Health Insurance News

A new strategy has developed from the Republicans which would allow them to stop being the party of no, and also at the same time allow them to pretend to be pro active on health insurance reform.  In reality however, they are advancing this idea which will allow them to appear to be pro reform, while knowing that the Democrats will never agree with them on the basis of their reform proposals.

The Republicans first notion is that the Democrats simply discard the last year of the health reform battle, and instead begin bipartisan negoations to develop a more scaled back approach to health care reform.  Translation?  Lets do nothing!

The majore issues to the Democrat Senate bill is that firstly the Massachusetts Senate race went to the Republicans which effectively ended the Democrat super majority in the Senate and ended the filibuster free negotiations for the Democrats.  Now, even though this has happened there is still a way to pass the Senate bill which would involve using special budget rules before passing it through the House, but the manuever has already run into serious issues, the most intimidating being a lack of inter party support. 

Bascially the liberal House members want to strip out the Cadilac tax and add a Public Option (the right thing to do here in our opinion) while the Moderates are scared of losing their seats in the Mid Terms and ending up like Martha “I suck at Running for Office” Coakley.

The Republicans who are never shy about exploiting Democrat weakness have already begun the smear campaigns after being emboldened by the Massachusetts Senate outcome.

“We’ve seen all week Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Reid continuing to scheme and plot trying to find some way to get their big government takeover of health care enacted,” said House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio). “Republicans are going to continue to be vigilant in exposing this.”

Even after Massachusetts, Boehner continued, “They are still trying to find a way to shove this down the throats of the American people.”

This kind of nonsense it typical of Republican ignorance and arrogance.  Health care is bankrupting us both ethically and financially, and if something is not done premiums will keep rising as more and more people either lose health insurance entirely or end up with absurdly non comprehensive policies.

Scott Brown, the Republican Golden Boy was found urging the Democrats to be more vigilant in listening to his uninfomred party on health reform, because they are “upset by the backroom deals,” especially the CornHusker kickback which is a special Medicaid provision for Nebraska included in the Senate bill to win the support of Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.).

“Go back to the drawing board and do it in a transparent, bipartisan manner,” Brown asserted.

Easy for you to say Scott, you didn’t waste a year and millions of taxpayer dollars in producing this stricken legislation.

Guess Who Else Has Had Enough of Health Reform?

Senior White House adviser David Axelrod told the NBC show “Meet the Press” that Obama would continue to push for a health-care overhaul, as part of an effort to address root causes of the current economic crisis.

“The president is determined that we deal with the problems in front of us and health care is one of those problems,” Axelrod said. “The American people aren’t saying let’s walk away from health insurance reform.”

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, appearing on the CNN program “State of the Union,” refused to concede even that prospects for completing a bill had greatly dimmed. “We are still inside the five-yard line,” Gibbs said. “We’re one vote away in the House of Representatives from making…health care reform a reality.”

House and Senate leaders are aiming to determine by the end of the week whether passing the Senate bill is a viable option.

“We’re still looking at a way to do comprehensive legislation,” said Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), a member of House Democratic leadership, told Fox News. “Certainly, certain provisions have to be dropped out. The Nebraska deal and other portions of that — even Senator Nelson has said he doesn’t want that in the bill. So there are certainly changes that need to be made.”

Van Hollen added, “People were justifiably upset about certain things like that deal. But the goal is still to try to get comprehensive health care passed.”

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In what can be described as the least surprising turn of events since another war broke out in the Middle East President Barack Obama’s health care appeal failed to garner and stifle the congressional deadlock on Thursday, which basically is ending all the hopes of the uninsured Americans who were hoping for some kind of support from Washington. Will the Democrats pay a price for causing the last year tumultous health reform bill and debate and then passing nothing?  If Massachusetts is a signal of the mid term elections the answer is surely yes.

The bleak news from Washington is not hampering the conjecture and lies coming from Democratic Congressional leaders who are still insisting health reform will get done which can only lead to one guessing that they are sitting in a garage somewhere with the car running.  Where are the votes?  

“It’s very possible that health care is just a stalemate and you can’t solve it this year,” said Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark.

So what does no health bill mean to the economy and our mounting deficits?  Probably the same thing as having health reform, the main difference would have been more people would have had access to medical coverage.

Medicare and Medicaid would still be going bankrupt, health care costs would still be rising, and deficits would keep increasing.

The State of the Union

Obama still pushed lawmakers to advance health reform, but there can be no doubt that it no longer tops his domestic agenda.  More importantly he provided no course of action to lawmakers who have no idea how to pass health reform with no votes and no plan.

Still the Senate Democrats have been huddled all week trying to chart a course and were promising to have some sort of strategy by weeks end. 

Senate Democratic leaders huddled Thursday afternoon to try to determine how to proceed, emerging to report progress, and the White House remained engaged in the negotiations. A Senate aide said lawmakers were hoping to decide on a legislative strategy by the end of next week.

Republican senators said senior White House officials had reached out to several in their ranks, including some conservatives, despite the unanimous GOP opposition to the far-reaching bill.

Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., who last year said stopping Obama on health care could be his Waterloo, said Thursday, “What I was saying was if he continued to push this massive takeover that it could be his Waterloo, and now it very well could be.”

In a sign of how far health care had fallen since Obama campaigned on it, Senate Democrats devoted a weekly policy lunch Thursday to discussing jobs, not health care. In a letter to supporters outlining Democrats’ 2010 agenda, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer didn’t even mention health care, although a spokeswoman said the e-mail was sent by Hoyer’s campaign team and was not meant to be an exhaustive list of priorities. House and Senate leaders insisted success on health care was still in reach.

“We’re going to move forward on health reform. We’re going to do health care reform this year,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi acknowledged in her weekly news conference that plenty of work remained if the House was to agree to changes to the Senate bill.

“We will go through the gate. If the gate is closed, we will go over the fence. If the fence is too high, we will pole vault in. If that doesn’t work, we will parachute in,” Pelosi said. “But we are going to get health care reform passed for the American people.”

Just two weeks ago House and Senate leaders were working round the clock at the White House, with Obama personally involved, to merge legislation passed separately by each chamber and finalize a bill for Obama to sign in time for his State of the Union speech. That effort was upended when Republican Scott Brown claimed the Senate seat long held by the late Edward M. Kennedy.

Since then Democrats have struggled to find a way forward. The leading strategy is for the House to pass the Senate bill along with a package of changes approved by both chambers, but that idea is fraught with difficulties both political and substantive. Some Democrats favor retreating from a comprehensive overhaul and taking a less ambitious approach with a series of individual initiatives or a smaller bill.

“Is there a gate someplace to get through and try to save some common areas of health care reform in both the House and the Senate bill? We’ll see,” said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D.

The powerful seniors’ lobby AARP weighed in Thursday, urging lawmakers in a letter to “continue to work together to enact comprehensive health care reform legislation this year.”

As Democratic leaders sought a way through the health care logjam, they reminded the rank and file that there are no easy solutions, politically or otherwise.

Two unpleasant choices face Democratic lawmakers who voted for the health care changes last year and who now worry about their re-election prospects this fall.

If a bill becomes law, they will have to convince a doubting public of its benefits, and conservatives are bound to keep up the attacks. If no bill passes, it’s possible that public anger over the health care issue will subside a bit. But many Democratic strategists say GOP challengers will constantly remind people of the incumbents’ votes, and Democrats will seek re-election with nothing to show on health care despite controlling the House, Senate and White House — and with hefty majorities.

Compounding the problems was growing distrust between the House and the Senate.

While lawmakers struggle, Wall Street is celebrating the sinking prospects for a sweeping overhaul that would put new taxes and requirements on insurance companies. Insurers have opposed the overhaul even though it aims to insure more than 30 million people over the next decade with a new requirement for nearly everyone to be covered.

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Health Reform is DOA, and President Obama can look forward to a State of the Union address where there is more apologies than a wedding full of blind people.

Democrats Put Lower Priority on Health Bill, File Documents Right Next to Area 51 Report

The New York Times quoting a few big name Senators and House members including Senator Harry Reid, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Evan Bayh, Blanche Lincoln, and others, are all saying pretty much the same thing, and that thing is changing the subject.

Health Reform has now officially reached back burner status, and with no clear path forward for the legislation, the brakes have been slammed on President Obama and his agenda.  After months of missing health reform deadlines the representatives in Washington no longer feel pressure to advance health reform.

This is neither surprising nor good.  When the Senate Majority leader comes out and says, that “we are not on health care now,” it is time to pack up and go home.  I only wonder what kind of things I will be blogging about now that we are doomed to higher health care costs and people dying from lack of medical care.

Perhaps I will blog about about all the health insurance industry abuses that go on everyday and uncover all the pain and suffering caused in the name of profits.  Or maybe I just won’t give a hot damn anymore because it is more than a little obvious that America could give a bleep.

Why did you abandon me?

Two Democrat Senators who just happen to be up for re-election are promising to vote against any bill that is rushed through with reconciliation.  For the record they are Blanche Lincoln and Evan Bayh two midwestern state representatives who will for sure lose the mid term elections if they push this bill through.  On the other hand maybe they would get a good night sleep, but who am I to advance the notion of a clear conscience.  They would most likely end up as health insurance industry lobbyists anyways when they lost.

All of this of course dates back to last Monday when the Democrats lost their 60th vote in Massachusetts to a Republican in what was considered a Democratic stronghold state.

What does this mean for the Presidents State of the Union?

Shame certainly comes to mind, as it is becoming more and more apparent that besides rescuing Wall Street from its own self inflicted demise, Barack Obama did nothing with his first year in office.

“I would be surprised if he says specifically exactly how he hopes to get health care done,” said the House majority leader, Representative Steny H. Hoyer, Democrat of Maryland.

Of the various options available to lawmakers, including the use of budget reconciliation, none seem viable at the moment. Some lawmakers said they expected that Congress would try to adopt a vastly pared-down bill once they returned to the issue.

“Frankly, we’re trying to figure out what is possible,” Mr. Hoyer said. “Senator Reid needs to determine what is possible on his side of the aisle — you know, what kind of support he can get. And we’re trying to figure out as well what we can pass.”

Speaker Pelosi has said House Democrats will not simply vote to approve the health care bill adopted by the Senate on Dec. 24, and send it directly to Mr. Obama for his signature.

But a plan to win over House members by adopting changes to the Senate bill through the budget reconciliation process ran into substantial resistance on Tuesday.

Mrs. Lincoln, who faces one of the toughest re-election bids among Democrats, said, “I am opposed to and will fight against any attempts to push through changes to the Senate health insurance reform legislation by using budget reconciliation tactics that would allow the Senate to pass a package of changes to our original bill with 51 votes.”

Mr. Bayh said, “It would destroy the opportunity, if there is one, for any bipartisan cooperation the rest of this year on anything else.”

Even if Democrats could agree on using reconciliation to adjust the health care bill, the House and Senate have yet to resolve major policy differences between the House and Senate measures, including a dispute over a proposed tax on high-cost insurance policies, and provisions related to insurance coverage of abortions.

Senator Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio, said he favored a two-step process, under which the House would pass the Senate bill and Congress would then revise it using fast-track budget procedures that would require only a simple majority in the Senate. Republicans adamantly oppose that approach.

Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, urged caution. “The White House and Democratic leaders should reach out one more time to Republicans to see if they can find a common ground,” Mr. Lieberman said.

Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, said Democratic leaders were assessing their options on health care.

“It’s a timeout,” Mrs. Feinstein said. “The leadership is re-evaluating. They asked us to keep our powder dry.”

Mrs. Feinstein said Congressional leaders should simplify the gigantic health care bill and try to pass parts of it that would be understandable to the public. But she also acknowledged that the odds were long for a far-reaching measure.

“I think big, comprehensive bills are very difficult to do in this environment,” she said.

The Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said White House comments on health care suggested that President Obama was not listening to the American people.

In Elyria, Ohio, on Friday, Mr. Obama said he was not going to “walk away” from the fight for major health legislation. If the bill becomes law, White House officials said, Americans will see its benefits and will embrace it.

But Mr. McConnell said, “This a clear sign that the administration has not gotten the message, that it’s become too attached to its own pet goals, that it’s stuck in neutral when the American people are asking it to change direction.”

The Republican leader said Mr. Obama should “put the 2,700-page Democrat health care plan on the shelf” and “move toward the kind of step-by-step approach Americans really want.”

Republicans, however, have not come forward with any new proposals, and Mr. McConnell has said he hopes the health care bill is now dead.

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So first of all, I know proper English does not allow us to end sentences in prepositions like I did above, so I will amend the title to, “So Where We At, You Bums?”  I am speaking directly to our elected politicians, who are currently awash in a flood of populist sentiment which is calling for the heads of any politician involved in helping Wall Street (see Bernanke appointment) and seemingly is against health reform due to the massive spending that many fear would accompany it.

So where we at?  Well with the election of Senator Brown in Massachusetts, the best bet for saving health reform is the House passing the Senate bill with some changes to pacify more liberal House.  Supposedly this is the week that the bill is to be presented to the House, but to me the prospects seem rather dim.

This strategy is risky and certainly very risky as the majority of voters who although favoring expanded coverage and slowing costs, just don’t trust these two bills from the Senate and House.  Here are some stats that were published by the  Washington Post:

-33 percent of respondents said they believed their access to care would be worse if a health care overhaul occurred, a jump from 25 percent in the poll released last month. Thirteen percent said they thought they would have better access to care in a remade system, about the same as last month.

-30.5 percent said their personal finances would be worse under a health care overhaul, compared to 24.5 percent last month. Eleven and a half percent said their personal finances would improve, compared to 14 percent last month.

-35 percent said the country’s access to health care would be worse under a health care overhaul, compared to 30 percent last month. Around 38 percent said it would be better, around the same as last month.

-42 percent said the country’s finances would suffer under a health care overhaul, compared with 34.6 percent last month. Thirty percent said matters would improve financially, compared to 32 percent last month.

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This news just hit our Washington press bureau, Barack Obama dislikes the health insurance industry, and thinks that the entire system is unfair.

News flash to Obama, East Coast Health Insurance agrees with you.  The health care industry has the right to decline medical insurance to the people that need it the most.  More than anything else this needs to change, and in light of the Senate election results in Massachusetts, I imagine the insurance companies and the health insurance brokers are throwing little parties celebrating the fact that more Americans will continue to be denied access to medical services when they need it most.

Obama makes a valid point that I don’t think many people, including selfish health insurance brokers would argue, “health insurance companies take advantage of people.”

In the face of the growing contempt for politicians and politics in this age of big business politics, Obama is now trying to at least get something to through the House that has at least some kind of reform built in.  I believe him when he says that,

“The problem is: the things that are non-controversial end up being the things that don’t solve the problem.”

So what now?  With health care reform looking less likely then a virgin at a retirement home, and health insurance brokers dancing a celebratory dance, and the sick and the needy just waiting for health coverage, is there any light at the end of the tunnel?

In short, no.  The House is not going pass the Senate bill, no way, not with the elections around the around the corner and with Coakley getting trounced in Massachusetts, House Democrats are terrified of losing their seats, and then not being able to earn millions of dollars from lobbyists.  This entire system disgusts me.  Congratulations America, I can’t wait till you get sick.

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I wanted to write a meaningful post today that is important because all over the country health insurance brokers are celebrating this Republican Senate victory as the end of the health reform bill.  Just look over here.  Most likely the health care debate is over for awhile and the Democrats will have to reorganize their efforts while the Republicans celebrate the fact that more people will be denied access to health care.  That is what going on.  They might be saying buzz words to cover it up, but the fact is that millions of people (more everday) will continue to be denied health insurance under our ludicrously unfair system.  As flawed as this bill is, it was something that would have given better or at least access to medical care that a  growing number of Americans lose everyday.  And to be fair, it was the majority of people that voted against it.  You didn’t want it America.

I guarantee that everyone that voted against this bill already had health insurance, and in Massachusetts they could care less as they already have public health insurance.  If this bill would have passed it would have made their own system worse, because they would have been subsidizing the health care programs of other states.  One has to wonder if this Senate seat would have gone Republican in a real Blue State.  Remember Gallup released a poll yesterday that showed that only 35% of Massachusetts residents identified themselves as Democrat with a very large amount of Independents.  Of course the poll also showed that the split in America was about 50/50 in support of this health reform bill.

I just wish that my fellow health insurance brokers cared at all about the fact that this current system is going to break people’s hearts.  East Coast Health Insurance is one of the only companies that never hangs up the phone on uninsurables, and nor do we sell any crap discount plans.  We teach our brokers to sell products that fit, and when they don’t they are armed with every public health care option and the contact numbers for these programs, as well as the financial constraints that it takes to get them.  And remember our website has the largest government public assistance section period. It is because I hated telling people that they would not be able to get help, no matter how irresponsible that they were in not getting health insurance before they needed it.  Our current system is not only unfair but unsustainable, and I am not a political prognosticator and have no idea what the Democrats have up their sleeves to deal with this stunning blow to all the hard work they have put in to get us this far, but I hope they have something.

If you don’t have health insurance and need it, I want you to call East Coast Health Insurance at 888 803 5917, and even if you can’t afford it, we can direct you to a place where you will get coverage, we believe there is some kind of program public or private for everyone regardless of your financial situation.  We want to help.

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Today is turning out to be a pretty busy day in Massachusetts the surprising center of the health care reform debate.  As time passes the election is turning further and further in favor for the Republicans.  This is after the fact that Democratic base has been lighting the proverbial fire under the collectives asses of the Massachusetts Democratic base.  But what concerns the Democrat party officials is that their phone calls, emails, and advertisements are in fact working but the Democrats that are showing up are voting Republican.

What if the robust calling effort is turning out voters for Mr. Brown, instead?

A surprising poll by Gallup points out, perhaps somewhat surprisingly, that Massachusetts residents are no more likely than all Americans to identify themselves as Democrats.  Only 35 percent of Massachusetts residents consider themselves Democrats, matching the national average.

A spokesman for the Secretary of State’s office said that by 9 a.m., two hours after the voting began, more than twice as many people had cast ballots than during the same time period in the December primary. That, of course, was long before the race became nationalized.  By late afternoon word began slipping out of the White House of President Obama’s anger.  To whom this anger is directed at has largely escaped the media.

In the meantime we are all anxiously awaiting the final vote count in Massachusetts where early exit polls have shown the Republican Scott ahead of Crazy Coakley.

But he also dismissed polls showing a swell of support for him. “I’ve never been a big poll person,” Brown said. “I’m up in some, I’m down in some. And we’ll see what happens, 8:01 (p.m.).”  By 8pm eastern time we should have a clearer picture of the final numbers.

Voters faced backups at some polling stations, and Secretary of State William Galvin says he expected from 1.6 million to 2.2 million people to vote – a spread of between 40 percent and 55 percent of registered voters.

A light snow started falling steadily shortly after the polls opened north of Boston, covering roads and sidewalks with a slippery coating. Some voters in Haverhill, about 35 miles north of Boston, grumbled as they navigated snow banks and thick slush to get to the polls. National Weather Service meteorologist Charlie Foley called it “kind of an annoyance.”

Some voters, like 38-year-old computer programmer Sara Perry, said keeping the filibuster-proof majority in Congress was more appealing to her than Coakley herself. “I’m not a big fan of hers, but I really want to keep that balance,” she said.

Elsewhere, supporters who huddled under umbrellas with their Brown campaign signs said they were optimistic that his message – and his potential importance in the health care debate – is resonating with voters.

“People are tired of all of the back-room deals on health care and everything else. Nobody likes the secrecy, and this is a way to put the kibosh on that,” said John Pepper, a Republican from Cheshire, Conn., who took a day off from work to campaign for Brown in western Massachusetts.

In Washington, senior White House adviser David Axelrod said the White House expects Coakley to win. Axelrod said Obama, who campaigned with Coakley Sunday in Boston and cut a last-minute ad, did everything he could to help.

“I think the White House did everything we were asked to do,” Axelrod told reporters. “Had we been asked earlier, we would have responded earlier. But we responded in a timely fashion when we were asked.”

The swift rise of Brown has spooked Democrats who had considered the seat one of their most reliable. Kennedy, who died in August, held the post for 47 years. The last time Massachusetts elected a Republican to the U.S. Senate was 1972.

A Suffolk University survey taken Saturday and Sunday showed Brown with double-digit leads in three communities the poll identified as bellwethers: Gardner, Fitchburg and Peabody. But internal statewide polls for both sides showed a dead heat.

A third candidate, Joseph L. Kennedy, a Libertarian running as an independent, said he’s been bombarded with e-mails from Brown supporters urging him to drop out and endorse the Republican. Kennedy, who was polling in the single digits and is no relation to the late senator, said he’s staying in.

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With health reform getting dangerously close to an end, seemingly all the players involved in the health-care reform want you to be terrified.  The Republicans want to scare with the big S word Socialism and the Democrats want you to believe that this is the salvation that everyone has been waiting for.  Of course like dancing in a movie theater, they are very wrong.  (That joke comes from the great idea of the local Muvico putting a Salsa dance club in their West Palm Beach location.)

Of course this whole mess currently being debated by the Democrats is huge, it could reshape our entire financial system, remember health care is nearly a third of our GDP.  But the bill that is being presented does almost nothing to control costs and will in fact raise health insurance premiums for many people.  Of course like eating a 10 pound hamburger, you have to start somewhere, so East Coast Health Insurance actually supports this bill, though we don’t care for it at all, but believe our current course of action is also just as unsustainable.  We applaud the Democrats for being courageous enough to risk their political careers on this garbage legislation.  Hoorah.

Looking at the numbers, the entire bill is seemingly more expensive than our defense budget, and comes in with a $900 billion price tag.  This reflects 10 years and breaks down to a smooth $90 billion per year.  Remember however that in the context of health care spending this is actually like a Cuban life raft, very tiny.  Health care costs are about 2.3 trillion a year, so this would amount to a small appetizer at an Applebee’s.

Additionally, the bill doesn’t even start till 2014, so this number figured for inflation and with the current rise in health care cots will only be about 4% of the entire American health care spending.  in the year 2016 health care is expected to be $3.7 trillion, so it gets smaller each year.

Another great fact is that this bill will kick the health insurance companies right in the groin.  While many have speculated that this bill will make them more profits the truth is that only a couple of companies might do better but the majority will take one on the chin and end up in some other business or go bankrupt altogether.  By 2019 it is expected to insure an additional 30 million people, of course by that time we will all be wearing 10 pound sunglasses and have skin cancer from global warming but at least we will have health coverage to remove all those sun spots and moles.  Additionally, it is estimated that 90% of Americans will be insured, while the uninsured will be mostly illegals and space aliens.

But when it comes to cost controls this bill is an absolute failure.  And more important then our health insurance problem is our financial solvency as a nation.  I don’t care what anyone says or what pills the GAO has taken while they performed this study.  Health care is getting to expensive and this bill just shrugs it off like a bad sign from a drunk catcher.  No one is going to care about their deductibles when they can’t afford to eat.  Do I have a solution to health care costs?  I have a few ideas including tort reform and such that this bill has just ignored, but I can’t really agree with passing this bill due to this fact.  But I do agree to it, because I know that it will start the conversation for a single payer system which this bill will inevitably result in.

Make no mistake, Pelosi has said it herself this bill is designed to cripple our health insurance companies which is a necessary evil in order to solve this issue, and because they are not going to go away quietly this bill lets them think that they have a victory, but 10 years from now, they will be looking for benefits themselves.

But changing the growth of the health-care system is a lot harder than just cutting a few dollars here or there. It requires us to change how doctors practice medicine, or how much medicine people buy or how much they need — or maybe all three. We’re doing a lot on health-care reform this year, but we’re not doing that much. And we shouldn’t fool ourselves into thinking otherwise. We’ll be back at this again, and soon.

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The Democrats are starting to sweat like a garbanzo bean at a kosher picnic.  Just when health care reform seemed inevitable, the death of Senator Kennedy has changed the game at this late hour.  House and Senate Democrats along with a certain President Obama are working around the clock to speed this legislation through by uniting the two health reform bills from the Senate and the House.

If the Republicans are able to fill Senator’s Kennedy over-sized former seat, then the health reform bill arrives DOA as the Senate will lose its 60th vote.  The fate of health care reform has been left in the hands of people that don’t know how to pronounce words like car or park.  People that have perfect the art of the baked bean.  Yes I am talking about Boston.  A city where a girl once broke my heart, and now can effectively end health care reform.  One has to wonder if the people of Massachusetts even know that this bill lies in their hands.

Should the Republicans win the seat, there would only be a window of a day or two to get the bill passed, and even if it would pass, the Democrats would certainly suffer from the public’s wrath for this kind of deal making.  That much is certain.  There can be no doubt about it, Boston has been given a great power, and of course the irony is that the father of the health reform bill, the great Senator Kennedy is the reason for this late pressure.

Senator Harry Reid claims the negotiations are pretty close to reconciliation while the White House has said that there has been no final agreements or a final package.  The next step would be sending the bill to the CBO to examine the costs and extent of coverage, but again the bill has to be agreed upon in these backroom negotiations first, and by only the Democrats who are the only ones debating it.

The election comes the day after the three-day Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend – and on the last day of Obama’s first year in office. Snow is forecast for Monday, and many locals head south for warmer weather or north to go skiing during the shortened workweek.

On Friday, Republican and Democratic heavyweights campaigned for both candidates.

At a rally in Boston’s North End, former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani urged voters to elect Brown for his anti-terror credentials.

“His election, I believe will send a signal – and a very dramatic one – that we’re going in the wrong direction on terrorism,” said Giuliani, who opposes the administration’s decision to have the trial of Sept. 11 terror suspects in New York City.

Former President Bill Clinton was making two appearances in Massachusetts despite his duties as a special envoy to earthquake-ravaged Haiti, another sign of the stakes. “You just have to decide if you want to pick the person who gets to shut America down,” Clinton told voters at one stop.

Sen. John Kerry, recovering from hip replacement surgery, took the stage at one event with the help of Kennedy’s cane. And Kennedy’s widow, Vicki Kennedy, planned to join Coakley at her first canvassing event in Boston on Saturday.

Kennedy, who died Aug. 25 of brain cancer, also was elected to the Senate in a special election on Nov. 6, 1962. He took office the next day, Nov. 7. It was the seat his brother, John F. Kennedy, vacated when he became president in 1961. The Democrats have held the seat since JFK was elected in 1952.

Crazy Ole Senator Nelson

The other thorn in the rear is Senator Nelson’s extortion attempt, which has been criticized by members of his own party, ex Presidents (Clinton), and even angry school children who now officially hate Nebraska.  To pacify everyone Obama and Federal lawmakers have decided instead to increase Medicaid federal funding in all states, though where the money would come from is unclear, with many suggesting that it will be soon be time for street begging.

The increase in the Medicaid program is a key element in the bill’s overall goal of expanding health coverage to millions who lack it. The bill also envisions creation of new insurance exchanges, federally regulated marketplaces where consumers can shop for coverage. Individuals and families at lower incomes would receive federal subsidies to defray the cost.

The legislation would curb insurance industry practices such as denial of coverage because of medical problems and charging higher premiums to people in poor health.

At the White House, spokesman Robert Gibbs was unequivocal that Obama’s effort would prove successful. “As you heard the president say yesterday, we’re going to get health care done,” he said.

Not everyone was quite so certain, particularly given poll results from Massachusetts that showed Republican Scott Brown within reach of an upset over Democrat Martha Coakley in a three-way race.

“If Scott Brown wins, it’ll kill the health bill,” said Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass, reflecting that the Republican would provide opponents of the health care bill a decisive 41st vote to uphold a filibuster and block passage in the Senate. Frank predicted Coakley would ultimately prevail and thus preserve the essential 60-vote Senate majority. Obama hurriedly scheduled a weekend campaign trip to the state.

Even so, Frank’s remark sent shudders through the ranks of Democrats.

The president called on Congress in his inaugural address a year ago to send him legislation that would remake the health care system, including expansion of coverage, new regulations on industry and unprecedented measures to slow the rise in health care costs generally.

Obama has made an unusual commitment in time and energy to the negotiations at the White House, essentially serving as a referee on key issues that the House and Senate leaders could not resolve.

Beyond that, he was willing to reopen issues where the two bills were identical. One example involved the patent protection that drugmakers would receive for their biotech drugs from generic competitors. The president wants to give generic makers quicker entry into the marketplace, and the pharmaceutical industry’s top lobbyist, former Rep. W.J. Tauzin, sent an e-mail threatening to oppose the legislation if that happened.

Even with an agreement on cost and coverage issues, Obama and congressional Democrats would have to resolve controversy over abortion, coverage of immigrants and other issues before sealing a final compromise.



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In what is sure to be the most fun since bed wetting, the United States has both houses of Congress recklessly trying to reconcile their versions of the health reform bill.  In what is surely to become the most complex piece of legislation this side of the tax code, even President Obama has joined the fray.

With the State of the Union address quickly approaching President Obama has promised the Dark Sith Lords that elected him, that there will be some kind of progress on this bill which is so full of compromises and kickbacks that even  former Communist Russia has rolled over in its grave.  Additionally, the Senate race in Massachusetts has become a pressure point for the Democrats who can’t afford to lose that seat to a Republican or risk losing their 60th vote in the Senate to pass this bill.  And that race has been getting tighter than a ghetto haircut.

In a joint statement Wednesday night, Mr. Obama, Ms. Pelosi and Mr. Reid said they had made “significant progress in bridging the remaining gaps” between the House and Senate bills. Having worked through all aspects of the legislation, they said, “We’re encouraged and energized.”

Of course many insiders suspect that they are fibbing as the Cornhusker Kickback is causing substantial problems for the bill, and the lawsuits are piling up as fifteen states have Attorney Generals figuring out how to file a suit and if the Supreme Court will even hear it.   There is now talk of a second lawsuit which will claim that mandating health insurance coverage is unconstitutional, which very well might be true.  On the other hand, Universal Health Coverage is most definitely not unconstitutional and would very likely pass the smell test.

Issues that still remain to be reconciled include whether or not to turn the United States into a Socialist Republic, whether or not to tax employer based plans that are “too benefit rich,” and whether to increase the payroll tax to help pull Medicare out of bankruptcy.  Ok the first one was not an issue.

And for me as a health insurance broker, the most important issue is the Health Insurance Exchange issue, which would be either a National Single Health Insurance Exchange or various dozens of state health exchanges which is the Senate version.  The Democrats would like to see these exchanges become competitive markets where consumers would be able to shop and compare policies with federal subsidies.

“Health care reform should be financed by tax surcharges on the wealthy and not by taxes on health insurance plans offered to middle-class workers, older persons and union members,” said Representative Lynn Woolsey, Democrat of California and co-chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

The chairmen of Verizon and AT&T weighed in with their concerns. In a letter to Congress joined by two union presidents, the executives, Ivan G. Seidenberg of Verizon and Randall L. Stephenson of AT&T, said the excise tax would “impact health plans covering tens of millions of workers” in various industries.

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