"Do you know how to make God laugh? You tell him your plans." Hari Sheldon – Foudation's Fear
Posted in Blog Post on Mar 24th, 2010
Unreal Blog Physics, Philosophy and Money Ezra is less sanguine about health care reform on the day after: Even if the bill does a better job than CBO projects, health-care costs will still bankrupt us. This is one small step for cost, one giant leap for coverage. My great hope is that the bill makes [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Mar 23rd, 2010
Unreal Blog Physics, Philosophy and Money Let’s knock down the argument about the constitutionality of forcing the public to buy insurance: A short while ago on Fox News I saw a segment that included one “expert” who claimed that healthcare reform would do something “unprecedented,” namely, requiring citizens to purchase some commodity. Unprecedented? Really? Let's [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Mar 22nd, 2010
Unreal Blog Physics, Philosophy and Money I’m not sure I agree with point 4, but to be fair the author says he’s least sure of that point. The process was ugly, at least in part because there was no “Obamacare” bill, no matter how often Tea Partiers attacked that straw man. But, having a White [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Mar 21st, 2010
It’s 10:31 EDT and the House finally got around to shutting it’s collective pie hole and starting the vote, in 15 minutes we’ll finally know if the House passes the Senate version. Then there’s the bill of fixes to a few of the worst aspects up next. Some of these guys will lose their jobs [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Mar 21st, 2010
Hereś the annual cost of the various components of government paid health care, with the latest figures I can find: The elderly: $599 billion (Medicare) The poor: $333 billion (Medicaid) The workers: $250 billion (Tax subsidy for employer provided benefits) Veterans: $39 billion (The VA) Military: $50 billion (combined TRICARE and direct costs) That´s [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Mar 16th, 2010
There’s a lot of debate about the chances of success. I don’t love the either the Senate or House bills. I personally would have enthusiastically supported something far simpler: Medicare for all with reforms to help control costs. This would form a floor for benefits, with an opt out for those who have other coverage. [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Mar 11th, 2010
Ezra Klein – Reid to McConnell: Reconcile this. Read it yourself, Reid puts the GOP on notice that they will in fact use reconciliation to complete health care reform. Let the screaming from the right begin, now! I suppose this means that Harry Reid does in fact have balls.
Posted in Blog Post on Mar 2nd, 2010
The New Yorker points out that despite bitching and moaning to the contrary the Senate Health Care bill is bipartisan: …the Democrats’ bill more closely resembles Richard Nixon’s health-care proposal—the one that Ted Kennedy went to his grave regretting he hadn’t embraced—than it does Bill Clinton’s, to say nothing of Harry Truman’s. Nor are all [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Feb 21st, 2010
As a long time supporter of systemic health reform I find this heartening: Democrats will finish their health reform efforts within the next two months by using a majority-vote maneuver in the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said. Reid said that congressional Democrats would likely opt for a procedural tactic in the Senate allowing [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Feb 18th, 2010
I find it extremely unlikely that the Democrats in Congress would rediscover the contents of their metaphorical nutsacks and actually do something. Sen. Michael Bennet’s effort to revive the public option in the reconciliation process is gaining steam, with almost 20 senators signing on to the idea. Among them are Dianne Feinstein and Chuck Schumer, [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Feb 13th, 2010
Jon Stewart skewers the GOP line that the invitation to discuss HCR with the President is a trap. It’s only a trap if the discussion reveals you have nothing to say. There’s a 2nd bit included by John Oliver where he highlights the contradiction between the GOP meeting in Hawaii and the working 40 year [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Jan 22nd, 2010
Krugman puts a stake in the ground on HCR: Op-Ed Columnist – Do the Right Thing – NYTimes.com. A message to House Democrats: This is your moment of truth. You can do the right thing and pass the Senate health care bill. Or you can look for an easy way out, make excuses and fail [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Jan 21st, 2010
Kevin Drum takes on the notion that there are Republican votes to be had for a more conservative approach to HCR: This fantasy that there are Republican votes for a more moderate bill really needs to end. There are no Republican votes for healthcare reform, no matter how moderate or conservative it is. They’re opposed [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Jan 11th, 2010
Op-Ed Columnist – Learning From Europe – NYTimes.com. Krugman tries to talk sense to reflexive Euro-bashers. Adopting a more humane attitude by taking steps to ensure everyone in the richest nation on earth has access to health care isn’t going to turn us into some kind of socialist dystopian nightmare. And the idea that Europe [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Jan 6th, 2010
Here’s a recap of how Republican ramrodded the medicare Part D expansion six years ago: Flashback: ‘The Night The Clocks & Scoreboard Stood Still’ | Fired Up! Missouri. (h/t Ezra Klein) Note that it was, and still is, completely unfunded and added 100% to the deficit. Furthermore its ten year costs are about a $1 [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Dec 21st, 2009
After a long day of acid, partisan debate, Senate Democrats held ranks early Monday in a dead-of-night procedural vote that proved they had locked in the decisive margin needed to pass a far-reaching overhaul of the nation’s health care system. via Health Bill Passes Key Test in the Senate With 60 Votes – NYTimes.com. Something [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Dec 15th, 2009
Healthcare’s Home Stretch | Mother Jones. The gist from Kevin Drum is that something is better than nothing and defeat would set things back years if not decades. I add that with each attempt, from Truman to Johnson, Nixon and Clinton the goal was a little less ambitious. Where would that leave it if Obama [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Dec 15th, 2009
FiveThirtyEight: Politics Done Right: The Public Option Fight May Not Have Been Winnable. Nate believe the blue dog type conservative democrats staked out their ground during the summer and stuck to it. The votes were never really there to get a public option. Leiberman gave it a swift kick in the nuts on the way [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Oct 21st, 2009
Facts are stubborn things: Serious students of health care have known for a long time that the magic of the marketplace doesn’t work in health care; the United States has the most privatized health-care system in the advanced world, and also the least efficient. The pale reflection of this reality in the current discussion is [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Oct 20th, 2009
Most support public option for health insurance, poll finds – washingtonpost.com. A new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows that support for a government-run health-care plan to compete with private insurers has rebounded from its summertime lows and wins clear majority support from the public. A clear majority of 57% supports a public option, despite a [...]
Date: 03/29/2006