Health Reform Bill to Allow Insurance Payments For Prayer Healings
Via Kevin Drum, I have learned that current Senate version of the health reform bill would provide for insurance payments for Christian Science prayer treatments--and probably other "spiritual" treatments as well.Reporting from Washington - Backed by some of the most powerful members of the Senate, a little-noticed provision in the healthcare overhaul bill would require insurers to consider covering Christian ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 3, 2009 10:33
McInturff AHIP Speech Draws Protests
Bill McInturff, managing partner of my wife's firm, had his keynote speech to AHIP interrupted this morning by singing protesters. Sam Stein reports for HuffPo: Republican pollster Bill McInturff was the keynote speaker on the final day of the America's Health Insurance Plans's state issues conference on Friday morning. But his speech on how the health care reform debate was playing ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 23, 2009 16:53
Defending Wyden-Bennett
On his new policy blog at True/Slant, E.D. Kain provides a good defense of the Wyden-Bennett Act.In Congress, however, we get bad compromises, not good ones, which is why we have the Baucus bill, which is neither as cost-effective, as close to universal coverage, or as fundamentally game-changing as Wyden-Bennett. Indeed, there is little to be enthusiastic about in ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 21, 2009 13:15
McConnell: No Retalliation
Olympia Snowe and other wayward Republicans will be subject to strong persuasion but no punishment from the caucus, Senate Republican leaders tell Politico. [caption id="attachment_42848" align="alignright" width="297" caption="Mitch McConnell and his deputies in the Senate Republican leadership are responding very cautiously to Olympia Snowe's decision to become the first GOP vote for a Democratic health care reform bill. Photo: AP ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 15, 2009 07:49
Salting Snowe
Erick Erickson is angry at liberal Republican Olympia Snowe's announcement yesterday that she'd sign on to the Baucus version of health care reform in exchange for a seat at the negotiating table. Olympia Snowe has sold out the country. Having been banished to our world after Aslan chased her out of Narnia, Snowe is intent on corrupting this place too. So we ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 14, 2009 13:02
Health Care Reform Tax on Low Income Earners
James Capretta does a back of the envelope calculation on the Baucus health care reform bill and concludes that it would be like having a 70% marginal tax rate on the low income. According to CBO, family coverage in 2016 is likely to cost about $14,400 under the so-called “silver option” in the health-care reform plan sponsored by Senate Finance Committee ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 13, 2009 13:07
Politics of Spite
Paul Krugman continues to demonstrate that brilliance in one field doesn't necessarily translate into sound insights into others. He's upset that some Republicans took pleasure in President Obama's embarrassment in not landing the Olympics for his adopted Chicago and their cynicism in positioning themselves as the defenders of Medicare in order to fight his health care reform proposals. ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 5, 2009 15:24
Health Insurance Mandates
Sam Stein reports that "Democrats are bracing themselves for a new line of conservative attack against a provision in the health care legislation once considered so non-controversial that it was endorsed by several major Republican officials." What is it, you might ask, that these dastardly Republicans are opposing out of their racist hatred of Barack Obama? On Tuesday, Sen. Jon Kyl ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 23, 2009 09:09
9/12 Protests
Yesterday, somewhere between "tens of thousands" and "two million" people flooded the nation's capital to protest somethingoranother. Thousands Rally in Capital to Protest Big Government (Jeff Zeleny, NYT) [caption id="attachment_41802" align="alignright" width="400" caption="Amanda Lucidon for The New York Times"][/caption] A sea of protesters filled the west lawn of the Capitol and spilled onto the National Mall on Saturday in the largest rally against ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 13, 2009 07:57
Hyperbole of the Day- Dead Kennedys Edition
The award goes to Chris Matthews for this: You know there's going to be a lot of talk about the tragic blessings of the Kennedy family, and the curse. And it's all nonsense. These people were courageous risk takers. Kathleen Kennedy, the girl, the oldest daughter, she was killed with her lover traveling on a plane ride she ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on August 26, 2009 11:59
Teddy Kennedy Dead at 77
Senator Edward M. Kennedy died last night, aged 77, succumbing to brain cancer. Edward Kennedy, Senate Stalwart, Dies (John Broder, NYT) [caption id="attachment_41192" align="alignright" width="400" caption="Doug Mills/The New York Times"][/caption] Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, a son of one of the most storied families in American politics, a man who knew triumph and tragedy in near-equal measure and who will be remembered ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on August 26, 2009 06:53
Its the Costs, Stupid
In the last several posts on health care it is often pointed out that health insurance companies engage in dubious practices. For example, they’ll deny coverage for the most trivial of reasons. Many posting comments focus on this issue as well as others such as quality of care, the moral nature of providing health care, and so forth. ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on August 24, 2009 19:36
Winning the Healthcare Debate
Gene Lyons has written a column headlined "You won't win the healthcare debate by calling people stupid racists." The piece isn't worth reading, I'm afraid, after the headline -- which Lyons probably didn't write. But the title is right on. It's a truism of public debate that you will never persuade those who disagree with you by dismissing them ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on August 21, 2009 07:50
Split Health Care Bill
Taking a page out of Soloman's playbook, Congressional Democrats have a brand new plan for passing health care reform. The White House and Senate Democratic leaders, seeing little chance of bipartisan support for their health-care overhaul, are considering a strategy shift that would break the legislation into two parts and pass the most expensive provisions solely with Democratic votes. The idea is ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on August 20, 2009 09:15
Obama’s Op-Ed on Health Care
President Obama, seeing that he is taking a beating in the polls, and that health care is starting to founder took to the pages of the New York Times to lay out the case for health care reform. I think he did a rather bad job of it. He could have done it with far, far fewer ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on August 17, 2009 14:25
