Here are the FDL Action health care reform highlights for Thursday, December 3.

1. Jon Walker reports that “Thomas Carper’s terrible new “alternative” to a public option is not winning over progressives in the House,” with Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona saying, “I think that compromise is totally unacceptable…It basically emasculates the public option.” Jon Walker adds, “If there is a choice between Carper’s worthless fig leaf and no public option at all, I would choose the latter.” Yes, it’s that bad.

2. Jon Walker writes about a report in Politico that ” Snowe, Lincoln, and Landrieu have submitted an amendment that would effectively eliminate all state regulations concerning what insurance companies must cover.” According to Jon Walker, “This is a very bad amendment that will make health insurance worse for millions and millions of Americans.” Uh, guys? That’s not what we mean by “reform.”

3. Jon Walker reports that a new poll by Thomas Reuters finds that “59.9% of people favor reform containing a public option.” In other words, the part of health care reform that’s supposedly the most “controversial” is also the part which polls strongest among the American people.  And we wonder why people are cynical about politics and politicians?

4. Michael Whitney asks for help to “raise money to make a big move against Harry Reid in his home state of Nevada.” If you would like to contribute, please click here. Thanks.

5. Jon Walker reports that Sen. Barbara Mikulski’s “relatively uncontroversial” amendment dealing with cost-sharing for women’s preventive care passed earlier today by a vote of 61-39. Three Republicans (Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, David Vitter) voted yes, while two Democrats (Ben Nelson, Russ Feingold) voted no. Walker believes that “Vitter’s yes vote is a big surprise,” but that perhaps he is “hurting with women in his re-election polls.” Apparently, the diaper and prostitutes weren’t bad enough to lose him a chance at reelection. Sigh.

6. Jon Walker remarks that Sen. Mary Lasndrieu (D-LA) “has created the unholy grail of terrible gimmicks meant to cripple the public option…a several-year-delayed, triggered, state-based, non-public co-op limited to the exchange option.”  This may sound funny in a way, but according to Jon Walker, “If Senate Democrats think they can pass a bill forcing Americans to buy extremely expensive junk insurance from for-profit corporations, with only the vague promise that possibly, after five more years of abuse, they might get the to choose a completely unworkable, state-based, non-public ‘alternative,’ they are in for a rude awakening.”

Here are the FDL Action health care reform highlights for Wednesday, December 2.

1. Jane Hamsher announces the launch of One Voice for Choice, “a national phone bank that will launch calls into the districts of the Representatives who voted for Stupak.” For more on this, see Politico. To volunteer, please click here. Thanks.

2. Jon Walker reports on Day #3 of the Senate “debate” on health care reform, with not “a single vote on any amendment.” Given this snail’s pace, Walker concludes that a final vote by Christmas is “highly unlikely.”

3. Jon Walker says we can “get ready for Carper’s non-public non-triggered co-op non-option.” Walker believes that Carper’s proposal “will serve none of the goals of the public option, and will be completely worthless.” Other than that, he loves it. 🙂

4. Jon Walker writes about Republicans spending the last three days “defending the massively wasteful corporate giveaway to private insurance companies,” also known as the Medicare Advantage program. According to Walker, you “can’t be a defender of the broken Medicare Advantage program and still be a fiscal conservative.” And yet Republicans will do just that and claim to be fiscal conservatives. Of course, these are the same people who racked up much of our national debt, so what else would you expect from them?

5. Jon Walker notes that “Ben Nelson is currently threatening to filibuster reform if it does not contain a version of the anti-choice Stupak amendment.” Of course, as Walker points out, “for months now, Reid has had the option of using reconciliation to pass a decent bill without the Stupak language and with a public option.”  Apparently, that would be too easy.

6. Jon Walker believes that “Democrats made a huge mistake not pushing the bill through months ago using reconciliation” and that now, having failed to do so – and given Republican obstructionism and delaying tactics –  “this is going to be an extremely long debate.”  So, pull up a chair, grab some popcorn, and “enjoy” (or, more likely, not)! 🙂

7. Finally, Jon Walker advises that we should not “confuse capitulation with compromise” when it comes to the public option, especially since a “handful of conservative Democrats” — Joe Lieberman, Ben Nelson, Blanche Lincoln, and Mary Landrieu — “have all the power.” What’s that saying again about Democracy being the worst system ever invented, except for all the other ones?

Here are the FDL Action health care reform highlights for Tuesday, December 1.

1. Jon Walker has some advice “for every potential manufacturer and transnational company looking to expand…don’t start a single business-or expand an existing one-in this country until we really try to rein in health care costs.” Walker elaborates, “As a nation, we will not be able to compete going forward if we are spending upwards of an extra $6,000 on our workers health care compared to Germany, Japan, Canada, the UK, etc.” But wait, aren’t those all “socialist” countries? (snark)

2. Jon Walker takes issue with Peter Orszag’s assertion that “basically everything that has been put forward in health policy discussions for a decade is in this [health care reform] bill.” To the contrary, Walker writes, “This is not true at all, and Orszag knows it. The Senate bill does not even contain many of health care reforms championed by Obama on the campaign trail last year.” The result, in Walker’s view, is that the “bill does not do is take the serious steps that could reduce our national health expenditures by trillions of dollars in this country.”

3. Jon Walker argues that “We will never see a Washington not run by lobbyists until we make a commitment to hiring sufficient numbers of highly qualified staffers committed to doing the job long term.” Excellent point.

4. Jane Hamsher reminds us that Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) “wasn’t always so enamored of Medicare Advantage,” a program “which Jon Walker recently said ‘may have the dubious distinction of being the biggest and most wasteful form of corporate welfare in the country.'” Wait a minute, a Republican is being a liar and a hypocrite? I’m shocked! Shocked, I tell you! 🙂

5. Jon Walker writes that even Sen. Thomas Carper (D-DE), author of the terrible “non-public triggered co-op” idea, says that “the decision to add his worthless idea to the bill is completely up to Harry Reid.”

6. Continuing his series of “what the Senate bill does better,” Jon Walker points to SCHIP, which will be eliminated under the House bill but, “[t]hanks in large part to the efforts of Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV),” will remain intact under the Senate bill. According to the CBO, “maintaining the SCHIP program would be roughly $15 billion cheaper than eliminating the program and moving the children into the new exchange.” Can we say “no brainer” on this one?

Here are the FDL Action health care reform highlights for Monday, November 30.

1. To put it mildly, Jon Walker believes that the Urban Institute’s new report “endorsing the idea of a super-hard trigger for a robust Medicare-style public option” is off base. Walker argues that the idea of a “magical robust theoretically super-awesome trigger” is “purely a fantasy of health care wonks that does not have a prayer of ever becoming law.”  And Walker has a great punchline to all this, apparently riffing off of Prince’s “When Doves Cry”: “This is what it sounds like when veal moos.” Wow, what did Jon Walker eat for Thanksgiving anyway? LOL

2. Jane Hamsher argues that the  opt-out provision “was a trojan horse, championed by liberals who were negotiating against themselves,” and that in the end, it failed to pick up a single Republican vote. Now, we’re going to get the same charade with “the sequel, ‘The Return of Trigger,’ starring the Urban Institute and other featured players.” Something tells me this is a sequel we don’t want to see, but may be forced to anyway.

3. Jon Walker has some good news, “What The Senate Bill Does Better, Part 3: Starts With Greater Access To The Exchange.”

4. I’ve got a post pointing to excellent framing by The Pennsylvania Progressive, who writes, “Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana says we should stop reforming health care so we can concentrate on killing Afghans…killing is a higher priority than healing.” Wow, it sounds so…Republican!

5. Jane Hamsher asks, “Why Continue to Fight For a Public Option?” The answer: “The public option battle has become a proxy war over who controls government, whether Congress has the slightest responsibility to reflect the will of the public, whether Democrats from Obama on down can just casually abandon their campaign promises in the wake of unrelenting influence peddling and whether progressives are going to take a stand for something and refuse to back down.” Those sure sound like fighting words to me.

6. Jon Walker riffs off of an article by Ezra Klein which argues, “If you had tuned in six months ago for 10 minutes, you would have had all the information necessary to predict exactly where we’d be today.”  Walker concludes that the Senate “just spent almost half a year working on health care reform, and didn’t accomplish anything that couldn’t have been done in three weeks if they were a functioning legislative body.” In other words, health care reform could have been completed last spring, leaving Congress free to turn to other matters, like…uh, the economy perhaps? Clean energy and climate legislation? Comprehensive immigration reform? A million other things? Nah, much better to have spent the better part of a year negotiating against ourselves and chasing the ever-elusive “bipartisan” support. Great.

7. Jon Walker live blogs the Senate debate over health care reform, which began at 3 pm earlier today.

8. Jon Walker summarizes the new CBO report on the Senate health care bill and its effect on premiums, writing that “reform would do basically nothing to reduce or increase premiums for most Americans.” According to Walker, this will largely keep U.S. health care costs “nearly twice as high as any other industrialized nation,” an outcome that “should not be a surprise” given the “sweetheart deals with all the concerned health industries.” And on that happy note…

Here are the FDL Action health care reform highlights for “Black Friday” (November 27).

1. On Wednesday, Jane Hamsher asked, “Why is HCAN Defending Blanche Lincoln From A Primary Challenge?”  The answer: “[HCAN] will continue to operate as part of the Democratic party infrastructure, try to kill primary challengers and move to protect their ‘own.’  And that means Blanche Lincoln.  If health care reform happens in the meantime, well, what a happy coincidence.” Or “unhappy,” as the case may be.

2. Yesterday, Jane Hamsher wrote about “The PR Push That Helped PhRMA Buy the Government.” Included in “Government” are “the 42 members of Congress who helpfully inserted lobbyist language into the Congressional Record in favor of endless patents on biologic drugs on behalf of the prescription drug industry.” So nice of those 42 members of Congress, huh?

3. Jane Hamsher wonders, “How is Newt Gingrich Not a Lobbyist?”, and concludes that the “definition of ‘lobbyist’ seems a bit too flexible to prohibit the biggest of the professional influence peddlers from getting their claws in.” Not that we’d ever think Newt Gingrich had claws or anything. Heh.

4. Jon Walker provides “13 very specific proven solutions” for OMB Director Peter Orszag, who had “defended the Senate health care reform bill’s minor cost-control measure” by suggesting that critics had no ideas of their own for controlling costs. Among the 13 ideas Walker presents: “Turn all health insurances companies into non-profits;” “Allow Medicare to directly negotiate lower drug prices;” “create a much stronger risk adjustment mechanism [on the new exchanges];” and “Create a robust public option that can use Medicare rates and Medicare’s provider network.” I believe the ball is now in your court, Mr. Orszag! 🙂

Here are the FDL Action health care reform highlights for Tuesday, November 24.

1. Jon Walker explains “the difference between really trying and pretending to try” by Majority Leader Harry Reid on the public option. Walker quotes Gerald Seib of the Wall Street Journal, who writes, “Maybe Mr. Reid plans to push as far as he can with a bill including a public option, to show his party he has done all humanly possible, before yanking the public option just before the whole effort goes off a cliff.”  The problem for Reid, though, is that such a maneuver is not likely to fool anyone. Or, as Walker puts it, “his party’s base will not buy it.” So much for that idea.

2. Jon Walker has the second part of his series on what the Senate health care bill does better: “the Cantwell basic health program,” which Walker argues “is much closer to how sensible countries have designed their regulated health insurance marketplace or exchange.” Wait, we’re gonna start being “sensible” now? Ha.

3. David Dayen predicts that immigration could become a new sticking point for health care reform legislation, with “Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), a key ally of Barack Obama’s from Illinois, [saying] today that he would find it ‘extremely difficult if not impossible’ to vote for a health care bill that included the restrictive and discriminatory measure on undocumented immigrants that appears in the Senate’s version and has the White House’s support.” If it’s not one thing, it’s another…

4. Scarecrow explains why there needs to be a viable public option, arguing that “[w]ithout it, health insurance reform will be just a very bad, very foolish, and very expensive experiment – and clearly not the platform Democrats should want in 2010.”

5. Jon Walker asks, “Is PhRMA Afraid Of The Progressive Block?” The question is prompted by the fact that PhRMA is running ads in Connecticut urging Joe Lieberman to support the current Senate bill. Verrrry interesting.

6. Michael Whitney points to a powerful new video contrasting Blanche Lincoln vowing on the Senate floor to oppose a public option with thousands of uninsured Arkansans in Little Rock for a free health care clinic. It’s powerful stuff, and if you’d like to help us run the ads, please click here. Thanks.

7. Finally, Jon Walker compares the Senate filibuster to a game of “Shoots and Ladders” with “made up rules.” Walker concludes that “Senate Democrats have to decide if keeping their fun, made up rules is more important to them than helping millions of Americans in need.” Why does something tell me they’re going to go with the “fun, made up rules?”  Sigh.

Here are the FDL Action health care reform highlights for Monday, November 23.

1. Yesterday, Jon Walker took on Nate Silver, who “believes progressives should trade the public option away, but what he wants in return is far more useless and an even tougher political battle.”

2. Jane Hamsher says it all “comes down to a simple question: will Harry Reid allow for majority rule? Or will he let corrupt members of his own caucus block a majority of the public and Congress who want a public option?” Hamsher urges everyone to sign the petition to Harry Reid to pass the public option.

3. Jon Walker writes that Sen. Blanche Lincoln “is willing to force tens of millions of Americans to pay higher premiums for the small possibility it could gain her some political advantage,” and that this constitutes “the trifecta of awfulness.” For those keeping score at home, that’s a lot of awfulness! 🙂

4. Jon Walker points out “what a difference a serious primary challenge can make.” Specifically, “{Sen. Michael} Bennet is currently facing a serious primary challenge from Andrew Romanoff, while {Sen. Blanche} Lincoln is not currently facing a primary challenge.”  Walker concludes, “It is amazing how quickly a serious primary challenger turns a senator into a reliable vote on the important issues.” Sounds like we need a lot more primary challenges from real progressives.

5. Speaking of progressives, Jon Walker argues that “you can’t be a progressive and support the filibuster,” which he calls “a tool to thwart the will of the people” and “the great maintainer of the status quo.”  It’s not like the filibuster is in the Constitution or anything, it’s just an internal Senate rule, and those rules can be changed. Is there any good reason not to change it?

6. Jon Walker warns that Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) may be “jumping on the trigger bandwagon.” Even if he’s well intentioned, the problem is that any trigger in this case will likely “be designed to make sure it is never pulled, so there will never be a public option.” Obviously, that’s not an outcome we – or hopefully Sen. Menendez – find acceptable.

7. Jon Walker analyzes “what the Senate bill does better,” focusing in this post on the “waiver For state innovation.” Given many progressives’ frustration at this point, it’s good to know that the Senate bill “is not all bad,” as Walker puts it.

8. Finally, Jason Rosenbaum reiterates that “triggers are nothing but a plan to kill the public option.” Other than that, they’re a greeeeeeaaat idea. (snark)

Here are the FDL Action health care reform highlights for Friday, November 20.

1. Jon Walker asks, “Is Harry Reid Laying The Ground Work To Betray Progressives For Snowe’s Vote?” In the end, Walker concludes, “Reid does have the power to get a public option passed, there is no good excuse for failure.” Cool, so don’t fail! 🙂

2. Jon Walker says that “the crack team of reporters at the Washington Post don’t know how to read” and that they “make the ridiculous claim that the public option would not be able to keep down costs.” Other than that, they totally know what they’re talking about. Heh.

3. Jon Walker discusses why the House bill is much more “small c” conservative than the Senate bill. In short, the House bill “would do a better job of maintaining a health care system similar to the one we currently have” and the “reason for this is the employer mandate.”

4. David Dayen reports that “Ron Wyden has reached agreement with the leadership to get an amendment into the bill which would allow as many as 1 million additional individuals who get health care from their employers to participate on the insurance exchanges, including selecting the public option.” Dayen believes that this could “lead to significant changes in the current health system by expanding the risk pool in the exchanges, strengthening them, and setting a precedent for moving away from the employer-based system.”  The Republicans’ worst nightmare, in other words.

5. David Dayen reports that Bill Clinton told FDL’s Eve Gittelson that it would be problematic for him to attend a free medical clinic being held in Little Rock, Arkansas tomorrow because MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann had ‘politicized” the event.'” Huh?

6. David Dayen says that while “{e}veryone’s talking about the US Conference of Catholic Bishops and their imposition into the legislative debate over health care, particularly abortion,” the there’s also their “opposition to a restrictive provision in the Senate bill that would ban undocumented immigrants from purchasing health insurance on the exchange with their own money.” Go Catholic Bishops on this one!

7. Jon Walker asks, “Why Does The Senate Bill Create Two Exchanges?” The answer: “I have been unable to find a good reason why the decision was made to create two separate marketplaces.”  Well, that’s comforting! 🙂

8. Finally, tomorrow (Saturday) at 8pm eastern time is the big vote to proceed to debate on health care reform legislation in the U.S. Senate. We’ll see how it goes, but there’s little doubt that conservadems love their leverage in this process.  Thrilling, no?

Here are the FDL Action health care reform highlights for Thursday, November 19.

1. Jon Walker lays out “eight things wrong with the Senate health care bill,” beginning with “Delays Start Until 2014” and including “Nationwide Plans Gutting State Regulation.” Definitely a few things that need to be fixed here.

2. Jane Hamsher has a statement from FDL on the Senate health care bill. The statement concludes, “If Harry Reid truly cares about fighting for the good of the country over the good of Wellpoint, he will immediately dispense with the opt-out and move to reconciliation and allow a majority in the Senate to deliver to Americans what they want and desperately need.” Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear at the moment that Reid is so inclined.

3. Speaking of the opt-out, Jon Walker writes that the “CBO has concluded that the design of the opt-out provision will end up denying the public option to roughly a third of the population in this country.” Needless to say, that would not be good.

4. Jon Walker identifies the “most frightening line in the CBO report,” regarding risk adjustment mechanisms in the Senate bill that are “dangerously weak.” According to Walker, “that might not sound scary, but that line should strike fear in the hearts of any health care policy expert.” Find out why by clicking here.

5. Jon Walker writes that “at the request of AHIP, [the] Senate bill guts state  health insurance regulations.” Walker says that this “is a dramatic move by the federal government, forcing states to deregulate their health insurance markets,” and that it could “gut state health insurance regulations and create a race to the bottom.” Other than that, it’s great! (snark)

6. Jon Walker examines the House and Senate health care bills and concludes that the House bill is 12% more cost-effective than the Senate bill.

7. Jon Walker analyzes “how the Senate abortion language differs from Stupak”. In short, the Stupak amendment “would make it practically impossible for any insurance provider to offer abortion coverage on the exchange for a variety of financial and legal reasons.”

8. Jane Hamsher contrasts Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) “hold[ing] health care…hostage” while Lieutenant Governor Bill Halter “brings Olbermann clinics to Arkansas.” Quite a contrast.

9. Finally, Jon Walker reports that, “{l}ike a monster in some B horror movie,” Tom Carper is now working with Olympia Snowe “to bring back the trigger, which [Carper] has comically named the ‘hammer.'” The hammer? What, is this named after Tom DeLay or something? Weird.

Here are the FDL Action health care reform highlights for Wednesday, November 18.

1. Jane Hamsher reports that voting is now open for the Public Option Please (POP) art contest. There are six finalists, vote now!

2. Jon Walker writes that “it seems [Senator Thomas] Carper [D-DE] has completely reinvented (cribbed? copied?) Snowe’s trigger proposal, and must be hoping no one notices.”  Whoops, we noticed! 🙂

3. Jon Walker writes about a new CBS News poll which “found that a majority of Americans (51%) want Congress to pass a health care bill with a public option.” Only 26% of Americans prefer “no bill at all,” while an even smaller share (16%) would like a health care bill without a public option. Part of that 16%, of course, is Joe Lieberman, who is now being asked by “Concerned Clergy of Connecticut”, “what is it that your conscience tells you?”  A scary thought, indeed.

4. Jane Hamsher urges women to “get realistic about your uteruses.” I think I’ll just let Jane explain this one. LOL.

5. Jon Walker analyzes the Capps, Ellsworth, Stupak, and Senate Finance language on abortion.

6. Jon Walker says that “Ben Nelson is unlikely to block allowing debate to proceed on health care reform” because – get this – he fears that if he doesn’t, the legislation would move ahead under reconcilation and turn out less “moderate” (e.g., more progressive) than he and his pal Joe Lieberman would prefer. And that would be a bad thing, apparently. Got it.

7. Jon Walker writes that the Senate health care bill, at long last, will be unveiled tonight, with a vote possible on the motion to proceed as early as Saturday night. Of course, as Walker points out, “allowing a bill to be debated on the Senate floor is a long way from allowing the final up-or-down vote needed to pass the bill out of the Senate.” Hey, after decades of waiting, why rush this thing? (snark)

8. I blog about a story in North Decoder on Kent “Coop” Conrad calling Blue Cross/Blue Shield of North Dakota “irresponsible” for a mailing it did on health care reform. What’s hilarious is that Conrad has been the biggest proponent of health care cooperatives, yet that’s exactly what “irresponsible” BCBS of North Dakota hopes to be under federal legislation. Nice, huh? 🙂