Now that President Obama has officially signed HR 3590, the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,” it is the law of the land. It was a historic moment. Like it or hate it, the legislation is now a significant part of this America’s socio-economic makeup, and will define the new health care reality in this [...]

Today, at 11:15 AM EDT, President Obama will sign the HR 3590, the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,” making the bill law. Politically, it will be billed as a big win for the President, who has spent over a year trying to get a health care insurance reform bill passed. This moment could possibly [...]

Democrats did not offer a truly socialized health care system like they have in the United Kingdom. They did not just pass a universal single payer health care system like “Medicare for all.” Not only did the bill not include a public option, but the regulations on the private insurance companies are extremely loose. Despite [...]

Colorado Senator Michael Bennet first circulated a letter to his colleagues in the Senate to “save the public option.” He and 23 other Senators wrote to Majority Leader Harry Reid and asked that the public option be inserted into the reconciliation package for health reform.  Another two dozen Senators expressed public support for a public [...]

I was debating whether I should do one final piece to show that the health care bill about to be signed into law lacks serious cost control. Fortunately, Ezra Klein, who is a big supporter of the bill, accidentally did my job for me. In his piece “The five most promising cost controls in the [...]

Now that this bill will become law the important question is where do we go from here on health care reform? I have said before that I think this bill is deeply flawed and, most importantly, does not provide an clear pathway to eventually getting real reform. But now that this bill is the new [...]

The country turned an important corner last night when Congress affirmed the moral imperative of providing quality health care to more Americans and passed the President’s sweeping health insurance reform bill. It is to President Obama’s credit that he was willing to commit his office to such a challenge when others before him had failed. [...]

This health care reform bill passed late last night and soon to be signed into law is a seriously flawed piece of legislation, for it fails to achieve the goals of real health care reform. Now that it is essentially the law of the land, the country needs to work diligently at the federal and [...]

Earlier today, several members of the pro-choice caucus were steaming because they said the White House had released the text of the Executive Order to the press before they had seen it. According to TPM, “Just before 4 p.m. ET, the White House released text of a compromise on abortion to help clear the way [...]

The House just passed the Senate health care bill by a vote of 219-212. It will soon be signed into law. Now they have moved onto the reconciliation measure which contains some “fixes” to health care bill and student loan reform. 10:54 pm – Republicans are going to offer a motion to recommit based on [...]