I have been very negative about the Senate health care reform bill. Frankly, it is a bad bill that is only likely to get worse. It has many problems; I outlined only some of the problems with the Senate in an earlier post. Still, the bill is not all bad. There are a few parts [...]

A simple fact of politics that is not stated enough: The Senate’s relatively new and insane rules about the filibuster are the complete antithesis of the small “p” progressive movement. You cannot claim to be a progressive and support the weird, unconstitutional, 60-vote threshold for legislation in the Senate. It does not matter how liberal [...]

Unlike the House bill, the Senate bill creates not one but two exchanges. In each state there will be an exchange for individuals and a “Small Business Health Options Program” (SHOP) exchange. What is important is that these are not just two different portals or websites where people can buy health insurance–the two different exchanges [...]

While the House health care reform bill is the one favored by progressives, it also happens to be more small “c” conservative than that Senate bill. This is not about the public option, the size of government subsidies, or regulation. The House bill is more small “c” conservative because it would do a better job [...]

The language on abortion in the original version of House health care reform bill, before it was amended on the floor, and the Senate language on abortion are very similar. Both say that: No federal funds will be used to pay for abortions, but as provided by the Hyde amendment, exceptions are made for rape, [...]

While a lot is going to be made of the fact that the Senate bill’s price tag for expanding coverage is smaller than the House’s ($848 billion vs $1,052 billion), this does not even begin to tell the full story. The Senate bill is cheaper simply because it does less. It covers many fewer people, [...]

The Senate bill contains a provision long sought by the health insurance industry lobby AHIP. It would allow for the sale of “nationwide plans.” Theses plan would not be required to follow the state laws regarding what medical treatments must be covered. It is described as: Allows insurers in the individual and small group markets [...]

The CBO has concluded that the design of the opt-out provision will end up denying the public option to roughly a third of the population in this country. CBO’s analysis took into account the probability that some states would opt not to allow the public plan to be offered to their residents. Rather than trying [...]

I’ve begun my preliminary examination of the new, merged Senate health care reform bill. So far, my first impression is pretty negative. There are many bad provisions that I think need to be changed or removed. Here are eight I noticed last night: 1) Delays Start Until 2014 – One of my biggest criticisms is [...]

Harry Reid took the public option nearly unchanged from the Senate HELP committee Bill and put it in the merged bill. It is called the “Community Health Insurance Option.” Besides the addition of a very bad, unlimited, pre-reform opt-out provision, Reid made almost no changes. The only changes besides the addition of the opt-out provision [...]