Last week a one-page plan from Sen. Carper was being circulated around the Senate. His public option “compromise” was to “let” states set up very weak, highly restricted, state-based public options if they wanted to. The problem is that this is not compromise. Any state could technically set up a public option right now if [...]

Three important changes which address a few of my own concerns with the Baucus bill.

The Baucus bill creates a new ombudsman office that will “act as a consumer advocate.” This is a good idea. The problem is that Baucus makes the new ombudsman’s office nearly worthless by dramatically restricting individual ability to seek help with their insurance companies. According to Baucus’s mark: Policyholders whose health insurers have rejected claims [...]