Daily Health Care News - 12/23/09
Posted on December 23rd, 2009 by Jason Rosenbaum in News Clips
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NEWS
Obama tries to distance himself from the public option - Politico
Now that the Senate has firmly rejected the public option, President Obama is trying his darnedest to distance himself from the controversial, and failed, proposal. But that may be harder than he thought.
Did Obama Campaign On The Public Option? Yes But Not Entirely - Huffington Post
President Barack Obama, in an interview with The Washington Post, said on Tuesday that in the two years leading up to his election he "didn't campaign on the public option" for insurance coverage.
House Dems: We won't roll over - Politico
House Democrats insisted Tuesday they have no plans to roll over for the Senate in upcoming negotiations on a health reform bill, even as they acknowledged it would be all but impossible to reinsert a public insurance option or force the so-called millionaire's tax on the Senate.
Health fight shifts to insurer shopping - Boston Globe
Extent of regulation on exchanges is pivotal; US plan could follow Massachusetts model
Republicans Relent; Final Senate Health Care Vote 8AM Christmas Eve - FDL News
Republicans, eager to get home for Christmas, have agreed to give back some of their debate time which delayed the inevitable, setting up a final vote on the Senate health care bill on December 24, this Thursday, at 8am ET. Previously, the Senate would have had to wait, if the Republicans stretched out the clock, to 8pm that night or even later. Now they can achieve the vote and be back in their states in time for the Christmas goose.
OPINION
Fixing the Senate Bill - Jon Cohn
Over at Politico, public option advocate (and sometimes Treatment contributor) Jacob Hacker has some suggestions for how to improve the Senate bill, assuming it passes. And most of those suggestions involve making it look more like its House counterpart.
Reid Throws a Bone to Pro-Immigrant Camp - Suzy Khimm
Aside from abortion, immigration is the other major social issue that could lead to a big dust-up when it comes to conferencing the House and Senate bills. The final Senate bill prohibits any unauthorized immigrants from purchasing private health-care plans on the insurance exchange, whereas the House bill would allow them to buy private insurance but prohibits them from receiving any government subsidies to do so. When the White House tried to pressure the House to change its immigration provisions to resemble the Senate bill, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus revolted and threatened to vote against the legislation. While they managed to secure a victory at the time, the fact that both the Senate leadership and White House support the prohibition makes it pretty likely that the Senate restrictions will remain in the final bill.
Perhaps Senatorial Republicans are backing off because they know the tea party movement + Senate GOP + Blue Dog Democrats in House & Senate + ultimate centrist Senator Lieberman have watered down the big government House bill into something many a progressive can't accept.
Also, I don't understand why the left must disdain the grassroot "tea party" movement instead of respect it & dialogue with it… unless that is, you just don't care for at least half of America.
Half of America? Quite the wish!
Jason, so how much of America?
Your silence speaks volumes.
I donno, the same 20% that supporter Bush at the end of his disastrous tenure?
I am a tea partier and I wanted Bush to stop taking the party of McCain, Snowe and other moderates to the far right - and on top of that for W to quit abandoning free market principles.
Nice try :-).
At least one third to one half of the country agrees with me - get the Constitution back, stop electing talking heads from Crawford AND Chicago, start electing common sense people from Wasilla and Washington State and so on.
Ha, sure, ok. You'll have to prove it instead of just claiming it, of course.
True. I'll let my actions speak in that regard.
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Let the good fight go on!