Ezra Klein made an excellent catch the other day. Sen. Kent Conrad’s said during the Senate Finance Committee hearing: They’re not government-run systems in Germany, in Japan, in Switzerland, in France, in Belgium — all of them contain costs, have universal coverage, have very high quality care and yet are not government-run systems. The problem [...]

Sen. Bill Nelson proposed an amendment which would fill the Medicare part D dough nut hole. He would pay for the change by making the pharmaceutical industry pay a rebate for the overcharging of dual eligible Medicare/Medicaid seniors. The amendment would fully cover the cost of filling the donut hole and provide an additional $50 [...]

Mike Honda already signed a letter saying he wouldn’t vote for a bill that doesn’t have a public option.  There were 2,173 donors who gave $5,144 to thank him for doing so.  I’m assuming he cashed the check.

What part of “we simply cannot vote for such a proposal” did he not understand when he signed his name?

Mike Honda’s office:  (202) 225-2631, (408) 558-8085

Our favorite Democratic ‘svengali’, Rahm Emanuel, just said that he didn’t think the Senate would be able to pass a public option in spite of the three public option amendments offered so far by Senators Rockefeller, Schumer, and Cantwell. I guess he takes conservative Senators like Kent Conrad, Nelson, and Baucus at their word when [...]

The Los Angeles Times has good piece addressing one of the most underreported problems with the Baucus plan for health care “reform.” The Baucus bill lacks sufficient mechanisms to slow the out of control increase in insurance premiums.

Here’s an interesting catch this morning. The group, Americans For Stable Quality Care, which is a PhRMA-backed group along with AMA, Families USA, and the Federation of American Hospitals, is running ads like these below: The ad itself pushes support of the White House health care plan, and the Baucus Senate Finance Committee bill by [...]

Jim Cooper takes us to task for saying he “opposes” a public option. “Weasel-worded, dissembling obstructionist” is probably a more accurate description.

Senator Rockefeller pointed out that there was a gigantic loophole in the Baucus bill that would leave half of Americans subject to potential discrimination by private insurers. Apparently due to existing federal law, large companies can call themselves "self-insurers" even though they provide coverage through a major insurance company. These sort of self-insurance plans are [...]

Increasingly both parties are focusing on the possibility of passing health care reform using reconciliation. Yesterday Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid again threatened to use reconciliation if a bipartisan agreement can’t be found. “If we can’t work this out to do something within the committee structure, then we’ll be forced to do reconciliation,” said Reid, [...]

I don’t get why this is treated as a surprise, given the news reports that several administration officials, including Rahm, and Peter Orszag, were quoted as being supportive of the trigger on the public option. They’re not making their support for co-operatives or a "trigger" on the public option a secret when they say that [...]