From Pine View Farm

We Need Single Payer 0

But this is progress:

Democratic leader Harry Reid said on Monday the U.S. Senate’s healthcare overhaul will include a government-run insurance plan that lets states opt out, handing liberals an early victory on the bill’s most contentious issue.

After days of closed-door talks, Reid said he would include the “public” insurance option in a healthcare reform bill headed to the Senate floor for debate because it was the best way to lower costs and create competition.

This is hardly the final bill, but it’s a significant start. The “opt-out” provision is a joke; it makes no economic sense and is clearly a sop to advocates of the status quo; whether it survives will be interesting to watch.

The Booman has an excellent analysis of the politics of potential passage.

Interesting to note that, a few paragraphs farther down in the Reuters story was this gem:

(the health insurance industry’s) stock prices fell out of apparent concern about the prospect of competition from the government-run plan.

If they are doing such an all-fired good job, why are their investors concerned about a little competition?

It is clearly because they are not doing such an all-fired good job, except in the country-club membership for CEO’s department.

It really is all about their country-club memberships.

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