Harold Pollack ran the numbers and is very pleased that the Senate bill will eventually spend a lot of money on subsidies going to private insurance companies to make insurance affordable for the uninsured: As others have noted, Democrats are on the brink of enacting an imperfect but historic bill that will cover 30 million [...]

This is what I said:

In 2000, the Republicans passed Medicare Part D, and it had no negotiation for prescription drug prices. And then in 2006, when the Democrats took over Congress, the first thing they did was say “hey, we’re going to roll that back, we’re going to allow for [negotiation of] prescription drug prices to be passed. But now that they actually have the chance, they’re not doing it. And you’ve got people like Jeff Sessions on the floor of the Senate saying this is criminal, this deal is criminal, but he didn’t vote for it in 2000 or 2006 when he had the chance. So we’re sort of looking at a situation where people on the right, people on the left, are looking at the Senate, and they’re saying “nobody’s there representing us. Nobody’s representing the people.” It’s just a matter of who’s in power and who’s taking PhRMA’s money.

People in the “pass any bill, regardless how bad” camp often talk about “fixing it later.” They point to previous progressive change like social security, Medicare, and the civil rights legislation as proof that progressive reforms start small but grow into something better. This mantra is repeated as an article of faith, but it is not [...]

Saying that it’s imperative to pass any health care bill because it helps some people ignores those that it hurts — while insurance company stocks jump. But that’s what happens when “stakeholders” get to carve up the health care bill first and foremost, while the people it’s meant to help are secondary to whatever Aetna wants.

If you’re fighting those who want a better bill in defense of this bill, you own this bill, not the bill you’d like to see but are doing nothing to advance.

Nate Silver made an incorrect statement about health care policy and he is now trying to rewrite history. In reference to removing the individual mandate he said: Why? Because such a bill, with good reason, will be scored terribly by the CBO. You would definitely have very high premiums and would probably have a bill [...]

How have the major health insurance company stocks performed since Joe Lieberman announced he’d filibuster the public option?  From  Oct. 27 to Friday’s market close: Coventry Health Care, Inc. is up 31.6 percent; CIGNA Corp. is up 29.1 percent; Aetna Inc. is up 27.1 percent; WellPoint, Inc. is up 26.6 percent; UnitedHealth Group Inc. is [...]

Arianna: As we approach the end of Obama’s first year in office, this public subsidizing of private profit is becoming something of a habit. It is, after all, exactly what the White House did with the banks. Just as he did with insurance companies, Obama talked tough to the bankers in public but, when push [...]

Jane’s 10 reasons to kill the Senate bill. For anyone who says I have not offered constructive solutions, alternatives and fixes to this terrible Senate bill, here is a list of 35 very much needed improvements. Democrats in Washington think they will get a bounce off of this bill. I don’t see how a bill [...]

Ezra Klein attempts to rebut Jane’s reasons for opposing the bill. Many of his arguments are weak at best.