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...Health-insurance companies have been spending $1.5 million a day to convince Congress that a public option should not be part of health-care reform. And that is only the money that is being spent on lobbying. Millions more is spent on advertising. Where does that money come from? It comes from our premiums. Every million dollars spent to destroy the public option and to mold health-care legislation so that it favors insurance companies is a million dollars that is not being spent on patients. Karen Wagner, Rolling Meadows...
...been over the past 15 years (19.3). But that average has been influenced by the go-go years. Exclude them - by looking at just the 1990s, say - and the result isn't so clear-cut. The '90s-only ratio, 13.9, indicates that renting is still a slightly favorable option...
Although the Gang of Six may be centrist in a relatively conservative Senate, the gang is right of public opinion. When the summer meetings began, Senator Baucus refused a seat to single-payer groups, although a sizeable part of his own party preferred the option. Senator Enzi has gunned down subsidies for the uninsured, cut required minimum benefits packages, and weakened regulations to prevent underwriting against the sick. Democratic Senator Kent Conrad won’t support a public option. Even if the gang does manage craft a bill, the chances of it being acceptable to the president?...
...first task will be the cause of Kennedy's life: health-care reform. Kerry has been watching the coverage following Kennedy's death, and he worries about progressives using Kennedy's passing as an excuse to dig in their heels on the inclusion of a public option, a key point of contention. Senate Republicans have said they will not vote for a bill with one in it, arguing that the creation of a public plan to compete with private insurers is the first step to socialized medicine; House progressives have said they will not vote for legislation without such...
...Obama and congressional leaders are ultimately forced to go back to the drawing board, their biggest challenge is likely to be the divisions within the Democratic party itself. Centrists are arguing for a bill that would jettison some of the more controversial elements - such as a government-run public option for the uninsured - and reduce the overall price tag. Liberals are saying they will not support a bill without a public option. (See Ted Kennedy's top 10 legislative battles...