Have any of you read the Senate bill?  I mean actually read it and thought about it?  I have.

It is clearly a trojan horse.  It establishes the foundation that will allow states, private organizations - both for profit and nonprofit, and the federal government to operate on exchanges through which people can use any subsidies they might be eligible for (from 1.3 to 4 times poverty level) to shop around for plans that must conform to sensible standards set by the HHS secretary with the advice of special panels of health care experts.

On top of that, it expands medicaid and CHIP - the programs that give medicare to people below 1.3 times poverty level and children.  Medicaid has been funded via matched federal funding - $1 for every state dollar spent.  Now it's 90-10, so the fed spends $9 and the states spend $1.  This makes things MUCH easier on states, and goes a long way to redistribute wealth according to federal taxes rather than state taxes.

There may not be a public option, but that doesn't really matter.  Anyone can start a private nonprofit insurance company and run it exactly like a public option on the exchange.  Seriously.  It's in there.

AND once you're on the exchange, you're there for life.  The plan seems to be to slowly migrate different groups of employers over to the exchanges where all insurance providers compete while abiding by federal standards.  There even looks to be choice of law rules that DON'T result in a race to the bottom, which is what would happen under current law if people could purchase across state lines.

The point is - be informed.  I HATE the way the Dems shit on progressives to give cover to traitor corporatists in their midst.  But this bill, however watered-down, however flawed, actually does PLENTY of wonderful things.  And when those wonderful things start to make people's lives better, the Democrats will finally get some appreciation.

Calm down.

by dotkommissar on 03/17/2010 04:20:32 AM EST