This is wonderful news, so close but still so far.

Add an amendment to allow residents and small businesses to purchase health insurance across state lines. Everyone will have access to the PO.

Pressure the Republicans to vote against their main talking point. Some of the Blue Dogs may jump on board.

Wow. Jason, is this just prepared, or has he delivered this statement?

I’ve concluded, with the support of the White House and Senators Baucus and Dodd, that the best way forward is to include a public option with an opt-out provision for states.

insurance companies: “et tu, Baucus?”

It’s the insurance companies’ dream to be able to freely sell across state lines, because then they’d all relocate to Delaware or some other no-rules state, and escape the tougher regulation that most states impose, for example, insisting that the insurance companies actually pay claims.

he delivered it and took some questions. ’bout 15 min ago

Signed sealed and delivered!

Jason,
What do you think this means?

He also said “there will be a co-op in this bill.”

link

although unhappy with Opt Out and concerned about that last minute mention of “co ops”

it is a major step in the direction of getting what we want out of Conference

somewhere Richard Trumka is smiling, meanwhile, within the bowels of the WH COS Office a disconsolate soul again reaches for his Jane Hamsher voodoo doll

Not a big deal. Co-ops can co-exist fine with a public option and the rest, it’ll just be another option in the Exchange. Of course, CBO says the full amount of seed money for co-ops won’t even be used in 10 years, so I don’t think they’ll have too many takers.

Still, doesn’t hurt us, fairly meaningless.

throwing a bone to Conrad?

agree. sigh of relief

did he put that in there to specifically placate Conrad and Ben Nelson ?

excellent news. seems like just a few weeks ago (or less) that mainstream media was declaring public option was off the table, a non-starter. won’t celebrate til anything is done, but this is really encouraging

Sorry Mr. Reid. This isn’t it. You have not even bothered to discuss your lordly decision with the house that represents the citizens of the country, rather than the owners of the country.
It is not adequate nor does it address the problems you have not eliminated. Very, very weak. Please, get busy now and fix it the way we, the people, demand.

AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND…

Citizen Jason Rosenbaum and the Firepup Freedom Fighters:

Thanx for the quick summary and now the the blood gets let where it belongs – on the floor of Congress! But let’s adjust our sites and check our field packs, we still don’t know the language of the “option” or it’s relationship to Medicare or the initial start-up as it relates to various populations and Medicare eligibility. Something hasta get started in 2010 in order to make a difference in some numbers goin into the 2010 elections…and we still don’t know the procedural pretzels that One Hung Harry is gunna make the forces of justice and truth go through to get this thing done.

But one thing we do know is that anyone who claims to know what Obama is thinkin’ tactically or strategically and anyone who thinks that someone else (like Rahm Emmanuel) is gunna make his decisions for ‘im is blowin’ some awful smellin’ smoke outta their ass. And to those who think that Obama is either a coward or intellectually limited, I want to warn you that “the stupids” can be fatal.

KEEP THE FAITH AND PASS THE FUCKIN’ AMMUNITI0N…I RETURN ALL HOSTILE FIRE!!

Co-Ops will also likely die in conference. When they start looking at different things to reduce costs to make the Blue Dogs and ConservaDems happy, that’s low hanging fruit. The House (Nancy) really doesn’t want to scale back subsidies to the Fi-Com’s rediculously low rates. Taking Conrad’s “seed money” is easy pickings.

John

Look how much waste Reuters estimates we have annualy in our current health care “system”: $800 Billion!

As a starter to get us into conference, this is VASTLY better than where we were 2-4 weeks ago. The PO was dead and buried.

None of us like the Level Playing Field concept because it doesn’t do much to reduce costs.

None of us like the Opt-Out very much because we know it’s going to do the most damage to the poor in Red States, which happen to be Dem voters.

But if Nancy can deliver Medicare + 5% (with Rural Adjustments) out of the House, we’ve got something even stronger to negotiate in Conference.

Which is amazing since this was a dead talking point back in August, when it looked like we might get just a horrific bill even further to the right than the Fi-Com giveaway.

Are we likely to get Nancy and the House’s version of the PO? At the moment, no.

But two things:

A Medicare + 5% (with Rural Adjustments) with Opt-Out is about 1000% better than what we had two months ago (which was nothing fast). Or if Opt-Out it your line in the sand, a Level Playing Field without the Opt-Out is 1000% better than the nothing we had two months ago.

But before you waste time arguing on that, since I *also* want more than we’re going to end up getting, move to the second thing:

We’ve moved the goalposts already to this point. They’re far, far, far further to the left than Rahm, the Blue Dogs and the ConservaDems wanted.

If these both get to conference, we have between now and the end of the process to make our case even firmer on why the House version is the better one. Not just in terms of fairness to all, but for the fiscal argument… and getting it framed into the polling.

Medicare… Medicare… Medicare. Think of how that polls, and go to town on it.

Opt-Out will impact Democratic Districts in Red States more than any of them. Think of how that polls *within* the demographics of the polling, and how that will look come Primary Time when each of those Senators is next up for Election.

People like Jane and others have helped shape the narrative, and changed it. The senate bill, if it passes in this form, isn’t what we love. Fine… it’s better than the Baucus Bill, right? And we moved things from the Baucus Bill to the left. Good… we go to work pulling the Senate Bill towards the House Bill.

And not just in the PO. It’s more than likely that some of the worst givaways of the Baucus Bill will be slipped into the Senate Bill. Folks will need to go through the final Senate bill with a fine tooth comb and identify them, exposing them to the sunlight for the bloodsucking giveaways that they are.

Anyway… don’t let our dislike of the Opt-Out in the Senate Bill drive ourselves nuts and cause us to take out eyes off the prize. This whole process has been gamed. We’ve fought back. There are plenty of further games they’re going to try to play. But we’ve come a pretty staggering distance form the Death Panels.

End of pep talk. ;)

And as always, thanks to Jane & Co, along with people like Chris Bowers over at Open Left, for fighting their asses off for this. Above and beyond the call.

John

Jason,

Not sure I agree that including co-ops will not have an impact if included in the final legislation. IIRC the CBO (House bill) had estimated that approximately 30 million people would have access to the exchange and 9 – 10 million would be in the public option when fully implemented. The more you divide the exchange pie into smaller segments (i.e. reduce size of public option) the less they will be able to compete with the insurance industry and drive down prices.

Yep, basically.

The CBO also estimated that almost nobody would be in co-ops and very few would set up. So I’m personally not that worried…

Harry Reid ,from the clip that this post is taken from ,when asked about the public option by the press today :
” All the national polls show a wide majority of Americans support the public option ” .
According to the CBO the stronger the public option the lower the cost to the tax payer .
What more need to be said ? The debate is only about saving the corporations profits at the expense of the taxpayers wishes and savings ! What could be more obvious !!!
GOT DEMOCRACY ?

Think progress has the video posted and the freudian slip he makes at the beaginning of it is truly priceless !

AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND…

Firepup Freedom Fighters and Citizens of lesser staure:

ARE WE HAVIN’ FUN YET??!! I haven’t heard from the Stalinists and Mutant Ninja Naderites…tell me now about how this has been played out of the White House!

KEEP THE FAITH AND PASS THE AMMUNITION, NOW WE’RE FIGHTIN’ IN OUR OWN YARD!!

I still can’t see how this changes anything in the health care system.

People still won’t be covered. Rates will continue to go up. Deductibles will be outrageous.

People will be penalized for not signing up. Thats going to rub the wrong way. Its not just car insurance, its the cost of a dam mortgage.

Nobody will be saving any money. The health insurance companies will rake it in.

Managed/witheld care will be the rule. Especially for the elderly.

American business still has a rope around its neck.

Obama is amazing at pretending success with the most pathetic things.

And, I am pretty sure that the Dems lost the majority, they just don’t know it yet. This is what happens when you campaign left and swing right. Just ask Clinton who became a lame duck and then gave away a secure banking system, American jobs (nafta) and the free press. I just can’t wait to see what Obama and the Republicans will conjer up when the Republicans retake.

I can’t believe anyone is really buying this bailout for the insurance companies.

If they really wanted to save lives and help people single payer would be the solution. The whole world knows it.

Does everyone in this country insist on drinking koolaid? or just the Obamatrons?

Jason, I agree with you that few entrepreneurs will want to set up co-ops, and of those that try most will fail. But I hold the same opinion of the “options.”

But perhaps I just don’t understand how the “option” insurance plans will be set up. Could you walk us through the process by which the Department of Health and Human Services will set up an “option” plan in any given market, say Boston, under the Senate health bill, HR 3200, or HCAN’s blueprint. Here’s the scenario I believe will occur under both the Senate HELP bill and HR 3200 assuming the “option” actually survives.

* Beginning in 2013, the Secretary of HHS contracts with a “contracting administrator,” that is, a corporation such as Blue Cross Blue Shield, to set up an “option” plan in Boston. The Secretary also loans Blue Cross several hundred million dollars to carry out all the tasks necessary to set up an “option” plan.

* Blue Cross then hires 80-100 people to create an insurance company to serve Boston. These people do the things you’d expect people to do to create a new insurance company, including making cold calls on clinics and hospitals to see if they’d be interested in accepting “option”-insured patients at Medicare rates plus 5% (or about 15% below the insurance industry average).

Question: Do you anticipate that Blue Cross will at some point ask clinics and hospitals to sign contracts with Blue Cross indicating their commitment to be part of the Boston “option” network? Or will contracts be unnecessary?

* After six months of making numerous cold calls, Blue Cross succeeds somehow in inducing a sufficient number of clinics and hospitals to agree to accept “option” enrollees. Now Blue Cross incorporates the Boston Public Option Plan (BPOP) and hires 80 people to staff BPOP.

Question: Does Blue Cross exit the scene now, or do you anticipate Blue Cross will continue to serve as an advisor to BPOP? Obviously, Blue Cross, if it does retire from the project, has to leave in place a contract with BPOP that at minimum ensures BPOP will repay the loan that Blue Cross got from the Secretary of HHS.

* BPOP/Blue Cross now begins advertising heavily and making cold calls on employers seeking to induce tens of thousands of Boston residents to pay their premiums to BPOP in the event that these people are eligible to shop in the MA exchange.

Question: How many people will have to enroll in BPOP in order for BPOP to have sufficient leverage over local providers to get them to accept reimbursement rates even with or below the rates paid by Aetna et al. in the Boston area? I’m not looking for precision, just some evidence that you or someone you know in the “option” movement has thought about this.

* Let’s assume BPOP solves the chicken-and-egg problem of trying to assemble a critical mass of providers and enrollees roughly simultaneously. BPOP formally opens for business. BPOP makes enough money within the next 8 to 9 years that it can repay to Blue Cross the loan it got from the Sec or HHS. Blue Cross in turn repays HHS.

Is this the process you envision?

Thanks.

Kip Sullivan

selise has been waiting a long time for answers to some points she raised, so I will be very surprised if Jason deigns to reply to Kip.

one way, top down communication – some folks just wouldn’t have it any other way.