The Washington Post notes that passing a health care reform bill this year "would be an extraordinary feat for Congress, but it is fraught with political peril."
"The great unknown of the health-care debate as it unfolds in the months
ahead is whether the current political landscape will prove more
hospitable to mandates, cost controls and tax increases -- all measures
now on the table that helped doom the Clinton plan."
House Democratic leaders gave members their first glimpse of their
version of a health care overhaul, "with
liberals leaving the meeting happy and centrist Democrats walking away
skeptical," according to The Hill.
Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) also introduced his proposal which is similar to the House version. The Wall Street Journal notes it "would require individuals to carry health insurance
except for those who couldn't afford it, and would establish federal or
state 'health benefit gateways' to allow Americans to buy it. Mr.
Kennedy had earlier called for a new public insurance plan and a
requirement that employers help pay for coverage, and while they are
mentioned in the bill, there are few details, suggesting those policies
are still being negotiated."
Important side note from First Read: "But don't expect any health-care plan
to be identified with anyone other than the president. The one thing
the White House doesn't want is this bill to be identified with any one
person in Congress."
Blue Dog Democrats in the House side are opposed to including a public
option and so is at least one Democratic senator. According to Glenn Thrush,
Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) came out against a public option yesterday,
telling reporters, "I am not open to a public option, however I will
remain open to a
compromise -- a full compromise. A
public option is not something I support i don't think its the right
way to go."
Meanwhile, Ezra Klein
cuts through the jargon and examines the difference between socialized
medicine, single-payer health care, and what we'll be getting.
"The words 'socialized medicine' and 'single-payer health care' get
thrown around with such gleeful abandon that they've both become a bit
unmoored from their actual meanings. In the American health-care
debate, they tend to refer to 'whatever the Democrats are proposing.'
But that's not what they mean."
