Ryan Grim at Huffington Post managed to get some details out of Ben Nelson. He confirmed that at least four items had been sent to the CBO for an estimate known as a score: an expansion of Medicaid; broadening Sen. Maria Cantwell’s (D-Wash.) Basic Health program to people within 300 percent of the federal poverty [...]

Harry Reid wants to get health care done by Christmas, so much so that there’s a push to “ping-pong” his Manager’s amendment over to the House and dispense with conference.  He won’t tell the public what’s in his Manager’s amendment, but the insurance companies have evidently seen it and they’re declaring “we win.”  But nonetheless, [...]

With the insurance companies crying “we win,” members of Congress are either going to give them what they want or stop the looting. We hope Keith Ellison will be there when it Nonethelesss, with the insurance companies crying “we win,” members of Congress are either going to give them what they want or stop the looting. We hope Keith Ellison will be there when it counts. We already know Tammy Baldwin won’t.

Keith Ellison’s phone: 612-522-1212 (MN), 202-225-4755 (DC)

Tammy Baldwin’s phone: (608) 258-9800 (WI), (202) 225-2906 (DC)

Yesterday, the NY Times ran self-serving op-ed from Congressman Bart Stupak (D-Coat Hanger), in which he claims his harmless little amendment was no worse than current law.Forget for a moment the logic disconnect here that Stupak and his coalition of anti-choice Democrats in the House would threaten to derail the entire health care reform bill just to maintain a status quo that wouldn’t have changed one iota if they had left well enough alone.

Instead of working so hard to make the health reform bill worse, why didn’t Snowe use her leverage to get the very helpful Dorgan drug reimportation amendment she co-sponsored added to the bill? Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) earns his PhRMA donations with his absurd attack on the Dorgan amendment. He parrots the letter sent by Obama’s [...]

Reactions from state-based progressive bloggers to the Senate health care deal are starting to trickle in. Here’s a short sampling. *Ohio Daily Blog writes: Swell. Democratic Senators have apparently negotiated themselves under the table and killed the public option according to AP. Get ready for the spin. *At Blue Commonwealth (VA), one “front pager” writes [...]

Booman is right about one thing though — Rahm wouldn’t be doing this without Obama’s approval. Obama wants “triggers,” and has since Rahm started pushing them in January 0f 2009.

A new Quinnipiac poll shows support for a public option remains strong, even as Senate Democrats look to kill the idea: [V]oters support 56 – 38 percent giving people the option of being covered by a government health insurance plan, compared to 57 – 35 percent November 19. The public option has managed to maintain [...]

For almost a year, President Obama has spent countless hours trying to woo Olympia Snowe to support heath care reform. He has been willing to bend over backwards to give in to almost every one of her demands. It is very unfortunate that Snowe decided to use her new-found power for evil instead of good. [...]

Here is the PNHP Statement:

Lowering the eligibility age for Medicare to 55 only works if it is mandatory. Otherwise it becomes the place where all the sickest patients get dumped. That might be okay for the sick people since Medicare is often better and more secure than private coverage, but it would drive total health care costs (and premiums) up, not down.