The Obama administration, in its push to get the House to vote for the Senate’s health care reform bill unchanged, is pointing to the serious issue of lack of competition in the health insurance market as a powerful reason for reform. Obama’s health care proposal, however, no longer does much to actually solve the problem. [...]

One of the many big problems with the current crop of health care reform proposals is that they do not do enough to address cost control. If we are serious about addressing cost, one of the important tools available is a centralized provider reimbursement negotiator. It is an agency which negotiates or sets provider reimbursement [...]

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 [...]

Thomas Carper’s terrible new “alternative” to a public option is not winning over progressives in the House: The new version of the government-run plan, being crafted by Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), fell flat with Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), the co-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, who’s led members of Congress who’d previously spoken out against [...]

Throughout this health care reform legislative process, I have been very critical of the part Sen. Kent Conrad has played in health care reform. I’ve been especially critical of his co-ops idea and his opposition to the public option. But since the House agreed to decouple the public option from Medicare rates, Conrad has expressed [...]

Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) is at it again. Not happy with all his previous terrible “alternatives” to the public option that he helped create, Carper is now crafting a top-secret new “Plan B,” according to the CongressDaily. Just how bad is Carper’s Plan B?Well, from what is being reported, it could be his worst idea [...]

Ezra Klein really thinks health care exchanges will work at driving down cost despite there being little to no evidence to back up his theory. In fact, today, he just admitted that there is strong evidence to the contrary: For people, like, well, me, who think that the health insurance exchanges have a real shot [...]

The Hill is reporting that Mike Ross is “suggesting” opening Medicare to all: Ross (D-Ark.), who had emerged as a leader among centrist Blue Dog Democrats opposing the public health insurance option, has suggested something his colleagues consider even more drastic – opening Medicare to those under 65 without insurance. Sounds like a dramatic about [...]

The CBO’s brutal analysis of Conrad’s proposal for small, state-based co-ops may have been the final fatal blow for the idea. The Hill reports that prospects for the co-ops are fading fast; it is an idea with few defenders and many detractors: “It doesn’t have much of a constituency beyond Conrad because it doesn’t please [...]

I just have one question for the veal pen. Where is there even one, and I mean one, member of the Democratic caucus who has said they will join with Republicans to filibuster it? Come on, you’re cheering for a sketchy plan with only a one page “white paper” that nobody has seen. Surely you’ve thought this through, and are convinced it is a necessary step to keep Democrats from voting against cloture.

So who is it? If you’re acting out of political necessity, who is this mysterious Senator (or Senators) telling you they’ll take this bold step, who don’t have the courage to say so in public?