Senate Health Bill: The Economists Are Happy Again
Wonk alert! Incoming!
Close readers of this blog will know that I’ve been interested in the mood swings of a group of prominent economists with regard to this Senate health care bill. Brad DeLong tells us they now have sent yet another letter–this one congratulating Harry Reid on putting some additional cost containment in the bill. …
In the ArenaUncategorized
Health Reform Support Increases
As regular readers know, I’m deeply skeptical about the polling of complicated issues like health care…but it is interesting to note that, according to CNN, support for health care reform is up, especially among Democrats. This may or may not have something to say about the impact of left-wing bloggers and Deaniacs trying to scuttle …
In the ArenaUncategorized
Coburn Heartburn
As Karen notes below, Senator Tom Coburn from Oklahoma–who, with James Inhofe, constitute the most extreme Senate delegation from any state–prayed for the incapacitation or death of a Democratic Senator so that health care would be blocked. But that wasn’t all. He also offered this:
“The crisis of confidence in this country is now at
…
Health Care: What Does the Senate Bill Mean to You?
Over at Kaiser Health News, Jonathan Cohn (with an assist from MIT’s Jonathan Gruber) does the numbers for those who buy on the non-group market (that is, people who don’t get their coverage from their employer):
In the ArenaUncategorized
More on Montazeri
His death seems to have rallied the anti-government forces in Iran.
Harry Reid — Vindicated?
He didn’t win it pretty, but he won. Harry Reid showed, once again, why being Senate Majority Leader is the second hardest job in Washington. And on some days, the hardest.
Merry Christmas to You Too, Senator Coburn
Okay, let’s give Tom Coburn the benefit of every conceivable doubt. Is it possible to read this comment as anything but a wish prayer that catastrophe befall one of his colleagues, especially with the frail and ailing 92-year-old Robert C. Byrd requiring a wheelchair to make it to the Senate Chamber?:
At 4 p.m. Sunday afternoon —
…
Reform in Health Reform? Maybe Not So Much…
Sigh.
So yesterday, I wrote this post saying that the new version of the Senate bill does more to “bend the curve” of health care costs. I based that in large measure on the Congressional Budget Office analysis of the how effective a new independent board to regulate Medicare would be.
Except CBO got it wrong, at least partly. The …
In the ArenaUncategorized
Hacker Backs the Bill
Jacob Hacker, who invented and was the most convincing promoter of the public option, backs the health reform bill.
In the ArenaUncategorized
Rich Poor
Frank Rich is a former theater critic. As such, he’s been a valuable observer of the histrionic trivialization of our national politics, the scandalous metastasizing of infotainment over substance. But he also has a tendency to see everything as theater, to overlook the details of policy on some difficult issues…like health care, for …
In the ArenaIran
Hossein Ali Montazeri
Word comes that Ayatullah Hossein Ali Montazeri has died at the age of 87. He was Iran’s road not taken, a leading cleric–Ayatullah Khomeini’s designated successor for a time–who came to understand that the Islamic Republic’s religious dictatorship was taking a fundamentally irreligious path. He was a revolutionary who came to believe …
Putting Some of the Reform Back Into Health Reform
NOTE: On Sunday, CBO changed its long-term estimates of cost savings, which it said were based on a misunderstanding of this bill. Please see this update.)
Given the drama and suspense of the past few weeks, it’s understandable that the first round of commentary about the new Senate health bill would focus on the deals that Majority …