Mary Brown, a 56-year-old Florida woman who owned a small auto repair shop but had no health insurance, became the lead plaintiff challenging President Obama‘s healthcare law because she was passionate about the issue.

Brown “doesn’t have insurance. She doesn’t want to pay for it. And she doesn’t want the government to tell her she has to have it,” said Karen Harned, a lawyer for the National Federation of Independent Business. Brown is a plaintiff in the federation’s case, which the Supreme Court plans to hear later this month.

But court records reveal that Brown and her husband filed for bankruptcy last fall with $4,500 in unpaid medical bills. Those bills could change Brown from a symbol of proud independence into an example of exactly the problem the healthcare law was intended to address.

Full Story Here: Plaintiff in healthcare law challenge went bankrupt – with unpaid medical bills – latimes.com.

Before we explain how this scam works and how we arrived at this absurd subsidization of Big Pharma and the nation’s drug store chains, it’s important to grasp the tens of billions, or possibly the hundreds of billions of dollars that are being exacted from the American public in the name of benefiting the underprivileged, the disabled, and America’s seniors. The MSM has reported that approximately seventy million Social Security checks could be withheld if a new debt ceiling is not approved. Those checks are for Social Security Retirees, Social Security Disability recipients, and Supplemental Social Security (SSI). This figure of seventy million Americans receiving Social Security checks does not represent the millions that are also receiving low or no cost prescriptions through state run Medicaid programs, so the breadth of this scam is extremely hard to calculate and/or imagine – but consider these examples:

Cash price for 30 generic 10 Mg Ambien Tablets (Zolpidem Tartrate) $20.00 Medicare is billed: $72.99

Cash price for thirty 60 Mg Vyvanse Capsules $156.00 SSI is billed $210.99

Sink your teeth into the fact that for just two prescriptions, Medicare/SSI was billed $108.00 above and beyond what any individual would pay if they walked in and paid cash for the exact same medication!

Full Story Here: Tens Of Billions Could Be Cut From Medicaid/Medicare/Social Security Without Impacting Services.

But these are the early rounds in preliminary bouts. The one that really counts – a showdown at the Supreme Court – is at least a year away.

The health care law suffered its first major legal setback Monday when a federal judge declared that the heart of the sweeping legislation is unconstitutional. The decision handed Republican foes ammunition for their repeal effort next year.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson, a Republican appointee in Richmond, Va., marked the first successful court challenge to any portion of the new law, following two earlier rulings in its favor by Democratic-appointed judges. A number of other lawsuits were dismissed early on, without rulings on the substance of the law.

Full Story Here: Long legal fight ahead for health law.

The new health care reform law has already become the target of multiple lawsuits, including many filed by public parties.

Some are arguing that the new law is unconstitutional because Congress lacks authority to address the health care issue by mandating coverage and that people have a right to refuse to buy health insurance. Others see it as an affront to their basic freedoms.

As attorneys general for our respective heartland states, we take issue with the constitutional arguments being made against this new legislation. Under long-settled Supreme Court precedents, Congress has ample power under the commerce clause of the Constitution to legislate on health care.

Full Story: Why we won’t file states’ rights suits – Richard Cordray and Tom Miller – POLITICO.com.

The attorney general’s office has completed its legal review of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Based on that extensive analysis, I do not believe that Kansas can successfully challenge the law. Our review did not reveal any constitutional defects, and thus it would not be legally or fiscally responsible to pursue this litigation. [...]

Legal precedent demonstrates that throughout our nation’s history, the U.S. Supreme Court has been reluctant to overturn legislative acts unless a clear and direct constitutional violation is shown. Article I, section 8 of the U.S. Constitution expressly gives Congress the power to legislate on matters affecting interstate commerce. The Supremacy Clause makes these laws supreme, regardless of any state laws or state constitutional provisions to the contrary. No serious argument may be advanced that the healthcare industry and all those who participate in it — including doctors, nurses, patients and insurers — are not part of interstate commerce. [...]

Full Story: Think Progress » Kansas Attorney General Refuses To Sue Federal Government Over Health Care Reform.

Senate Republicans on Wednesday launched an attempt to amend or kill legislation expanding the recently enacted health care reform law — part of a GOP pledge to use every parliamentary tool available to undermine the measure.

The amendments also are designed to force Democrats to cast unpopular votes in the run-up to this November’s midterm elections.

Senate Democrats easily defeated the first of the amendments, which challenged provisions in the bill involving changes to Medicare funding.

Also defeated were attempts to send the measure to committee for reconsideration — which would effectively kill it — and other amendments intended to strip provisions from the bill. There were at least 11 other motions or amendments to be considered.

Full Story: Senate Dems defeat initial GOP attacks on health care ‘fixes’ bill – CNN.com.

The lawsuit by McCollum, a candidate for governor, and 12 other attorneys general, focuses on the provision that virtually all Americans will need to have health insurance by 2014 or face penalties.

The lawsuit calls this an “unprecedented encroachment on the liberty of individuals.” It states the Constitution doesn’t authorize such a mandate, the proposed tax penalty is unlawful and is an “unprecedented encroachment on the sovereignty of the states.”

Full Story: Health bill included big Republican idea: individual mandate | McClatchy.

John Kenneth Galbraith said, “The modern conservative is engaged in one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.”I wouldn’t limit this statement to, “Modern conservatives”.Conservatives have always taken a strong stance against anything that prevents an individual from making a profit, even if making that profit ruins the lives of other people. Conservatives are the true capitalists of the world because not only does succeeding at the expense and detriment of others not bother the conservative, the conservative believes that this is the natural order of life.Therefore, life’s “Greater good” is anything that helps the individual succeed; anything.

The Civil War, the emancipation proclamation and amendments to the constitution were no match for the Conservative Capitalist of the Southern States. The Southern Capitalists needed cheap labor to build railroads and dig mines in inhumane conditions.The Southern Capitalists needed their slave force back and no stupid Federal Government proclamation or laws were going to stand in their way of using blacks for cheap labor.

These Southern Capitalists violently threw-out the blacks who been elected to local government positions.They passed laws to outlaw vagrancy and defined vagrancy as “any freed slave not under the protection of a white man” (1). After being arrested for vagrancy a black man was hit with fines that he had no means to pay back. The punishment for not paying the fines was more years in prison and more fines. These vagrancy laws helped whites to easily re-enslave the black work force.

Full Story: Conservatives Sue the Government. They’ll be Damned if the Poor get Healthcare!.

“Today, after almost a century of trying — today, after over a year of debate — today, after all the votes have been tallied, health insurance reform becomes law in the United States of America,” Obama said at a White House ceremony packed with ecstatic supporters.

The law expands health insurance coverage for some 32 million Americans, in part by preventing insurance companies from denying coverage to people who are sick or have pre-existing conditions. The new law provides subsidies for some Americans to purchase insurance.

Full Story: Obama signs health bill ‘that generations of Americans have fought for’ – The Oval: Tracking the Obama presidency.

Full Story: Think Progress » House approves health care reform by vote of 219-212..

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., will postpone a push for a public option in the health care overhaul bill, acknowledging such a fight “could undermine the entire process.”

The National Journal reported on its Web site Thursday that Sanders and Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., would shelve an amendment to the bill during the reconciliation process in exchange for assurances the proposal would be resurrected later.

A statement by Will Wiquist, a Sanders spokesman, confirmed the report. “Bernie is a strong supporter of a public option and will continue to work to create a system that provides competition for private insurance companies as a way to hold down skyrocketing premiums,” Wiquist said by e-mail. “He thinks majorities in the House and Senate would support a public option.”

Full Story: Sanders drops push for public option | The Burlington Free Press | Burlington, Vermont.

“We’ve paid the ransom, but at the end of the day the insurance companies are still holding the hostages,” Rep. Stephen Lynch said in an interview with the Boston Globe on Thursday. “This is a very good bill for insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies. It might be good for Nebraska, I don’t know. Or Florida residents… But it’s not good for the average American, and it’s not good for my district. Or for Massachusetts.”

Lynch voted for the House version of the health care package when it was passed last December. But the House version included a provision for a “public option,” or government-run competitor to private insurance firms. He says the final bill subsidizes the companies that Obama himself has demonized for preying on consumers.

Full Story: Saying insurance firms have ‘hostaged’ Congress, Democrat won’t vote for health bill | Raw Story.

Kucinich had been one of the few remaining holdouts who felt that the bill did not go far enough. Kucinich, a former presidential candidate, objected that the bill did not include a robust public insurance option tied to Medicare rates and did not include a provision to allow states to enact single-payer legislation if they so chose. His support gives House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) a much-needed vote as she looks for 216 members to move the package through this week.

Kucinich came under intense pressure from liberals, with blogger Markos Moulitsas, the founder of DailyKos, going so far as to suggest he should face a primary challenge if he votes no. House leadership, however, largely considered his vote lost.

Full Story: Dennis Kucinich Flips: Will Support Health Care Reform.

The health bill isn’t progressive enough for Kucinich, who voted against even the House-passed bill, which included a public option.

Kucinich wrote an op-ed in Sunday’s Cleveland Plain-Dealer, outlining his position. He said, in part:

“President Barack Obama is in northern Ohio on Monday to campaign for his health care plan, and I will be here to welcome him. I have met with the president three times to discuss how we can work together to address the serious deficiencies in our health care system. Even at this late date, I am hopeful that the White House will be able to reinstate key reforms that passed the Education and Labor Committee on which I serve.

Full Story: Kucinich: ‘A firm no’ – First Read – msnbc.com.

President Barack Obama is out and abroad stumping like mad for his embattled health insurance “reform” plan, claiming now that his administration will “crack down” on $100 billion in annual “waste and fraud” in the Medicare and Medicaid systems.

This new tough rhetoric is meant to win over some of the conservative opposition that sees all government programs as inherently wasteful, inefficient and corrupt.

But the claim itself is bogus.

The figure comes from a study done annually by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and that study makes it clear that it is not looking at fraud, but at errors. And there are two things that can be said about those errors, most of which appear to involve problems like illegible signatures on doctors’ orders, or lost paperwork needed to document that a treatment being billed for actually happened.

Full Story: Slick Barry and the $100 Billion Medicaid/Medicare Fraud Claim | The Smirking Chimp.

50 CURRENT COSPONSORS : Bob Filner, Jan Schakowsky, Barney Frank, Dennis Kucinich, Donna Edwards, Jared Polis, Chellie Pingree, Sheila Jackson Lee, Carol Shea-Porter, Diane Watson, John Lewis, Anthony Weiner, Jerrold Nadler, Nydia Velazquez, Keith Ellison, Loretta Sanchez, Hank Johnson, Maxine Waters, Luis Gutierrez, Lynn Woolsey, Marcy Kaptur, Charles Rangel, Patrick Kennedy, Raul Grijalva, Donna Christian-Christensen, John Olver, Corrine Brown, Eddie Bernice Johnson, Marcia L. Fudge, Danny K. Davis, Pedro Pierluisi, Grace Napolitano, Alcee Hastings, John Hall, Shelley Berkley, John Conyers, Jim McGovern, Phil Hare, Betty Sutton, Jim McDermott, Gregorio Sablan, Maurice Hinchey, Carolyn Maloney, Barbara Lee, Elijah Cummings, Gregory Meeks, Edolphus Towns, Al Green, David Wu, and Rush Holt.

Every indication has always been that there is overwhelming support for a Medicare buy-in among Congressional Democrats. This could very well pass as a stand alone bill, especially in 2011 once filibuster reform has taken place. This is definitely one of the ways that progressives can viably continue the fight for real health reform no matter what happens to the current bill.

Full Story: Open Left:: In one day, Grayson piles up another 40 co-sponsors for Medicare buy-in bill.

Sen. Dick Durbin, the Democrat in charge of rounding up votes for the health care reconciliation bill, said on Thursday that he will whip support for whatever package comes through the House. With 50 Democratic votes, Vice President Joe Biden could then break the tie and send the bill directly to the White House. If any amendments are adopted, it slows the process down by requiring the House to vote once again.

That balance of power gives House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) extraordinary leverage of a historical nature. Pelosi, however, has yet to concede in negotiations that it is the obligation of the House to go first. And the deal that is being reached is driven largely by the White House. But both the Senate and the White House need Pelosi. And the House, of course, has already passed a health care bill with a public option.

Full Story: The Public Option’s Last Stand: A Matter Of Will, Not Votes.

Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) admitted, during a press conference organized by health policy journal Health Affairs on Thursday, that his role now is to make skeptical House Democrats even more doubtful that the Senate can change the bill it passes using reconciliation. He insisted that tough votes on non-health care related topics are bound to come up, raised the specter that the reconciliation process will shut the Senate down, and even questioned whether the president can use reconciliation in the first place.

Asked by the Huffington Post if he was trying to stir uncertainty among Democrats, the New Hampshire Republican replied: “Absolutely. We are trying to open the eyes of our colleagues on the Democratic side who are being solicited with goodies that the boat into which all these goodies are being put may not ever come to dock.”

Full Story: Gregg: GOP Gameplan Is To Sow Doubt On Reconciliation.

“We have wasted month after month negotiating with people who do not support serious reform,” he said at a progressive media summit on Capitol Hill. “It’s been a year now and I think the White House finally got that message.”

President Obama advocated for a bipartisan bill last year and worked extensively to court Republican votes, offering major concessions in the process. But only one Republican – Rep. Joseph Cao (LA) – in Congress wound up voting for it, and even he has since backed out.

Full Story: Sanders: ‘One year later, the White House gets it’ | Raw Story.

Nelson, asked by HuffPost if he would vote for a public option on the Senate floor, was unequivocal. “Yes,” he said firmly. “I’ve already voted for it in the committee, in the Finance Committee.”

The running tally is being kept by one of the organizations pushing for the public option, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.

Full Story: Public Option Support Now Over 40 In Senate.

GRAYSON INTRODUCES PUBLIC OPTION ACT

Bill Opens Up Medicare To Anyone Who Can Pay For It

Congressman Alan Grayson, D-Fla., today introduced a bill (H.R. 4789) which would give the option to buy into Medicare to every citizen of the United States. The Public Option Act, also known as the Medicare You Can Buy Into Act, would open up the Medicare network to anyone who can pay for it.

Congressman Grayson said, Obviously, America wants and needs more competition in health coverage, and a public option offers that. But its just as important that we offer people not just another choice, but another kind of choice. A lot of people dont want to be at the mercy of greedy insurance companies that will make money by denying them the care that they need to stay healthy, or to stay alive. We deserve to have a real alternative.

The bill would require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish enrollment periods, coverage guidelines, and premiums for the program. Because premiums would be equal to cost, the program would pay for itself.

The government spent billions of dollars creating a Medicare network of providers that is only open to one-eighth of the population. Thats like saying, Only people 65 and over can use federal highways. It is a waste of a very valuable resource and it is not fair. This idea is simple, it makes sense, and it deserves an up-or-down vote, Congressman Grayson said.

OPS: And Biden makes 51

Senator Mark Begich is open to using reconciliation for health reform. From a letter to a constituent:

Thank you for contacting me regarding health care reform.

The reconciliation process is a budgetary tool used to address spending and deficit issues with a simple majority vote. The budget reconciliation process has been used 22 times by both parties since 1980. Action to clean up the health reform bill will further reduce the deficit.

Comprehensive health care reform has already passed the Senate with 60 votes. If the House passes the Senate bill, the President could sign that version of comprehensive reform into law. I believe reconciliation would only be used as a tool to take out special backroom deals and to eliminate concerns raised by many Alaskans I’ve talked with. The President has proposed narrow changes which I support, including completely closing the coverage gap for seniors’ prescription drugs, eliminating the special Nebraska funding provision, providing additional federal financing to all states to help pay for the expansion of Medicaid, and strengthening the Medicare waste, fraud, and abuse provisions.

Again, thank you for contacting me. As the 111th Congress moves forward, please continue to be in touch with your thoughts and concerns.

Sincerely,

Mark Begich

U.S. Senator

Full Story: Open Left:: Mark Begich open to reconciliation for health reform–that makes 50 without any maybes.

On Fox News last week, Sen. Judd Gregg (R-AZ) declared that using reconciliation “to pass the most significant piece of public policy” of his lifetime would be “a railroading of the system”:

GREGG: We’re talking now about changing the entire way that health care is delivered in this country. We’re talking about taking the federal government and growing it from 20 percent of the economy to 25, 26 percent of the economy. We’re talking about changing the way that you and your doctor interact and you and your hospital — and your hospital treats you. These are huge public policy issues which really are way outside the reconciliation concept because they need debate. They need discussion. And they need to be subject to amendments on the floor of the Senate in order to do them correctly, or at least to have a proper airing of them and a fair treatment of them.

Watch it:

Full Story: Think Progress » Gregg: Not ‘A Lot Of People’ Would ‘Really Care’ If Democrats Use Reconciliation To Finish Health Care.

In a conference call organized by Goldman Sachs Global Investment Research, Steve Lewis, a highly regarded broker at the world’s third largest insurance broker, Willis, painted a picture of the health insurance market in which employers seem likely to be priced out of coverage.

Noting that “price competition” between insurers was “down from a year ago,” Lewis relayed that “incumbent carriers seem more willing th

Full Story: Insurers Set To Raise Prices, Walk Away From Consumers: Goldman Report.

So the Bunning blockade is over. For days, Senator Jim Bunning of Kentucky exploited Senate rules to block a one-month extension of unemployment benefits. In the end, he gave in, although not soon enough to prevent an interruption of payments to around 100,000 workers.

But while the blockade is over, its lessons remain. Some of those lessons involve the spectacular dysfunctionality of the Senate. What I want to focus on right now, however, is the incredible gap that has opened up between the parties. Today, Democrats and Republicans live in different universes, both intellectually and morally.

Take the question of helping the unemployed in the middle of a deep slump. What Democrats believe is what textbook economics says: that when the economy is deeply depressed, extending unemployment benefits not only helps those in need, it also reduces unemployment. That’s because the economy’s problem right now is lack of sufficient demand, and cash-strapped unemployed workers are likely to spend their benefits. In fact, the Congressional Budget Office says that aid to the unemployed is one of the most effective forms of economic stimulus, as measured by jobs created per dollar of outlay.

Full Story: Op-Ed Columnist – Senator Bunning’s Universe – NYTimes.com.

A indication of how desperate they feel is the rhetoric they are using, or rather misuing. Words like “kamikaze mission” and “nuclear option” to describe the Democrats decision to go ahead wth reconciliation has more to do with Republican belief that their gambit to stop healthcare reform for their own political gain is about to blow up in their faces.

If the Republicans actually believed passing reform with reconciliation would be the “kamikaze mission” Republican Lamar Alexander said it would be, they would be sitting back and letting the Democrats do it, rubbing their hands together waiting for the fall elections and a Democratic debacle..

Full Story: Republicans running scared on healthcare reform.

Republicans’ lock-step opposition to comprehensive health care reform seems to be as much a matter of politics as principle. But either way, they have made clear that there is no dialogue or any possible compromise that will persuade them to change their minds.

That means it’s up to Congressional Democrats to move legislation forward — or throw away a once-in-a-generation opportunity to fix this country’s broken health care system.

On Wednesday, President Obama called on Congress to quickly take an up-or-down vote. He and Democratic leaders in Congress are going to have to work overtime to corral skittish members of their caucus. And Mr. Obama is going to have to keep making the case to the American people that reform is essential for all Americans’ security and for the nation’s future fiscal health.

Full Story: Editorial – The Democrats’ Choice on Health Care – NYTimes.com.

Illinois consumers to pay up to 60% more, data show

Consumers in Illinois who lose their jobs and have no other option but to buy their own health insurance will get socked this year with premium increases of up to 60 percent, according to state records.

That group of consumers has been growing, as the recession has created more uninsured Americans looking for ways to protect themselves and their families.Now, Illinois consumers will get a glimpse into just how wide-ranging rate increases among individual health plans can be. The data, obtained by the Tribune, also provide a window into the overall trend of premium increases at large and small employers.

For the state’s more than half-million consumers in individual health plans, base rates will go up from 8.5 percent to more than 60 percent, according to state data. Base rates do not take into consideration health status, gender, age, place of residence and length of a policy — all factors that could raise premiums further.

Full Story: Individual health insurance: Health insurance premiums for indivisuals skyrocket in Illinois – chicagotribune.com.

As if having to pay higher health insurance premiums each year isn’t bad enough, now workers have another worry: companies that drop their health insurance coverage and don’t bother to tell employees.

It’s a practice that’s on the rise, says Kristin Milam with the state Department of Insurance. State law requires that companies give their workers 45 days notice if they’re going to drop coverage. Milam says that employees of businesses that don’t follow the law often find out their coverage has lapsed when they go to the doctor’s office.

A lot of small business owners are hurting right now, and those that have managed to keep group coverage for their workers even as health costs have escalated should be commended. But I can also understand that some businesses can no longer afford to do so. I can even buy that some business owners might not understand the law, but there is such a thing as common decency. Can you imagine having a chronic illness or being pregnant, handing over your insurance card, only to have the receptionist hand it back and tell you your policy has been terminated?

Full Story: Some getting nasty surprise on insurance – Cornatzer – NewsObserver.com.

The public insurance option was revived by two House Democrats — Chellie Pingree of Maine and Jared Polis of Colorado — who sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) with 120 signatures, calling for the public option to be put back on the table. Polis's Colorado delegation colleague, freshman Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet, then took up the standard, asking senators to sign a letter calling for the same.

Full Story: Three More Senators Join Public Option Effort.

At least nine of the 39 Democrats who voted “nay” when the House passed sweeping overhaul legislation 220-215 in November are now undecided or withholding judgment until they see Obama’s final product, according to an Associated Press survey.

It may seem improbable that any lawmaker would want to switch his or her vote on the measure, courting the flip-flopper label after a year of controversy over legislation that’s slid ever downward in polls.

Full Story: Nine congressmembers who voted against health reform could flip | Raw Story.

Employees at Catholic Charities were told Monday that the social services organization is changing its health coverage to avoid offering benefits to same-sex partners of its employees — the latest fallout from a bitter debate between District officials trying to legalize same-sex marriage and the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington.

A letter describing the change in benefits was e-mailed to employees Monday, two days before same-sex marriage will become legal in the District. Starting Tuesday, Catholic Charities will not offer health benefits to spouses of new employees or to spouses of current employees who are not already enrolled in the plan.

Full Story: Same-sex marriage leads Catholic Charities to adjust benefits – washingtonpost.com.

“Sen. Durbin has long been a supporter of the public option,” reads a statement from Durbin spokesman Joe Shoemaker to the progressive groups Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Democracy for America, and Credo. “I don’t know whether the votes exist in the Senate right now, but if the House version of the public option came up for a vote in reconciliation Sen. Durbin would vote yes.”

Similar statements were also issued from four other senators: Patty Murray (D-WA), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN).

Full Story: 30! Five More Democrats–Including Durbin–Say They Support a Public Option Through Reconciliation | TPMDC.

Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL), Patty Murray (D-WA), Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Ben Cardin (D-MD), and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) are the latest to announce their support, raising the number of senators on record from 0 to 30 in under 2 weeks.

The below statements were released to the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC), Democracy for America, and Credo Action — three groups who have been organizing thousands of Americans daily on this issue and who gathered over 200,000 signatures on a petition telling Congress that Americans want a good bill with a public option over a “bipartisan” bill without one. A tally of senators supporting the public option in reconciliation is at WhipCongress.com.

Full Story: Adam Green: Public Option Garners Avalanche of Support in Senate.

WellPoint didn’t really want to jack up health premiums on its customers by as much as 39%, she said — it had no choice. “We care deeply about our California customers,” she said.

But what she was really telling the committee members was this: “Please put us out of our misery.”

Braly explained that her company’s premium increases on individual policies were based on several circumstances: One, people are getting older. Two, people are becoming unemployed, and if they’re healthy they’re dropping out of the insurance pool. Three, the cost of diagnostic testing is soaring.

Implicitly, she begged for the government to help — put people back to work so they’re eligible for cheaper group plans, and clamp down on costs. (Not even the government can stop people for growing older.) Without that help, she intimated, premiums are going to keep rising sharply and WellPoint’s already meager profits are going to be hammered worse.

Full Story: What do we need health insurers for anyway? – latimes.com.

OPS:  we don’t.

Appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Nancy-Ann DeParle, director of the White House Office of Health Reform, was pressed repeatedly by host David Gregory as to whether there were enough supportive Democratic lawmakers to get a bill through.

“I believe that we will have the votes to pass this in Congress,” DeParle said. “I believe that the president will keep fighting and that the American people want to have this kind of health reform.”

“But you don’t have the votes yet?” Gregory asked.

Full Story: White House: We Will Have The Votes To Pass Health Care Refom.

OPS:  The question of course is: what will be in that bill at the time it’s passed.  Seems to still be up for grabs. IF the President had any ballz he would give the Republicans 2 options: Vote for THIS bill with us or we will pass HR676 by our selves. But that won’t happen.

woolsey Woolsey: Its not over for public optionWASHINGTON — A leading progressive in the House of Representatives insisted Friday that the public option fight is “not over” but signaled that its ostensible removal from the final package won’t necessarily strip the votes of liberal Democrats in the chamber.

Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and one of the most vigorous supporters of the idea, told Raw Story in an interview she was confident the Senate would pass the provision if only it’s brought to a reconciliation vote.

“There will be at least 51 members that will vote for it,” she said. “But [Senate Majority Leader] Harry Reid [D-NV] has to bring it to the floor.”

Full Story: Woolsey: ‘It’s not over’ for public option | Raw Story.

Dr. Andy Coates, a member of Physicians for a National Health Program and steward in the Public Employees Federation in New York, argues that it’s wrong to push for a “public option” now that Barack Obama is trying to restart health care legislation.

February 26, 2010

LIKE INITIATING CPR on a patient who was dead in the field and remains dead on arrival, the effort to resuscitate the “public option” is mistaken–and futile.

Once upon a time, proponents of the “public plan option” sought a “Medicare-like” program that might enroll every other person in the nation, and thus run private insurers out of business.

“A roadblock to reform,” cried the insurance companies. As a result of this complaint, nothing in the bills passed by the House and the Senate proposed to erect a public insurer that would possibly influence the insurance market.

Full Story: Do not resuscitate the “public option” | SocialistWorker.org.

President Obama met on Thursday with the glitterati of Capitol Hill in a much-ballyhooed confab on health care reform, and more specifically, the health of his current health care reform proposal. I was supposed to use this space to describe the details of that conference, to get into the nitty-gritty details of who said what, who made the most sense and What It All Means in the end. My intention was to do another running diary on the actual proceedings, but I couldn't do that, and for one reason: I didn't tune in to C-SPAN.

Instead, I spent my day oscillating between MSNBC, CNN and even Fox, not only to see what was happening at the conference, but to get a sense of how the three big cable news networks were covering the affair. I tired quickly of Fox, for all the oft-repeated reasons, and began flipping back and forth between the other two cans of alphabet soup. Every once in a while, CNN and MSNBC deigned to show footage of the actual event, but a majority of their air time was devoted to giving right-wing anti-reform mouth-breathing cretins free reign to spew their nonsense to all points on the compass.

Full Story: t r u t h o u t | Skewing the Health Care Debate.

Full Story: Healthcare summit shows irreconcilable differences.

OPS: mike5000 @ BF

#1 Irreconcilable differences:

Dimocraps: Americans must give a trillion dollars to the health mafia.
Rethugs: Neener neener neener.
Doctors: Single Payer covers everyone, provides better care, and costs less.
Nurses: Single Payer covers everyone, provides better care, and costs less.
Progressives: Single Payer covers everyone, provides better care, and costs less.
Most Americans: Single Payer covers everyone, provides better care, and costs less.
Dimocraps: Neener neener neener.
Rethugs: Neener neener neener.

If we’re lucky, Thursday’s summit will turn out to have been the last act in the great health reform debate, the prologue to passage of an imperfect but nonetheless history-making bill. If so, the debate will have ended as it began: with Democrats offering moderate plans that draw heavily on past Republican ideas, and Republicans responding with slander and misdirection.

Nobody really expected anything different. But what was nonetheless revealing about the meeting was the fact that Republicans — who had weeks to prepare for this particular event, and have been campaigning against reform for a year — didn’t bother making a case that could withstand even minimal fact-checking.

It was obvious how things would go as soon as the first Republican speaker, Senator Lamar Alexander, delivered his remarks. He was presumably chosen because he’s folksy and likable and could make his party’s position sound reasonable. But right off the bat he delivered a whopper, asserting that under the Democratic plan, “for millions of Americans, premiums will go up.”

Full Story: Op-Ed Columnist – What We Learned From the Health Care Summit – NYTimes.com.

Mr. President, I harken back to that meeting a year ago. At that time, Senator Grassley questioned you about the public option.

And you said the public option is one way to keep the insurance companies honest and to increase competition. If you have a better way, put it on the table.

Well, I bring that up because we have come such a long way….As a representative of the House of Representatives, I want you to know that we were there that day in support of a public option which would save $120 billion, keep the insurance companies honest, and increase competition. [This describes the Medicare-rates version of the public option, not in the House bill. The current version saves $25 billion.]

We’ve come a long way to agreeing to a Republican idea, the exchanges…because the insurance companies opposed the public option. They couldn’t take the competition.

We have in our bill [which includes a weaker public option], market-oriented, encouraging-to-the-private-sector initiatives. I think the insurance industry, left to it’s own devices, has behaved shamefully. And we must act on behalf of the American people.

We have lived on their playing field all this time. It’s time for the insurance companies to exist on the playing field of the American people.

This seems to me like an embrace of the House version of the public option going forward. What do you think?

UPDATE: Obama pretty much admits that he abandoned the public option not because of a lack of votes, but because the White House couldn’t stomach Republican “government takeover” talking points being used against them and they really really wanted Republican support. This is actually huge news:

Full Story: Open Left:: BREAKING: Pelosi Makes Strong Case For House Public Option Going Forward, “We Must Act”.

Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander declared in his statement to the White House health policy conference that “for millions of Americans, premiums will go up” under the Obama plan. That much could be true — but for millions of others, premiums are expected to go down and those who face higher costs would be getting better coverage than they have now.

The debate on that point is key if Americans are to accept the insurance changes Obama wants. Democrats know that pitching their plan as a means to extend coverage to the uninsured is not enough: They must convince middle-income Americans who already have insurance that they, too, will end up with a better deal under the overhaul. So the squabble was about more than a bureaucratic report.

Full Story: Obama Calls Out Lamar Alexander On His Facts: AP Fact Check (VIDEO).

During an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Thursday morning, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) offered fairly sharp criticisms of Obama for failing to show the requisite leadership needed to add a government-run insurance option to the final legislative package. Asked about the administration’s argument that the provision lacked the votes needed for passage, even through reconciliation, Sanders replied:

I think the president is wrong. I think it is a public mistake. I think the people, for all the right reasons, distrust private insurance companies. I think they want to look to a Medicare-type public option. I think they should have that choice. And second of all, at a time when health care costs are soaring, vis-à-vis that 39% increase in California and all over the country, what a public option can do is keep private insurance companies honest, give people an option, hold them accountable. So I think the president is wrong and I think we should go forward and I think we could get the 50 votes that we need under reconciliation.

Full Story: Sanders: Obama ‘Is Wrong,’ Making A Mistake On The Public Option.

“people would rather see a strong health reform bill than bipartisanship”

Howard Dean talks about health care and politics at the Ramada Inn in Brattleboro, Vt., Wednesday, Feb. 17. Dean’s speech can be viewed, uncut in its entirety, at www.reformer.com. 02/17/10

Anthem is the largest health insurer in California. The proposed change would affect about 700,000 people. Anthem's remaining 7.3 million customers in California are covered by employer-sponsored plans and would not be affected

Due to take effect on March 1st, Anthem agreed to postpone the increase to May 1st, and said today that it plans to go forward with the rate hikes.

Today Kate Turbitt walked the picket line outside Anthem Blue Cross offices in Woodland Hills today alongside the physical therapist she cannot afford anymore.

Full Story: Health Insurance Rate Hike Will Go Forwards, Says Anthem Blue Cross. | NBC Los Angeles.

Progressive Change’s Adam Green accuses the White House of having a ‘loser mentality’ on the public option despite public support, and MoveOn unleashes Heather Graham

If you followed the cues sent by the White House, you’d think the public option was dead. But on the heels of polls showing strong public support for a government health care plan, activists are pushing back hard — and getting results.

Just days ahead of President Obama’s bipartisan health care summit, scheduled for Thursday, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee announced that it, together with CREDO Action and Democracy for America, has succeeded in getting the signatures of 120 House members and 23 senators on letters pledging their support for passing a public option through the reconciliation process, a parliamentary maneuver that cannot be blocked by a Senate filibuster. And MoveOn.org Political Action, declaring, “THE PUBLIC OPTION IS BACK,” released a new version of its ad featuring actress Heather Graham (of Austin Powers fame) personifying the public option in a race against older, unattractive and out-of-shape insurance company executives. (Video at the bottom of this story.)

Full Story: Heather Graham and MoveOn Team Up for Huge Push on Congress to Pass the Public Option | News & Politics | AlterNet.

A batch of state polls by the non-partisan Research 2000 shows that in multiple states represented by key Dem Senators who will have to decide whether to support reconciliation, the public option polls far better than the Senate bill does, often by lopsided margins.

Here’s a rundown, sent over by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which commissioned the polls:

* In Nevada, only 34% support the Senate bill, while 56% support the public option.

* In Illinois, only 37% support the Senate bill, while 68% support the public option.

* In Washington State, only 38% support the Senate bill, while 65% support the public option.

* In Missouri, only 33% support the Senate bill, while 57% support the public option.

* In Virginia, only 36% support the Senate bill, while 61% support the public option.

* In Iowa, only 35% support the Senate bill, while 62% support the public option.

*In Minnesota, only 35% support the Senate bill, while 62% support the public option.

* In Colorado, only 32% support the Senate bill, while 58% support the public option.

Full Story: Polls: In Key States, Public Option Far More Popular Than Senate Plan | The Plum Line.

Reid said that congressional Democrats would likely opt for a procedural tactic in the Senate allowing the upper chamber to make final changes to its healthcare bill with only a simple majority of senators, instead of the 60 it takes to normally end a filibuster.

“I’ve had many conversations this week with the president, his chief of staff, and Speaker Pelosi,” Reid said during an appearance Friday evening on “Face to Face with Jon Ralston” in Nevada. “And we’re really trying to move forward on this.”

Full Story: Reid: Dems will use 50-vote tactic to finish healthcare in 60 days – The Hill’s Blog Briefing Room.

“Senator Reid has always and continues to support the public option as a way to drive down costs and create competition,” said Reid aide Rodell Mollineau in a statement provided to the Huffington Post. “That is why he included the measure in his original health care proposal. If a decision is made to use reconciliation to advance health care, Senator Reid will work with the White House, the House, and members of his caucus in an effort to craft a public option that can overcome procedural obstacles and secure enough votes.”

This represents a major breakthrough for those Senators and activists who are pushing to get a public option considered via an up or down vote.

Reid has always been a proponent of the provision. But he has deflected questions about using reconciliation to get it into law citing a potential lack of votes needed for passage.

Full Story Reid Offers Support For Public Option Through Reconciliation.

Democratic officials said the president’s proposal was being written so that it could be attached to a budget bill as a way of averting a Republican filibuster in the Senate. The procedure, known as budget reconciliation, would let Democrats advance the bill with a simple majority rather than a 60-vote supermajority.

Congressional Democrats, however, have not yet seen the proposal or signed on.

Full Story Obama to Offer Health Bill to Ease Impasse as Bipartisan Meeting Approaches – NYTimes.com.

To pass healthcare reform through reconciliation, Senate Democrats need at least two of these wavering votes

The White House is convening a healthcare reform “summit” next week, with Republican and Democratic leaders from the House and Senate. But now that Democrats have lost their 60-vote Senate supermajority, it’s already clear that the options for passing reform legislation have dwindled down to a very short list. Armed with a newfound zeal for filibusters, the GOP won’t let the Senate pass any new healthcare bills. So the House will have to pass the bill the Senate has already finished, and then a separate measure, which would “fix” parts of the Senate bill that the House doesn’t like, would pass through the budget reconciliation process.

Thanks to the Senate’s complicated rules, that would leave Democrats needing to find 51 votes for healthcare reform, not the 60 that now look completely out of reach. But even with the 59 seats the Democrats (or like-minded independents) control, getting just those 51 votes could be tricky. The reconciliation bill will need to be carefully tailored, to make sure it doesn’t leave itself open to challenges from the GOP. And Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada may still need to put some pressure on anxious members of his caucus to make sure they stay in line. “You get right down to 51 votes” in whip counts, one Senate Democratic aide says. Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet’s decision to send a letter asking Reid to include a public insurance option in a reconciliation bill gave some hope to Democrats who had wondered if he would even support using reconciliation.

Full Story Healthcare Reform – Salon.com.

Now four more Dem Senators have added their names to the list, their spokespeople tell me, doubling the number of signatories to eight and perhaps upping the volume of the public option’s pulse ever so slightly.

The new signatories: Al Franken, Pat Leahy, John Kerry, and Sheldon Whitehouse.

They join yesterday’s signers: Michael Bennet, Kirsten Gillibrand, Jeff Merkley, and Sherrod Brown.

The letter asks Harry Reid to stage a full Senate vote on the public option under budget reconciliation rules. It argues that there’s a history of using the technique for passing significant health care legislation and that a majority of Americans has consistently supported a public option.

Full Story Four More Dem Senators Join Push For Vote On Public Option | The Plum Line.

Anthem Blue Cross, a California subsidiary of WellPoint, has come under fire for jacking up premiums by as much as 39 percent this year on some individual health policies. This comes as a new study indicates WellPoint was one of the five largest health insurance companies that posted $12.2 billion in profits last year, 56 percent more than in 2008.

“A lot of companies are hurting in this economy. But this California health care company isn’t one of them. Last year, its parent company raked in eight times what it made in the same quarter just the year before,” Reid (D-Nev.) says. “And it’s not the first time we’ve seen this happen. Just two months ago, another exceedingly profitable company raised its rates with the full knowledge that it would mean 650,000 people would no longer be able to afford coverage. That’s the equivalent of every man, woman and child who lives in Las Vegas, plus 100,000 more people.”

Full Story On The Hill: Insurer’s Plan To Jack Up Premiums Puts New Steam Into Health Reform On Senate Floor.

Appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) described it as a near certainty that congressional Democrats would use budget-related parliamentary maneuvers to get health care amendments passed into law via an up-or-down vote. This, he said, would be the “nuclear option” — causing paralyzing strife in the Senate and rendering useless a bipartisan health care summit — scheduled for February 25.

“They have devised a process by which they can jam the bill through that the president supported in the past throughout the Republican ideas in it,” Kyl said. “And [House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's] chief health care adviser… said that ‘there is a trick, but I think we will get it done.’ Well there is a trick. Reconciliation is not the process for comprehensive bills like this. It’s sort of to balance the budget. It would be what some — some call it the nuclear option — to proceed that way. I don’t know why we would be having a bipartisan summit down at the White House if they have already decided on the other process by which they are going to jam the bill through that passed the Senate on Christmas Eve.”

Full Story John Kyl Calls Bipartisan Health Care Summit ‘Pointless’.

OPS:  Almost have to agree. The only possible point to this is to expose the republicans yet again for their hypocrisy.  Given that they don’t have the gene that tell one when to be embarrassed…..

By now it should be obvious that Obama is the only one on the planet still looking for bipartisanship.

“Don’t cut Medicare. The reform bills passed by the House and Senate cut Medicare by approximately $500 billion. This is wrong.” So declared Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House, in a recent op-ed article written with John Goodman, the president of the National Center for Policy Analysis.

And irony died.

Now, Mr. Gingrich was just repeating the current party line. Furious denunciations of any effort to seek cost savings in Medicare — death panels! — have been central to Republican efforts to demonize health reform. What’s amazing, however, is that they’re getting away with it.

Why is this amazing? It’s not just the fact that Republicans are now posing as staunch defenders of a program they have hated ever since the days when Ronald Reagan warned that Medicare would destroy America’s freedom. Nor is it even the fact that, as House speaker, Mr. Gingrich personally tried to ram through deep cuts in Medicare — and, in 1995, went so far as to shut down the federal government in an attempt to bully Bill Clinton into accepting those cuts.

Full Story Op-Ed Columnist – Republicans and Medicare – NYTimes.com.

Reconciliation becomes important because bills considered under the procedure cannot be blocked by filibuster from coming to a final vote. That means reconciliation bills need just a majority of 51 votes to pass — not the 60-vote supermajority required to overcome a filibuster.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), up until now, has worked assiduously to avoid the use of reconciliation — compromising much from his original reform proposal in order to marshal the entire 60 Democratic votes he had on Christmas Eve to pass a reform bill.

Full Story On The Hill: Think Tank: Senate Dems Would Be In Bounds To Pass Health Reform Using Reconciliation.

“I didn’t realize how broken it was. I knew that there were special interests influencing the process. But I didn’t realize that the degree, the depth to which they’re involved in our political process.”

While many in Congress, the press and the public have given up on the idea of even a limited public option in health care reform, Flowers and her group, Physicians for a National Health Program, are standing firm for a single-payer plan. Specifically, they want to extend the Medicare program, which they see as a functioning single-player plan, to the nation as a whole. Flowers has testified before Congress and penned Op-Eds and she has been arrested three times in her attempts to get Congress and the White House to pay attention to single-payer.

Full Transcript and Full Video at link

Full Story Bill Moyers Journal . Dr. Margaret Flowers on Medicare for All | PBS.

Obama sounding resigned on health care, says Congress may decide ‘we’re not going to do it’

No, maybe he can’t. President Barack Obama, who insisted he would succeed where other presidents had failed to fix the nation’s health care system, now concedes the effort may die in Congress.

The president’s newly conflicting signals could frustrate Democratic lawmakers who are hungry for guidance from the White House as they try to salvage the effort to extend coverage to millions of uninsured Americans and hold down spiraling medical costs. Obama’s comments Thursday night came hours after Republican Scott Brown was sworn in to replace the late Edward M. Kennedy, leaving Democrats without their filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, and Obama’s signature health legislation with no clear path forward.

“I think it’s very important for us to have a methodical, open process over the next several weeks, and then let’s go ahead and make a decision,” Obama said at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser.

Full Story Obama admits health care overhaul may die on Hill – Yahoo! Finance.

“The president was weighing in pretty heavily on the discussions between the House and Senate before the Massachusetts special [Senate] election,” Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) told Huffington Post. “It’s dried up since.”

“I think the president needs to work out with House Democrats and leaders in the Senate what we’ve got to do in reconciliation and what we can pass in reconciliation,” Brown added. “And I think we can do a lot. I’m not a minimalist here, that we just do the minimum, do the little bit that’s required. I think we can do some significant improvements on the Senate bill. We need to because House members are not exactly trusting of the Senate these days.”

Full Story Obama’s Engagement On Health Care Has ‘Dried Up’: Dem Senator.

In 2009, health care spending consumed a record high 17.3 percent of the nation’s GDP, according to a study published in Health Affairs by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

The figure is up from 2008, when health care costs constituted 16.2 percent of the gross domestic product. Health spending in 2009 totaled $2.5 trillion, a growth rate of 5.7 percent in a year when overall GDP contracted.

The trend has accelerated during the last decade as medical spending costs have surged.

The nonprofit, nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation revealed in a September 2009 study that health care costs roughly doubled for the average American worker over the last 10 years.

Full Story Healthcare will eat up one in five dollars of US GDP by 2020, Medicare says | Raw Story.

Progressives launched a campaign to revive the public option after Democrats lost their supermajority last month. Now that Democrats lack 60 votes to break a filibuster, it’s likely they will have to use reconciliation anyway in order to change parts of their bill that House Democrats object to.

In a letter to Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) today, 120 House Democrats say the Senate should seize that opportunity and include a public option.

Full Story 120 House Democrats demand public option – The Hill’s Blog Briefing Room.

The FDP, working together with Christian Democrat (CDU) business lobbyists, has already made it a condition of the government coalition agreement to dismantle the state health insurance system. A key aim is to introduce the so-called “Kopfpauschal” (“per-head package price”) flat charge, whereby everyone in the state health insurance scheme has to pay the same amount, regardless of income.

The FDP had already raised the demand during their election campaign that all pension, medical and health care insurance schemes be privatized. Insurance policy holders should be able “to decide for themselves” what kind of insurance and level of coverage they can afford. The FDP election programme stated bluntly: “Voluntary contributions are essential for cost-effective and health-conscious performance.… The central role of the state is not to create absolute equality, but to ensure that everybody has the opportunity and the right to choose the level of coverage they want.

Full Story German government prepares to implement two-tier health care system.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday the chamber will take up one piece of its health care bill as a separate provision next week.

The House passed a comprehensive health care bill last year, but progress has stalled over the inability to work out a compromise with a separate version passed by the Senate.

Faced with unanimous Republican opposition and concerns by some Democrats over specific issues, House Democrats want to move ahead on individual provisions to maintain momentum and keep the topic in the public eye.

Pelosi said the House plans to vote next week on a measure to strip the health insurance industry of its anti-trust exemption involving practices such as market allocation and price-fixing. Many Democrats believe removing the exemption will inject new competition into the industry, leading to lower prices for consumers.

Full Story House to take up one piece of health care reform – CNN.com.

Jane Hamsher –

Some day, just for kicks, I’m going to collect quotes from every scold who called upon their volumes of wisdom about Senate procedure to decree that Joe Lieberman must be the ultimate decider on any health care bill, because after all it took 60 votes to pass anything. Because now, as we’ve known all along, that’s a self-imposed limitation that the Senate can surmount if they want to.

But let’s remember that back in August, when Chuck Schumer was pushing to pass health care through reconciliation, here was the guy who was running the health care show on behalf of the White House:

[Rahm Emanuel] acknowledged the political realities that have made the Finance Committee’s still-unfinished cooperative plan a center of attention.

“We have heard from both chambers that the House sees a public plan as essential for the final product, and the Senate believes it cannot pass it as constructed and a co-op is what they can do,” Mr. Emanuel said. “We are cognizant of that fact.”

And then he handed the keys over to Joe Lieberman and Blanche Lincoln to write a wildly unpopular bill that is threatening to take down the party.

Full Story List of 51 Senate Democrats Who Support a Public Option: What’s Stopping Them Now? | CommonDreams.org.

…it is striking that the people who most dislike the whole idea of healthcare reform – the ones who think it is socialist, godless, a step on the road to a police state – are often the ones it seems designed to help.

The Republicans’ shock victory in the election for the US Senate seat in Massachusetts meant the Democrats lost their supermajority in the Senate. This makes it even harder for the Obama administration to get healthcare reform passed in the US.

Political scientist Dr David Runciman looks at why is there often such deep opposition to reforms that appear to be of obvious benefit to voters.

Last year, in a series of “town-hall meetings” across the country, Americans got the chance to debate President Obama’s proposed healthcare reforms.

What happened was an explosion of rage and barely suppressed violence.

Polling evidence suggests that the numbers who think the reforms go too far are nearly matched by those who think they do not go far enough.

But it is striking that the people who most dislike the whole idea of healthcare reform – the ones who think it is socialist, godless, a step on the road to a police state – are often the ones it seems designed to help.

Full Story BBC News – Why do people often vote against their own interests?.

The health care battle between Republicans and Democrats has looked like a fight ‘between the crazies and the lazies,’ Grayson said. Now it’s time to get serious.

Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., has a message for Senate Democrats: Pass health care with a public option — and pass it quickly. On Wednesday, Grayson joined Adam Green of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee and Jim Dean of Democracy for America in delivering some 225,000 petitions to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid that demand the Senate leadership use a procedure it has avoided so far in the health care fight in order to pass a bill that contains a public health insurance option. CREDO Action also co-sponsored the petition.

So far in the battle for health care reform, Senate proponents have found themselves hemmed in by the Republicans’ profligate use of the filibuster, which allows the minority to hold up a vote on any measure until opponents can muster 60 votes to bring a bill to the floor. In addition, Senate Democrats just lost a seat in the Massachusetts special election for the seat vacated by the death of Sen. Ted Kennedy. (The seat was won by Republican Scott Brown, with a lot of help from the Tea Party crowd.)

Full Story Rep. Grayson: Obama Needs to Push Health Care In Earnest — With a Public Option | News & Politics | AlterNet.

Obama says Americans were understandably upset by the backroom dealmaking that he called ugly. In a cruel twist, the reaction helped elect a Republican senator in Massachusetts last week, putting the health legislation in peril.

Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, the No. 3 House Democrat, said Tuesday the House may be able to pass the Senate health bill – and salvage Obama’s top domestic priority – if the offending items are deleted.

“We’ve got to get rid of that Nebraska stuff, we’ve got to get rid of the Louisiana stuff,” Clyburn said, referring to provisions inserted to help secure the votes of holdout Democratic senators Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana.
Full Story Voters See Health Care Reform As Marred By Backroom Deals.

“There is no rush,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said after a meeting of Senate Democrats. His comments came as two centrists said they would oppose the plan Democratic leaders were considering to reconcile differences between the House and Senate bills and put comprehensive legislation on Obama’s desk.

A week after the loss of a Massachusetts Senate seat — their 60th vote — cost Democrats undisputed control of the congressional agenda, leaders are still casting about for a way forward. Given the congressional schedule, it could be weeks — late February at the earliest — before they act.

Full Story Congressional Democrats call ‘time-out’ on Obama’s health reforms | Raw Story.

OPS: Democrats, in retreat as usual.

Laying out the way forward on health care reform Tuesday, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) confirmed that Congress and the White House are discussing the use of reconciliation to “correct” the Senate legislation with a supplemental bill that would require only a simple majority in the upper chamber.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) avoided using that particular parliamentary tactic for health care last year, partly because reconciliation bars the inclusion of policy provisions that don’t affect overall cost. But since the Senate has already passed the fundamental health reform bill, reconciliation could be used to fast-track a bill that simply amends cost provisions in the existing legislation — if the House votes to pass the main Senate bill as is. The alternative, crafting a compromise bill in conference, would require 60 votes in the Senate again.

The reconciliation proposal has gained serious attention in the week since Senate Democrats lost their filibuster-proof supermajority with the election of Scott Brown to Ted Kennedy’s former seat. At his weekly press briefing Tuesday, Hoyer said the use of a supplemental health reform bill is “certainly” one of the top four options being considered.

Full Story Hoyer: House And Senate Discussing Reconciliation For Health Care.

Their plan is to pass the Senate bill with some changes to accommodate House Democrats, senior Democratic aides said Monday. Leaders will present the idea to the rank and file this week, but it’s unclear that they will have the votes to move forward.

Last week’s victory by Republican Scott Brown in Massachusetts cost Democrats the 60th vote they need to maintain undisputed control of the Senate, jeopardizing the outcome of the health care bill just when Obama had brokered a final deal on most of the major issues.

Full Story Dem leaders unite on health care strategy – washingtonpost.com.

OPS: United on the Corporate give-away. In other news – the Dems are giving up on the preexisting condition, and anti-trust issues.   So who really benefits from  this bill?

Thought the ban on denying health insurance coverage for pre-existing conditions was going the way of the dodo? Not so fast.

An astute blogger noted that the new proposals floated by Democrats in the wake of the massive health care bill’s collapse is a provision that would bar denying coverage for those with pre-existing conditions — but only if they were under 19. “Did someone just chuck pre-existing conditions overboard?” he wrote.

Full Story Democrats consider dropping insurance ban on pre-existing conditions | Raw Story.

“We cannot support the Senate bill — period,” is the message that liberals delivered to the Speaker, Dem Rep Raul Grijalva told me in an interview just now.

Some had hoped Pelosi would push liberals to get in line behind this approach, in hopes of expediting reform, but that didn’t appear to happen in this meeting. Pelosi mostly listened, Grijalva said, adding: “We didn’t get any declarative statement from her.”

Full Story House Liberals To Pelosi: “We Cannot Support The Senate Bill. Period.” | The Plum Line.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), the assistant to the Speaker and chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), said using budget reconciliation is “an option” to pass a healthcare bill.

“Even before Massachusetts and that race was on the radar screen, we prepared for the process of using reconciliation,” Van Hollen said during an appearance on Bloomberg television over the weekend.

Full Story Dems threaten to use 51-vote tactic for health bill if they lose in Mass. – The Hill’s Blog Briefing Room.

The drug industry is threatening to end its support for President Barack Obama’s health overhaul effort because of a rift with the administration over protecting brand-name biotech drugs from low-cost generic competitors.

In an e-mail obtained Friday by The Associated Press, the president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America told the trade group’s board members that “we could not support the bill” if the industry is given less than 12 years of competitive protection for the expensive products.

Obama and House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., are leading the drive to shorten that period, which proponents argue would be a boon to consumers.

Full Story Drug Companies Threatening to Oppose Health Bill – ABC News.

OPS: Anyone surprised?

By DON MONKERUD -

Like pathetic knights of another era jousting at windmills, industry shrills attack health care reform, claiming it “tramples individual liberty” and stifles “free enterprise.”

Far from protecting individual liberty or promoting free enterprise, these forces uphold monopoly control of health care insurance that has a stranglehold on American consumers. And they pay huge sums to control the debate and twist legislation to their advantage.

Since 1998, over 400 mergers left two conglomerates in control of the huge health care insurance industry. Mergers allowed insurers to raise prices, buy influence in Congress, and redistribute cost savings to shareholders. Consolidation increased rapidly. Between 2004 and 2005, 28 health care mergers, valued at $53 billion, outpaced the number of health care mergers in the previous eight years combined.

Full Story Don Monkerud: The Health Insurance Monopoly.

Congress Daily caught up with Rep. George Miller (D-CA)–chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee–and Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY)–chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee–who both acknowledged that a compromise could be just around the corner.

“We hope to be able to send in the next couple days our changes to CBO,” Miller said (sub. req.).

Full Story House Chairmen Say Health Care Deal Imminent | TPMDC.

OPS:  Oh goodie. Can’t wait to see that this piece of crap has in it now.  Regardless of what’s in it you will be told to sit down, shut up, and like it.

The White House, together with Democratic leadership in both houses of Congress, insists it has learned the lessons of the August recess and won't allow conservative critics who malign the bill to go unopposed.

“The White House has no intention of relaxing and will undertake an aggressive effort to explain to the American people how reform provides stability and security for people with insurance, affordable options to those without and cuts costs for families and small businesses,” Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer told the Huffington Post. “We welcome a debate with the opposition that wants to repeal the entire bill including the insurance reforms. There are only two entities in the country that want to continue to deny coverage to people with preexisting conditions: The insurance industry and the Republican Party.”

Full Story White House, Dems, Planning Massive Re-Sell Of Health Care After It Passes.

“We’ve got to get a bill that’s more compatible to the House,” Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) said Tuesday. “Forget all the other questions. Two-hundred-eighteen [votes] is the most important issue we are dealing with… We have serious problems on both sides of the Capitol. Serious problems.”

Rangel’s comments come a day after Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) said health reform is “hanging by a thread.”

Full Story Rep. Rangel: Dems facing ‘serious problems’ on healthcare reform bill – TheHill.com.

Hundreds of Amish families in the region are likely to be free from that requirement.

The Amish, as well as some other religious sects, are covered by a “religious conscience” exemption, which allows people with religious objections to insurance to opt out of the mandate. It is in both the House and Senate versions of the bill, making its appearance in the final version routine unless there are last-minute objections.

Full Story Watertown Daily Times | Amish families exempt from insurance mandate.

For the second consecutive day, Pelosi and other House Democratic leaders met with President Barack Obama at the White House to discuss ways to reconcile the House’s healthcare overhaul with a version passed by the Senate.

“We’ve had a very intense couple of days,” Pelosi told reporters after the White House meeting. “I think we are very close to reconciliation, respectful of the challenges.”

Full Story Pelosi says Congress close to health deal – Yahoo! News.

House leaders may also discard a plan to impose a surtax on the wealthiest Americans, which has come under fire from some Senate Democrats, aides said.

Financing the expansion of insurance coverage to more than 90 percent of Americans looms as the largest issue facing Congress. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, seeking to merge her bill with Senate legislation, yesterday briefed the Democratic caucus on party leaders’ discussions during a conference call.

Full Story House Considers Payroll, Excise Taxes for Health Plan (Update1) – Bloomberg.com.

In a letter Thursday, more than 750 religious leaders, elected officials and health care administrators from across the country said the House version of the health care bill covers more uninsured. They also said the bill sets premiums and out-of-pocket costs at levels that low-income families could handle.

Full Story Obama Tells House Democrats He Supports Senate Tax On Cadillac Health Care Plans.

OPS: translation – tax Union Benefits

Discussions are beginning early on the health care bill, although the House is not returning to session until January 12, and the Senate not until a week later. This will not be a traditional conference committee, Waxman said, because the motions to select and instruct conferees in the Senate “would need 60 votes all over again.” Instead, whatever agreements made could be packaged in an amendment to the bills passed by the House and Senate.

While many observers expect the Senate bill to remain largely intact following the conference negotiations, Waxman vowed to fight hard on at least one issue: prescription drugs. “The President and the Senate made very poor deals with PhRMA,” Waxman said, explaining the deal whereby the drug industry offered $80 billion dollars in givebacks in exchange for their support for the overall bill. “Rahm (Emanuel) said that’s OK,” Waxman said, but he noted that under the deal, the industry would get millions of new customers and Americans would still pay far more than the rest of the industrialized world for prescription drugs.

Full Story FDL News Desk » House-Senate Health Care Conference Begins In Earnest Tomorrow; PhRMA Deal Targeted.

According to a pair of senior Capitol Hill staffers, one from each chamber, House and Senate Democrats are “almost certain” to negotiate informally rather than convene a formal conference committee. Doing so would allow Democrats to avoid a series of procedural steps–not least among them, a series of special motions in the Senate, each requiring a vote with full debate–that Republicans could use to stall deliberations, just as they did in November and December.

“There will almost certainly be full negotiations but no formal conference,” the House staffer says. “There are too many procedural hurdles to go the formal conference route in the Senate.”

Full Story EXCLUSIVE: Dems ‘Almost Certain’ To Bypass Conference | The New Republic.

But what unites the proposal’s legislative backers is more than ideology. Its 42 co-sponsors, all Republicans, were almost all recipients of outsized campaign contributions from major health care interests, a total of about $765,000 in 2008, according to a new study by the National Institute on Money in State Politics, a nonpartisan group based in Helena, Mont.

It is just one example of how insurance companies, hospitals and other health care interests have been positioning themselves in statehouses around the country to influence the outcome of the proposed health care overhaul. Around the 2008 election, the groups that provide health care contributed about $102 million to state political campaigns across the country, surpassing the $89 million the same donors spent at the federal level, according to the institute.

Full Story Health Lobby Takes Fight to the States – NYTimes.com.

A House-Senate conference committee will begin negotiations next month on merging health care bills passed by the Democratic majorities in each chamber.

However, voting in both chambers was extremely close, raising concerns that a compromise might fail to win the necessary final approval.

Full Story Public option may be dropped from final health care bill – CNN.com.

Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, the No. 3 Democrat in the House and one who had appealed to President Barack Obama not to yield on the public plan, set out conditions for yielding himself.

Asked during rounds on the Sunday news shows whether he could vote for a final bill that does not embrace a public plan, Clyburn said: “Yes, sir, I can.”

Full Story House Democrats May Give Up Public Health Care Option (VIDEO).

E.J. Dionne addresses progressives dejected by compromises in the legislation.

“Of course what has happened on the health care bill is enraging,” he writes. “It’s quite clear that substantial majorities in both houses of Congress favored either a public option or a Medicare buy-in. … (But) because of a front of Republican obstruction and the ludicrous idea that all legislation requires a supermajority of 60 votes, power has passed from the majority to tiny minorities.”

Full Story Health bill packs punch for politicos | detnews.com | The Detroit News.

It’s been a rough week for democracy and genuine healthcare reform.

The Senate revealed itself to be a deeply flawed institution better suited to sausage making than democratic deliberation. The doling out of party favors has resulted in a historic but watered down bill to expand healthcare coverage to 30 million more Americans. Widely shared reform goals–a public option, Medicare expansion–have been killed off by turncoat Senators like Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson, an anti-democratic filibuster, and a White House unwilling to lead more boldly.

But step back for a moment and look at how a few Senators have worked to leaven this flawed bill–adding some decent and humane measures.

Without fanfare, the good Senator from Vermont, Bernie Sanders, has continued to work behind the scenes to champion community health centers–something he has done for years (also here). These non-profit, community-based facilities provide primary healthcare, dental care, mental health services, and low-cost prescription drugs on a sliding scale. As amendments were added in recent days to win over the Liebermans and Nelsons of the “greatest [undemocratic] deliberative body” in the world, Sanders made sure that a $10 billion increase in funding for the health centers was included.

Full Story Sanders Strengthens Senate Health Bill.

“The Senate health care bill is far from perfect,” Feingold said in a statement backing the bill. “I am deeply disappointed it does not include a public option to help keep down costs and I also don’t like the deal making that secured votes with unjustifiable provisions.”

Feingold’s criticisms appear to be directed primarily at the leadership’s acquiescence to the recent demands of Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NB) and Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) — both of whom were critical to achieving the 60 backers necessary to proceed to a final vote.

Nelson’s sweetener exempted his home state of Nebraska to pay Medicaid expenses, instead ensuring that the federal government picks up the tab. The Congressional Budget Offices estimates that it will save Nebraska hundreds of millions of dollars in the next decade.

Prosecutors in seven states have questioned the Constitutionality of such a compromise, the Associated Press reports.

Full Story Feingold blasts health reform ‘deal making that secured votes’ | Raw Story.

Obama told PBS’s Jim Lehrer that he would ‘absolutely’ take a hands-on role in merging it with the House version. The Senate passed its version of the health care bill Thursday morning.

“We hope to have a whole bunch of folks over here in the West Wing, and I’ll be rolling up my sleeves and spending some time before the full Congress even gets into session,” he said.

This comes after the president has taken some criticism for being too passive and allowing too many aspects of health care reform to be compromised. He responded to those charges in an interview with the Washington Post:

Throughout the health-care debate, the president has declined to weigh in with specific preferences. The tactic has exasperated his supporters, but his advisers have deemed it key in keeping the bill moving through a balky Congress. Obama called the public option his preferred choice to ensure broad coverage and provide cost-cutting competition to the private insurers. But he has never demanded that it be part of a final bill.

“We don’t feel that the core elements to help the American people have been compromised in any significant way,” Obama said. “Do these pieces of legislation have exactly everything I want? Of course not. But they have the things that are necessary to reduce costs for businesses, families and the government.”

Full Story Obama ‘Absolutely’ Will Help Merge Health Care Bills (VIDEO).

“I didn’t campaign on the public option,” President Obama told the Washington Post. But he touted the public option on his campaign website and spoke frequently in support of it during the first year of his presidency, citing its essential value in holding the private insurance industry accountable and providing competition:

– In the 2008 Obama-Biden health care plan on the campaign’s website, candidate Obama promised that “any American will have the opportunity to enroll in [a] new public plan.” [2008]

Full Story Think Progress » FLASHBACK: Obama Repeatedly Touted Public Option Before Refusing To Push For It In The Final Hours.

But Reid and the Democrats weren’t winning any friends among the broad base of voters who support reproductive rights.

In order to secure the critical 60th vote needed to advance the compromise legislation he wants to see the Senate pass before Christmas, Reid agreed to amend the legislation to include severe restrictions on access to basic health care for women.

That concession brought Senator Ben Nelson, a socially-conservative Democrat who is closely aligned with the health-insurance industry, on board — meaning that Reid should have the 60-member Democratic caucus united in time for critical votes that begin early Monday morning.

Full Story “Health Care Reform is Not Reform if it Denies Women Coverage”.

In the run-up to the vote, the escalation in rhetoric was remarkable on both sides of an issue that has divided the two political parties for months.

“This process is not legislation. This process is corruption,” said Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., referring to the last-minute flurry of dealmaking that enabled Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and the White House to lock in the 60 votes needed to approve the legislation.

Full Story Senate Health Care Vote 1:00 A.M. Monday Morning, First Of Three Critical Votes.