The health insurance industry makes a substantial part of its profits by hanging on to premium dollars as long as possible — premiums which are established after assessing anticipated risk and expected claims. But if all claims are paid, there’s no need for managing risk by reserving premium dollars, and no need to hold reserves for investment. Getting insurers and Wall Street to give up the reserves is going to be a challenge.

If the Democrats want to pass anything in the Senate with 50 votes over the course of the next year, they have to decide now what they want to use reconciliation for and include that in next year’s budget resolution. What kind of progressive changes can you accomplish using reconciliation?  Well, anything done through reconciliation [...]

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that health insurance stocks are up dramatically today after Joe Lieberman’s threat to filibuster health care reform. Lieberman has a new-found strong opposition to the Medicare buy-in proposal–a massive flip-flop from his earlier support. Wells Fargo Securities analyst Matthew Perry said Lieberman’s comments are good news for managed-care stocks [...]