Health Insurance Reform-- Side By Side Comparison

Last night Countdown showed Dennis Kucinich on the floor of the House excoriating his colleagues for settling for a very disappointing bill (above) and then Howard Dean came on to talk about how it's not perfect but a good first step. A few minutes before that, Alan Grayson was on with Ed explaining why he has no problem voting for it. Confusing. I hope this will help everyone to make up their own minds. It's a comparison between H.R. 3200 as opposed to the legislation that will go before the full House. If you click on each page, you'll actually be able to read them.





John Nichols skewered Pelosi's compromised bill at the Nation today pointing out what most progressives feared, namely that all the compromising with corporatists, reactionaries and obstructionists would leave us with a fairly weak bill. There's a public option, but it sure ain't robust.

The "public option" Pelosi and her team have proposed a plan that would not make payments for care based on Medicare rates, as the Congressional Progressive Caucus and key Senate Democrats have proposed.

Rather, under the Pelosi plan, the rates be tied to those of the big insurance companies. That's a big, big victory for the insurance industry, as it will undermine the ability of the public option to compete-- and to create pressure for reduced costs.

Pelosi's plan also drops a number of provisions that had been advanced at the committee level to promote consideration of "Medicare for All" models and to allow states to experiment with single-payer plans.

That's an especially bitter pill for House progressives, who have won support for state-based experimentation in committee votes... House progressives were quick to express disappointment, as they were counting on the House to advance a strong alternative to the Senate Democratic leadership's very weak public option proposal-- which would allow states to opt out of the plan.