A look at recently passed health reform, growing momentum for the public option, and the movement for and future of single payer healthcare in America

You will be shocked, shocked to hear that a Blue Dog Democrat who made a career out of undermining his own party is sucker-punching them on his way out. Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana abruptly announced this week that he would not seek reelection in November. Bayh’s departure is ratcheting up insecurity in the Democratic caucus at the very moment they need to take decisive action to pass health care reform.

In search of the elusive, filibuster-proof 60th vote, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid eviscerated the Senate’s health care reform bill on Tuesday.

Pfizer pulls an Ann Arbor on New London, CT—takes the money and runs.

Spurred by Jane Hamsher’s recent posts on the biologics amendment issue, I gave my district representative’s office a call this morning to give them a piece of my mind.

The basic thrust of Glenn Kessler’s WaPo story on the successful rescue of two Current TV journalists who’d been wrongly imprisoned in North Korea seems to be that there’s something vaguely scandalous about the Big Dog, who is now a private citizen, having his private-citizen endeavor paid for by some of his fellow private-citizen friends. Which is frustrating, because at the very end of his piece, Kessler offhandedly refers to a much more interesting story: The “major announcement” that he and “leading drug manufacturers” will be making in Harlem today.

Healthcare is finally taking center stage as competing bills wend their way through Congress. Many predicted the costs would kill the public option last week, but Obama kept hope alive by striking a deal to save $80 billion on drugs for the elderly.

Healthcare reform is back in the news, as legislators and interest groups spar over the promised public component of Obama’s healthcare plan.

This week the Democrats moved a little closer to passing healthcare reform when the House passed the 2010 budget with reconciliation language last Thursday. If the congressional Dems can use reconciliation they could short-circuit a filibuster and pass healthcare reform in 2009.

Why is the United States the only modern, industrialized nation that does not provide guaranteed health care to the people?