We are now starting to see the beginning of a game of health care Jenga. The problem is the Democrats have seriously constrained themselves on what they can do. Obama set an arbitrary numeric cap of around $900 billion and demanded reform be fully paid for. Conservatives like Baucus, Conrad, and Snowe demanded that health [...]

In a conference call with political bloggers, Senator Arlen Specter (Still-Fresh D-PA) reported that in a recent gathering of the Senate Democratic caucus, he suggested his colleagues pledge to stick with the party on a cloture vote when the merged health care reform bill came to the floor. Much to Specter’s surprise, according to him, [...]

Today a very important milestone in health care reform was reached with little fanfare and only a small amount of media coverage. October 15th was the first day Democrats could use reconciliation to pass health care reform according to the budget they adopted earlier this year. With reconciliation, health care reform could pass with only [...]

Sen Tom Harkin (D-IA) has been a strong advocate for the public option. On a recent call with reporters, Harkin says a so-called “public option” will be in the senate bill. ”And especially if we’re going to have a mandate that everyone has to buy insurance, then certainly it would be bordering on the unconscionable [...]

I would like to sincerely apologize to former Republican senator Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island. Like many progressives I cheered when you lost to Democratic senator Sheldon Whitehouse in 2006. (I do like Whitehouse, by the way, and think he has done a good job.) I never personally disliked you. You were always very moderate [...]

The Hill is reporting that Pelosi now believes she has the vote for a modified version of the robust public option favored by progressives. Pelosi made two key concessions to garner sufficient votes. Pelosi offered a key policy change to the “Medicare plus 5 percent” option being pushed by the Progressive Caucus and other liberal [...]

Almost 45,000 people have demanded Harry Reid put an end to these “silent filibusters.” Sign the petition.

After the insurance companies promised to raise premiums, you would have to be insane to support triggers. And just in case you didn’t get that the first time, the insurance industry doubled down on their promise. But, no matter how much Big Insurance promises to screw the American people, Snowe still does not support the public [...]

There is a new “study” [PDF] out today, this time paid for by the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association. It comes only days after the much talked about “study” from AHIP, and (surprise!) comes to very similar conclusions. The Blue Cross Blue Shield conclusion is that premiums would increase even faster with reform, unless we [...]

Calling it “problematic” and offering the usual twisted logic against it, Senator Olympia Snowe (R-Reid) reiterated her opposition to Public Option. She lists its disadvantages that would cause her not to vote for the bill on the Senate floor: huge new bureaucracy, disproportionate advantage in the marketplace, “government’s not gonna do it better and it’s [...]