Healthcare Reform

Senate healthcare bill: Time to kill it?

Thomas Schaller — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 09:16:00 PST

Is the watered-down, no-public-option health care reform bill worth saving? Or should it be killed? That is the question on everyone's lips today.

Going Rahmbo

Thomas Schaller — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 07:16:00 PST

The gloves are off!

Biden: Lieberman wrong on healthcare

Associated Press — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:01:00 PST

Vice President Joe Biden says Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman is wrong to opposed a health care compromise in the Senate that would allow Americans as young as 55 to buy into the Medicare program.

Connecticut Democrat blasts Lieberman

Mike Madden — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 12:45:00 PST

One of Joe Lieberman's colleagues in the Connecticut delegation doesn't think very highly of the way the "independent Democrat" has been mucking up healthcare reform legislation.

Obama gives himself B+

Thomas Schaller — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 08:15:00 PST

So Barack Obama, asked by pal Oprah Winfrey to issue himself a first-year grade as president, gave himself a B+. I'm a college professor and he's a former one, but we all know that a B+ indicates a solidly above average, if imperfect, performance. (Although with rampant campus grade inflation, a B+ isn't as far above average as it used to be.)

Lieberbulwark strikes again

Thomas Schaller — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 07:23:00 PST

Have you no shame, Senator?

House progressives prepare to fight Senate

Mike Madden — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 14:11:00 PST

Selling the Senate's compromise on healthcare reform to progressives in the Senate is going to be hard enough. Selling it to progressives in the House may be downright impossible.

Did Pelosi just ditch the public option?

Alex Koppelman — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 11:11:00 PST

Back in August, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, "There's no way I can pass a bill in the House of Representatives without a public option. Unless someone comes up with a better idea, that's how we're going forth in the House."

Steele memo: Yes, GOP's trying to stall healthcare reform

Alex Koppelman — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 09:30:00 PST

Just over six months ago, pollster Frank Luntz had some advice for his Republican colleagues, advice he desperately wanted them to take: "You simply MUST be vocally and passionately on the side of REFORM... If the dynamic becomes 'President Obama is on the side of reform and Republicans are against it,' then the battle is lost and every word in this document is useless."

Meet your new health insurance company overlords

Robert Reich — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 08:11:00 PST

The public option is dead, killed by a handful of senators from small states who are mostly bought off by Big Insurance and Big Pharma or intimidated by these industries' deep pockets and power to run political ads against them. Some might say it's no great loss at this point because the Senate bill Harry Reid came up with contained a public option available only to 4 million people, which would have been far too small to exert any competitive pressure on private insurers anyway.

Deal or no deal?

Mike Madden — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:10:00 PST

The meeting had been going on for about an hour Wednesday evening when Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., walked out of the room. The lead negotiator on healthcare reform for the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Dodd should be one of the most plugged-in people in the city on exactly where things stand as lawmakers try to wrap up work on President Obama's top domestic priority. Emphasis on "should be."

MoveOn comes out against Senate deal

Alex Koppelman — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:49:00 PST

As discussed earlier in this space, some liberals are sounding quite happy about the new deal on healthcare reform that Senate Democrats have worked out. Not all of them, though. In fact, MoveOn.org seems to be hopping mad over the whole thing, especially the at least partial abandonment of the public option that's involved in the agreement.

Dean approves of Senate healthcare deal

Alex Koppelman — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 11:35:00 PST

Some important liberals are already getting in line behind the Senate's healthcare reform deal, as Gabriel Winant noted in an earlier post. And the biggest of them all -- at least when it comes to talk of healthcare, and a certain swath of progressives -- is backing the agreement as well.

Liberals will live without the public option

Gabriel Winant — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 09:35:00 PST

Now that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has managed to produce a renegotiated healthcare deal, everyone has to figure out what to think about it. While Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., is hedging, liberals across the country are probably e-mailing each other right now, asking, “Where should we be on this?”

Will Lieberman back new healthcare deal?

Alex Koppelman — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 08:05:00 PST

Senate Democrats say they have a deal on healthcare reform. They're not saying what that deal is, really, but still: They say they have a deal.

Democrats have healthcare breakthrough

ERICA WERNER, Associated Press — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:01:00 PST

After agreeing tentatively to jettison a key liberal priority -- a full-blown government-run insurance option -- Democrats say they are getting close to pushing President Barack Obama's health care bill through the Senate.

Report: Senate Dems reach deal to drop public option

Alex Koppelman — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 17:50:00 PST

Thus far, the public option has had more lives than a cat -- every time it's been declared dead, it's been reborn not long after. But now, it may really be on the way out.

Does Reid need a "history lesson" for slavery remarks?

Alex Koppelman — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:30:00 PST

The right is still pretty upset about a comparison that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid drew between those now opposing healthcare reform and people who fought against abolition, womens' suffrage and the civil rights movement. But Reid isn't backing down.

Public option may be on life support

Mike Madden — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:01:00 PST

Dropping a public insurance option from the healthcare reform bill is now, conventional wisdom has it, supposed to be the trick that gets the legislation the 60 votes it'll need to pass the Senate. But the talks aimed at figuring out what to replace it with and how to move things along hadn't yet reached any new agreement by late Tuesday -- and key progressive groups that have been staunch supporters of the public option say the alternatives under consideration won't fly.

Senate votes to table Nelson abortion amendment

Alex Koppelman — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 14:33:00 PST

The Senate has just voted to table an amendment to its healthcare reform legislation that would have tightened the bill's restrictions on coverage for abortion, bringing it in line with the language contained in the House's Stupak amendment.