From the White House Office of Health Reform Communications Director Linda Douglass:

From Nate Silver:
Baucus’s bill will not contain an employer mandate — a requirement that employers provide health insurance to their employees — even though it does contain an individual mandate.

Does this look familiar to anyone?

– No employer mandate
– No public option
– But yes, an individual mandate

It should — because this particular permutation on health care reform looks an awful lot like the incomplete draft of the HELP Committee’s bill that the CBO scored last month, which also lacked an employer mandate and a public option but contained an individual mandate. That bill, the CBO estimated, would cost about $1.0 trillion — but would only cover a net of about 16 million people. In contrast, the revised version of the HELP Committee’s bill, which did include both a public option and an employer mandate, would cost about the same amount but cover a net of 37 million people.

…
Baucus’s bill makes a different trade-off. In order to placate business interests on the employer mandate, and what are frankly ideological interests on the public option, it sacrifices coverage. If I’m reading this right, in fact, 16 million might be on the high end in terms of the net gain in coverage. That’s because whereas the HELP Committee’s unfinished draft subsidized insurance at up to 500 percent of the poverty line (meaning $54,150 for an individual or $110,250 for a family of four), the assistance in Baucus’s draft would end for people making more than 300 percent of poverty ($32,490 for an individual or $66,150 for a four-person family).

The AP may be right that Baucus’s bill will cost less than $1 trillion, but it accomplishes that by shifting the burden to middle-income families, some of whom have poor balance sheets and will face a really tough choice between paying for health insurance they can’t quite afford and facing some kind of penalty.

…
This is a pretty poor combination of attributes for a health care reform bill to have. If Baucus & Co. wanted to get the cost below $1 trillion, they could have chopped the subsidies down to, say, 350 percent of poverty, while keeping the employer mandate and the public option.

Read More Here

From The Plum Line:
National Dems think they’ve caught a prominent Republican in another major health care gaffe, and they say they’re planning on banging away at it all day today.

The gaffe in question: GOP Rep. Roy Blunt has now said Republicans won’t offer a health care bill of their own, breaking a previous promise. Worse, it turns out Blunt is chair of something called the “House GOP Health Care Solutions Group.”

Blunt’s quote went up online late yesterday evening:

“Our bill is never going to get to the floor, so why confuse the focus? We clearly have principles; we could have language, but why start diverting attention from this really bad piece of work they’ve got to whatever we’re offering right now?”

That’s a pretty stark admission that Republicans won’t introduce their own bill solely because they think it’s better politics to keep the focus on the Democrats.

It gets better. Head over to the House GOP Health Care Solutions Group’s Web site, and you’ll find prominent video of Blunt vowing the GOP is “drafting our own legislation.”

Full Article Here

Obama Demands: The Bill I Sign Must Include Public Option - “[A]ny plan I sign must include an insurance exchange: a one-stop shopping marketplace where you can compare the benefits, cost and track records of a variety of plans - including a public option to increase competition and keep insurance companies honest - and choose what’s best for your family.”

White House Plans to Use DeMint’s “Waterloo” Quote to Rally the Troops - Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., said, as Ben Smith at Politico reported, “If we’re able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him.”

Orszag: Republicans Trying To Kill Health Care Reform Through Delay - “There are those that are advocating delay just as a desperation move to try and kill this.”

Subprime Brokers Resurface as Dubious Loan Fixers - FedMod is but one example of how many of the same people who dispensed risky mortgages during the real estate bubble have reconstituted themselves into a new industry focused on selling loan modifications.

From Bill Moyers Journal:
“With almost 20 years inside the health insurance industry, Wendell Potter saw for-profit insurers hijack our health care system and put profits before patients. Now, he speaks with Bill Moyers about how those companies are standing in the way of health care reform.”

[Watch:]

From Houston Chronicle:
AUSTIN, Texas — Health class will no longer be a state requirement for high school students this fall, making Texas one of the few states in the country with no required health education, officials said.

Education Commissioner Robert Scott announced the move in a recent letter to school districts, causing some to worry Texas students will miss out on critical topics like alcohol awareness, sex education and basic nutrition.

“It was very surprising to a lot of people,” said Diana Everett, executive director of the Texas Association for Health Physical Education, Health, Recreation and Dance. “We’ve all been in shock.”

Individual school districts still can require students to take health classes, but Scott eliminated the state requirement to comply with a new law that bumps up the number electives required to graduate. Starting this fall, students must take six elective courses, instead of the currently mandated three-and-a-half.

Officials wanted to give students more flexibility to pursue electives of their own choosing, so while two required semesters of fine arts were maintained, a semester of physical education and two semesters of a technology class also were removed from the state’s recommended high school program.

“It’s a major statement about where we’re going,” Everett said. “We’ve been trying to address the issue of childhood obesity, but we seem to be losing ground every time the Legislature meets.”

Full Article Here

From TPM:
If you’re a long-time politico, you may have seen it coming: Standing between progressives and fundamental health care reform is a 30-year Senate veteran with a reputation cemented long ago as a deal-maker — or less charitably, as a sellout. Montana’s Max Baucus is exactly the sort of centrist often embraced by Washington insiders for “getting things done”–but whose record of acquiescing to special interests makes progressives cringe. As chairman of the Finance Committee he’s weathered his share of controversies. There’s no bypassing Baucus entirely. And he’s enjoying his position at the nexus of the reform battle.

“It’s a parade of lobbyists going in and out of that office every day,” says a Senate aide. “Everyone involved has strong ties back to the industry. And anyone who understands Baucus’ record understands that neither he nor his staffers want to make them unhappy.”

Full Article Here