Three stories - one new story with bad news at Wash Post and two others at TNR, are the topic of this diary.
the new story is what Snowe got for her vote.
Ezra Klein over at WaPo illuminates us about the news - that those Senators at the table in the Senate conference on merging the HELP bill with the Finance Bill will be Reid, Dodd, Baucus - and Snowe by invitation.
The numbers that represents are a problem.
But there is a bigger problem, having to do with those private Health Insurance Exchanges - combined with the special invite to a Republican that is not extended to - for example - another Democrat.
The Washington Post article informs us that as it turns out, Snowe's leverage - which may have been negotiated between her and Mr. Forget-The-Public-Option out of sight before we in the public learned of her vote - was apparently a seat at the table.
As Klein puts it, Snowe is going to get
a space in the negotiations equivalent to the chairmen of the two relevant committees.
[the emphasis is by Klein. He wants us to recognize just how much of a sellout we are facing. But putting paid to the public option - as it turns out, why that's just the start.
In case, Schumer didn't get the memo, Washington Post sub-header tells us - and the Senator - that the conference is looking to acquire enough votes to prevent a filibuster. So much for the Senator's calim that putting the public Option into the bill is getting heard by Mr. Reid.
Now for the worse news: As a story by Suzy Khimm over at The New Republic on What Senator Snow Wants Now informs readers, Senator Snowe had three priorities - affordability, the Exchanges and blowing off the Public Opiton - even the Opt-out - in favor of triggers.
Here are the money quotes on the second two issues: Snowe wants to
Strengthen the health insurance exchanges: Snowe said that it was critical to make the exchange "a powerful force," complimenting her colleague Ron Wyden's desire to open up the exchanges. She siad it was important "to bring in more small businesses" into the exchange, creating a bigger pool that could bring costs down for the other participants. "The more the merrier," she summed up. A strong exchange would also help amplify the positive, cost-saving impact of a public option, should one come to be included. Which brings us to...
Push for the trigger alternative. Yes, she's still all for it. She reiterated that she wasn't inclined to support the proprosed state "opt-out" option and emphasized the importance of thinking of a government-run alternative as a genuine "back-up" plan for states.
Remember, this article was written before Ms. Snowe made it fairly emphatic in the last 24 hours that she was anti-public option. So take Khimm's "should one come to be included" with a grain of salt the size of, say, Maine.
However - "OK. I say to myself, so maybe the Exchanges won't be all bad." [hah!]
Then one comes to this article - which explains that "the more the merrier" does not necessarily bode well for costs or quality. The article is also in TNR - and the article, "Stocked Exchange" - written about ten days ago by Jonathon Cohn - should be read in great detail byb everyone reading this diary, IMHO.
Mr. Cohn states flatly that the version of the Exchange in the Finance Bill is no better than an unregulated Yellow Pages and is essentially nothing like the Massachusetts Exchange, where preliminary screening gives those options on the Exchange something like a "seal of Approval"
Here are a few excerpts:
Ten years from now, if health care reform is a boondoggle, you might be able to trace that failure back to a decision in the wee hours of last week's Senate Finance Committee hearings.
The idea of an insurance exchange is relatively straightforward....you choose from among a set of insurance plans... It'd be good to know which policies work and which ones don't.
Those available through large companies, or the federal government, Cohn says are pre-screened. All
conform[] to some minimal standard, all [are] available to you regardless of pre-existing medical condition. They've been chosen by your human resources or benefit department, who--ideally--have some clue about what they're doing, more at least than you do.
And in Massachusetts, rates for the Commonwealth Option - included among its "menu of insurance options--all of them covering essential services and providing solid financial protection, for rates not previously available" have risen more slowly than any other private plan.
This all would seem a good start especially because all of the other four ills in the House and Senate have a "Prudent Purchaser" component - "a staff that bargain[s] with insurers to bring down premiums."
So what's the problem?
Well, TNR notes, in the Finance Committee version,
the exchange administrators would, by law, have to accept any plan that meets a relatively minimal set of standards.
OK - I say to myself - that can change. Perhaps Senator Baucus can be overriden by the others at the table [including Senator Snowe.
One stumbling block:
when Kerry introduced his plan last week, he couldn't get the votes to pass it. The reason, several sources on Capitol Hill say, was opposition from Olympia Snowe
Her reason reeks about as much as her opposition to the Public Option: dreaded government involvement.
Cohn makes clear that "as Massachusetts has shown, sometimes more government is exactly what health care needs."
But his hope that the Exchanges could be strengthened in the merger talks now seems pretty hollow.
read the three articles, and your comments welcome.