12/9/09: TWD's Agenda For The Day- Where We Stand On Things

Well, the answer to that question is, we don't know where we stand.

Questions about what was actually sent to the CBO last night from many respected sources has been plenty.

Howard Dean likes it, but maybe because it was an idea of his while he campaigned for the Presidency in 2004

Dean, who previously chaired the Democratic National Committee, said Medicare expansion "makes a lot of sense because you don't have to reinvent another bureaucracy to do it."

Still, it is an idea that, implemented correctly, will not make the insurance companies happy. But a key factor that has been overlooked here, and a sign of real change in the system, is this tidbit:

"The deal reached Tuesday puts even more requirements on insurers by requiring that 90 percent of premium dollars be spent on medical benefits, as opposed to administrative costs, officials said."

Joe Lie still isn't happy with the possibility of even a trigger public option, but he is generally happy with the compromise, which you can make whatever of it.

Russ Feingold and HCAN aren't happy about it, while Bernie Sanders is waiting to see more:

Sens. Russell D. Feingold (D-Wis.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), both leading liberals, expressed reservations Tuesday evening about any legislation without a government plan. "I do not support proposals that would replace the public option in the bill with a purely private approach," Feingold said.

And many liberal grass-roots groups and labor unions have been highly critical of the move to strip the government plan from the Senate healthcare bill.

"Using nonprofits to replace a public option won't work," a coalition of left-leaning groups said Tuesday in a joint statement coordinated by Health Care for America Now. "In fact, with half of people in private insurance currently enrolled in nonprofit plans, they are part of the problem."

Probably the group that loathes the new mutation of the bill the most, besides the people who either can afford health care coverage still after this entire process is over, is the hospitals.

They want to see a good number on what they make on revenue, or just making good money back. Ezra Klein says they will have to basically suck it up:

Which brings us to the second point: At some point, hospitals are going to have to learn to live on less revenue. This is a when, not an if. Otherwise, the government goes bankrupt, and so too does the private sector, and then no one can pay hospitals anything anyway. The sooner we begin the process of transitioning to a leaner system, the more time we'll have to complete the transition, and the less disruptive the transition will be. Medicare buy-in for a small slice of the population is dipping a toe into the pool. It's safe, and we can always back off and try another approach if we don't like it. But the longer we wait, though, the more likely it is that we get pushed in altogether.

Finally, probably the best analysis of what the key details appear to be in the new Senate bill being scored at the CBO is from Think Progress' industrious group that is The Wonk Room.

It maybe a lot of details for some to handle, but it is a quality read.