One thing that really bothers me is the number of people claiming that the Affordable Care Act will bring “universal health care” to the United States. Ryan Lizza’s makes this claim in his defense of President Obama at the end of his long story in the New Yorker, but he simply the most recent example [...]

The media are finally waking up to the fact that the temporary high-risk pools created by the new health-care law were completely unfunded. Only $5 billion was set aside for the program, which is probably less than a third of what would be required to keep the program funded until 2014. This should not be [...]

After working very hard to kill many progressive idea about how best to control health care costs, Mary Landrieu has found one she likes. Too bad it is the one that will most benefit millionaires: I can only support a bill if the Cadillac plans are taxed at the level they are in the Senate [...]

The so called “fiscal conservatives” in the Senate have insisted that we use only extremely wasteful private insurance companies to expand coverage to roughly 15 million Americans. Private health insurance companies have a terrible track record compared to public health insurance programs. Public programs, like Medicare, are able to provide high-quality care much more cost effectively. [...]

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

The sole defense of this massive corporate giveaway, formally known as the Senate health care reform bill, is that it would still do some “good,” helping millions of the uninsured. Unfortunately, the bill would dramatically worsen the quality of current insurance coverage for tens of millions Americans, thanks to the new excise tax on insurance [...]

The CMS released its analysis of the Senate health care bill. (One big caveat about this report is that it does not take into account any “deal” that Reid may or may not have reached on the public option.) Overall the report is a mixed bag. National health expenditure and coverage expansion National health expenditures [...]

The risk adjustment mechanisms are probably the single most important component to any managed competition health care system. The Dutch Ministry of Health realized that it is the Achilles heel of a regulated private health insurance system. Risk adjusters force insurers to compete on quality instead of by simply trying to avoid signing up/dropping sicker [...]

Nate Silver believes progressives should trade the public option away, but what he wants in return is far more useless and an even tougher political battle. And the public option, as currently constructed, would only enroll 3-4 million people, according to the CBO. It’s a relatively minor provision, and one that, in its present, already-compromised [...]

Reid is meeting with Senate progressives tonight to talk health care. Harkin thinks the Senate will start debate in earnest on November 30th. And, he is willing to make the Republicans work if they try to filibuster reform.   Mike Castle’s poll numbers take a huge hit, possibly because of his opposition to health care. Carper, [...]