The Senate bill removed the public option. The public option would have been a benchmark by which to judge the private insurance companies. It would have served as a check on the private insurance companies. With the public option gone, the only other check left on the for-profit private insurance industry is regulation. Can under-enforced [...]

A few on the left are trying to defend the individual mandate, but the individual mandate is only defensible as long as the government, in exchange, guaranties everyone access to quality, affordable health insurance. The Senate bill completely fails at this, and drafters were even forced to admit as much by including a “hardship” exemption. [...]

The reason Reid dropped the annual limit from the Senate bill was to make his bill appear cheaper in the CBO score, and make insurance premiums appear lower. (Via Ezra Klein) Hill sources explain that this was inserted because CBO said premiums would “go through the roof” if insurers couldn’t cap benefits. The official quote [...]

If the Senate bill ends up like I fear: no public option, no serious regulation on insurance, no real medical loss ratio, very low insurance standards, and an individual mandate the private insurance companies will have truly won (via Ben Smith): With the Senate shifting sharply away from a “pure public option,” an insurance industry [...]

The CBO is out with a new report projecting the effect of the Senate health care reform bill on premiums for individual below 65. The report is a mixed bag of some small negatives and some small positives. The general conclusion is reform would do basically nothing to reduce or increase premiums for most Americans. [...]

Religious leaders of all stripes are pushing for health care reform, rooted in the belief that health care is a basic right for all people, not a commodity. Not that you’d know this by following the TradMed . . .