A group of 30 Senate Democrats sent a letter to Harry Reid asking that a public option be included as part of health care reform. The letter was not supportive of Conrad’s co-ops idea: it is not realistic to expect local co-ops to spring up in every corner of this country. There are many areas [...]

Conrad’s state-based co-ops idea was once seen as the great “compromise” for health care reform and the public option issue. It is an idea which never really picked up broad support, and recently seems to be on the outs. The latest CBO report on the Baucus bill might just be the nail in the coffin [...]

Since I got my hands on the one-page document outlining Carper’s weird hybrid “alternative,” I’ve had a chance to study the proposal in greater detail. After careful examination, I’ve determined that it would literally be worse than nothing. As I see it, there is currently nothing legally preventing the states from implementing any of the [...]

Carper’s one-page document explaining his new strange hybrid “alternative” idea has been published by Politico. According to the document, states would have the option of implementing one of the following: 1. Participate as grantees in the CO-OP program and apply for seed funding. 2. Open up that state’s employee benefits plan. 3. Create a state [...]

Yesterday, I wrote about the terrible idea Sen. Carper has been trying to sell as an “alternative” to the public option. Thanks to a report from Politico it appears that the idea is even worse than I first thought. Carper’s proposal would leave decisions and solutions up to the states. While Snowe’s amendment sets only [...]

Politico is reporting that Sen. Thomas Carper (D-DE) has a brand spanking new “alternative” to the public option that he has been secretly shopping around the senate. Carper suggests giving states the option of creating a competitor to private insurers, which could include a government plan, a network of co-ops, or a large purchasing pool [...]

According to the Las Vegas Sun, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said that he thought Snowe’s trigger proposal was, a “pretty doggone good idea.” I think the whole idea of a trigger is inherently flawed. Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich did a good job explaining that Washington is full of lobbyists whose job it is [...]

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus said at the begining of today’s hearing that there would not be time to get to the public option amendments today. He expects to debate and vote on the public option amendments on Tuesday. Yesterday, Sen. Schumer and Rockefeller pushed hard for a vote today on their public option [...]

In an interview with Bloomberg.com, White House Budget Director Peter Orszag talked about his support for so-called "co-ops" and "triggers." Orszag signaled the administration doesn’t consider a government-run insurance program essential to the legislation. He suggested it would be sufficient to either create nonprofit insurance-purchasing cooperatives or set “triggers” to activate a public option if [...]

Throughout this entire health care reform debate, Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND) has been the biggest advocate of the CBO. He demanded that CBO score health care reform over ten years. He also demanded the CBO must examine the bill and conclude that it would not increase the deficit over the next 20 years. Yet, when [...]