matter, what could a Doug Hoffman win in the NY23rd mean? But, just in case you forgot, there is still a national debate going on on heath care …
A Republican Health Care Plan
Better late than never, I guess. While individual Republicans have offered proposals (and hundreds of amendments), there has been no real GOP alternative to the various health care bills that are working their way through Congress. Now, John Boehner says they are going to produce one. But when you look at what the House Minority Leader …
Public Option Premiums
would actually be higher on average than those charged by private companies participating in the new health insurances exchanges. At least, that is the surprising conclusion of the Congressional Budget Office, which Politco’s Carrie Budoff Brown found in its assessment of the new House bill.:
Medicaid: The OTHER Public Option
As I noted earlier, the real surprise in the House health care bill wasn’t the public plan–we had pretty much known for days that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi didn’t have the votes to pass her preferred version, the so-called “robust” public plan, which would have closely tied its reimbursements to health care providers to Medicare’s …
House Health Bill
is here, all 1,990 pages of it. I’m still trying to figure it out. But from the early details I’ve seen, it strikes me that the real news here is not the public option, but rather, the decision to expand Medicaid eligibility all the way up to 150% of poverty. That’s a significant increase from earlier versions, which went to 133%. Both …
Lieberman To Filibuster The Public Option.
The Public Option: Five Reasons Harry Reid Went For It
Less than two weeks ago, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s aides and colleagues were saying they were all but certain he would bring health care legislation to the Senate floor without a public option. Yesterday, as everyone who follows this issue now knows, he did the opposite. It’s a big gamble. While Reid will likely be able to hold …
Opt-Out Option In
Well, in policy terms, this isn’t bad. Harry Reid has announced that the Senate health reform bill a public option that allows individual states to opt-out if they fear they’re on the road to socialism. This may–emphasize, may–help control costs in some states, especially those where one or two insurers have virtual monopoly …
UPDATE: Public Option Smoke Signals
The weekend only added to the confusion. Jonathan Cohn attempts to sort it out for us.
UPDATE: Harry Reid is holding a news conference shortly after 3 p.m. Eastern, apparently to inform us that he will take a public option to the Senate floor.
HCAN Protests AHIP
A dispatch from TIME’s Sophia Yan:
“Congress, We Are Watching You!” was scrawled across handmade signs, bobbing above the heads of the few hundred rallied by Health Care for America Now to show support for a public option. “We need a public option, not a stock option,” shouted one woman. Some came out to support family
…
Health Care: Public Option Smoke Signals
We are clearly at a very weird phase of this process, as David Kurtz explains here.
I’m not going to pretend I’ve got anything that resembles clarity, but I’m being told by a normally trustworthy source that at last night’s White House meeting, the President referred to the triggered public option as one of the ideas on the table …