The Capps compromise in the House was supposed to be the compromise which would have kept health care reform “neutral” on the issue of abortion. Capps Compromise–The Capps proposal would have made sure that abortion was not part of the minimum benefit requirement package for health insurance plans. It would have guaranteed that in each [...]

I guess you were the only one who didn’t know:

[M]any in the abortion rights community — which has been divided by tactical disagreements over the years — also recognize they were outmaneuvered by adversaries who understood the basic anti-abortion arithmetic of abortion votes in the House.

“I think Pelosi, NARAL and Planned Parenthood knew the reality — but a lot of other people had unrealistic expectations with Nancy Pelosi running the House and Barack Obama in the White House,” says a longtime abortion rights lobbyist.

A new CBS News Poll found that a majority of Americans (51%) want Congress to pass a health care bill with a public option: WHAT KIND OF HEALTH CARE BILL SHOULD CONGRESS PASS? One WITH a public option           51% One WITHOUT a public option  16 No bill at all             [...]

Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) reinvented/cribbed/copied Sen. Olympia Snowe’s trigger proposal while hoping no one notices this effort to kill the public option. Could Carper’s former chief of staff and current WellPoint lobbyist be helping?

The Stupak Amendment could radically reduce access to abortion coverage. Dayen has more on a new GWU study on the issue. Stupak is still threatening to bring down health care reform unless his amendment is completely unchanged. But Stupak’s amendment seems unlikely to make it into the Senate bill. Yes, we in fact do know [...]

The Stupak Amendment could radically reduce the availability of abortion coverage in this country. The amendment effectively stops the sale of insurance plans that also cover abortion on the new exchange. Even though the exchange will start small, the goal is for it to expand over time and be used by many mid-sized employers. Thanks to [...]

Austin Frakt knows that this reform effort is not going to be the end of health care reform in this country. It will only be Health Reform Debate 1.0. This bill will greatly expand coverage, add some much-needed regulations, and contain some modest cost containment measures. It will not really address the serious cost issue [...]

A group of pro-public option senators met with Harry Reid last night to discuss health care reform. Indications are that the possibility of using reconciliation to pass health care reform was indeed discussed. Reconciliation is just one way to pass health care reform or the public option with only a simple majority. Reconciliation is not [...]

As usual, there’s a lot of good stuff being written on the state blogs. Here’s a sampling of what’s out there right now. 1. Brian Leubitz on Calitics has an excellent article on the Republican’s “big idea” of selling insurance across state lines. The problem? “It will encourage states to be more permissive to insurance [...]

Are Dick Durbin and Harry Reid really so slimy that they think it’s okay to get people ginned up about something they’re getting ready to ditch? They think one of those patented “for the greater good” speeches will help them skate over the giant chasm between what they’re saying and what they’re actually doing?