I haven't been following the "debate" carefully because I've been busy with other things and already have insurance that I'm keeping. However, one thing that stood out to me in my limited research is that right wingers are claiming that people with so-called catastrophic plans are being notified that they are losing their policies. However, I have seen such plans and read (here at DK) about new plans with payments as low as $53 a month, so I'm guessing that these plans are difficult to find only in some areas of the country (probably "red" states with uncooperative Repub governors), right?
If that's the case, the why hasn't the President put together a draft for a bill that Congress could pass quickly and which would allow such people to buy such a plan through Medicare? Since these plans are awful, it would mean more money into Medicare if enough people signed up, and it would open the door to a truly national system. Politically, Obama could call the Repub bluff and demonstrate that they don't really care about such people and that they have no real plan of their own, other than to advocate catastrophic plans that are often next to worthless, other than the money the insurance companies make from the monthly payments. Was this a huge missed opportunity to "go on the offensive" when the "MSM" was doing their best, it seemed, to misrepresent or exaggerate the "problem?"