Just now reporting it on MSNBC. So much for change we can believe in.
UPDATE:
Here’s the breaking news alert via the AP:
WASHINGTON – Democratic senators say they have a tentative deal to drop a government-run insurance option from health care legislation. No further details were immediately available.
But liberals and moderates have been discussing an alternative, including a private insurance arrangement to be supervised by the federal agency that oversees the system through which lawmakers purchase coverage.
Additionally, talks centered on opening up Medicare to uninsured Americans beginning at age 55, a significant expansion of the large government health care program that currently serves the over-65 population.
Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa told reporters he didn’t like the agreement but would support it to the hilt in an attempt to pass health care legislation.
Over 55? Well that takes some of the most expensive people off the insurance companies teet and puts it on Medicare’s. Sounds like another fucking gift to the insurance industry. Oh but I’m sure the Democrats and Obama is expecting the kindness of the insurance companies to pass those savings on to us – right? Yeah……right </sarcastic voice>
UPDATE 2:
Now Reid is saying this report is untrue. I’m not holding my breath on what Reid says though.
UPDATE 3:
“We have a broad agreement,” Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid told reporters, refusing to give any details on the talks.
Reid said reports the government-run “public option” had been dropped were “not true.”
Not much to go on.
UPDATE 4:
This from earlier today really got me:
At this juncture, it doesn’t appear that everyone in the 55-64 age bracket would be granted access. Negotiators are considering limiting consumers to those who would qualify for high-risk insurance pools already set up under the Senate’s health care legislation. This would mean primarily those who have been uninsured for a certain amount of time, have a history of poor health or are unable to get insurance because of a preexisting condition.
(emphasis added)
I thought one of the parts of reform was to prevent insurance companies from denying you coverage because of preexisting conditions? Has the Senate rejected that also?
Going back to what I said earlier about the 55+ crowd going to Medicare, well this really makes this whole plan a much bigger giveaway to insurance companies.
If any of this stuff being reported tonight is actually true then I think it’s going to be phone time to try and get this whole bill defeated.
UPDATE 5:
This is very interesting from the New York Times:
But Democratic aides said that the group had tentatively agreed on a proposal that would replace a government-run health care plan with a menu of new national, privately-run insurance plans modeled after the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program, which covers more than eight million federal workers, including members of Congress, and their dependents.
A government-run plan would be retained as a fall-back option, the aides said, and would be triggered only if the new proposal failed to meet targets for providing affordable insurance coverage to a specified number of people.
What it sounds like is the co-op plans with a trigger option for those under 55. Given the greedy nature of the insurance companies you might as well go ahead and pull that trigger now.
UPDATE 6:
Statement by Russ Feingold:
“While I appreciate the willingness of all parties to engage in good-faith discussions, I do not support proposals that would replace the public option in the bill with a purely private approach. We need to have some competition for the insurance industry to keep rates down and save taxpayer dollars. I will base my vote on the bill on the entirety of what is in the bill, and whether I think the bill is good for Wisconsin.”