The Associated Press reports that number crunching shows that only 2% of Americans under age 65 will receive health insurance under the public option proposed in the House bill.

The Democratic health care bills would extend coverage to the uninsured by providing government help with premiums and prohibiting insurers from excluding people in poor health or charging them more. But to keep from piling more on the federal deficit, most of the uninsured will have to wait until 2013 for help. Even then, many will have to pay a significant share of their own health care costs.

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Scarecrow at Firedoglake explains the consequential difference between negotiated rates (in the House Health Care Reform Bill) and the Medicare +5% wanted by progressives:

CBO estimated that a Public Option available only to the uninsured, self-insured and small businesses (less than 20 employees) would have saved the federal budget $110 billion over ten years, if the PO paid health care providers at Medicare rates plus 5 percent. The savings would be only $25 billion if the PO were required to negotiate rates with providers. If Congress chooses negotiated rates, it raises budget costs by $85 billion for the limited access exchange(s).

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Speaker Nancy Pelosi introduced the House Health Care reform bill today. As predicted, it does not have the "robust" public option:

House leaders abandoned an earlier effort to include a public option that would have established reimbursement rates to providers based on Medicare. Although the provision was backed by liberals, it lacked enough votes to pass. Rural Democrats strongly opposed that approach because of the potentially ruinous effect on doctors and hospitals in their districts, where Medicare rates are generally well below the national average.

Instead, Pelosi is offering a more moderate alternative in which rates would be negotiated between providers and federal health officials, similar to the way in which private insurance operates. Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said he would include a similar provision in the Senate bill, though with an "opt out" clause for states that don't want to participate.

A four page summary is here. The full text is here. The top 14 provisions that take effect immediately are here. The top ten changes from the current system are here. The implementation timeline is here. The benefits to seniors and the disabled are here. [More...]

The Senate has passed the bill authorizing trials of Guantanamo detainees in U.S. criminal courts. But, it also prevents those who are acquitted from remaining in the U.S. What happens to those who can't return to their home country for fear of torture? If they can't stay in the U.S., Guantanamo is closed and they can't go to their home country, where will they go?

Also, those who are convicted won't be allowed to serve their sentences in US prisons. Will we build new prisons abroad for them? That's a terrible idea. We need to get out of the prison business.

The bill now goes to President Obama for signing.

There's more to the bill: No release of torture photos: [More...]

Sadly, the Senate Judiciary Committee passed the Patriot Act renewal provisions yesterday. A few modifications were made, but not enough.

Marcy at Empty Wheel live-blogged the hearing and says, other than Feingold's statement, "We're not the Prosecutor's Committee, we're the Judiciary Committee,"

The rest of the hearing featured Democrat after Democrat arguing that we need to develop lists of all the potential suspects out there buying acetone and hydrogen peroxide.[More...]

Republican Senator Charles Grassley today said a Democratic amendment to the health care reform bill that passed early this morning will raise prescription Medicare drug premiums.

How so?

As the prescription benefit is designed now, taxpayers cover three-fourths of the cost of the benefit, while Medicare recipients pay the remaining 25 percent.

The amendment would allow the new Medicare commission to recommend "reductions in federal premium subsidies" to the private insurance plans that deliver the prescription drug benefit. Grassley's office said the "premium subsidies" are taxpayers' share of the cost of the prescription plan. If those are reduced, the plans will make up the difference by raising premiums for seniors.

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There was more action today in the Senate Finance Committee on health care. And Sen. Harry Reid addressed the public option:

"I favor a public option. We're going to do our very best to have a public option. But remember, a public option is a relative term," Reid, D-Nev., said Thursday.

Insurance companies aren't waiting for the outcome to announce changes. [More...]

The California Senate yesterday passed an amended prison reduction bill (already passed by the Assembly.) It now goes to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is expected to sign it.

Here is the Amended Bill. In addition to expanding some good time credits and reducing some parole supervision, it increases the monetary threshold amounts for some felony crimes like theft so that more will now be misdemeanors.

The bill is a weaker version of the one passed by the Senate weeks ago. The provisions authorizing early release to certain inmates with less than 12 months to serve, who are over age 60 or who are medically incapacitated, were stripped from the final version.

As a result, it will not satisfy the federal court order to reduce the inmate population by 40,000 inmates over the next two years. Instead, it will only cut the prison population by 20,000 to 25,000 inmates (or as few as 16,000 inmates)over two years. The bill originally passed by the Senate (which the Assembly would not agree to) would have cut 37,000 inmates. Other differences: [More...]

Here's my congressperson, Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO), agreeing with President Obama that doing nothing is not an option, but:

I agree with the President that consumers do better when there is choice and competition. The best way to achieve this is by offering a strong public option that will not only bring down rising costs, but will also ensure competition and transparency among private companies within the insurance Exchange. No one will be forced into the public option, but they will have that choice as an affordable alternative.”

(Received by e-mail, no link yet.)How is your Congressperson responding?

What did you think of President Obama's speech (text here)?

First, let me say, he was charismatic, forceful and presidential. The speech had some great lines and he delivered them perfectly.

Now, on to substance. Here's my shorter version:

• Mandates, everyone will have to buy insurance.

  That’s why under my plan, individuals will be required to carry basic health insurance – just as most states require you to carry auto insurance. Likewise, businesses will be required to either offer their workers health care, or chip in to help cover the cost of their workers. There will be a hardship waiver for those individuals who still cannot afford coverage, and 95% of all small businesses, because of their size and narrow profit margin, would be exempt from these requirements.

• No more promises your current health insurance plan will still be available or offered.

• A public option only for those currently without insurance, expected to apply to less than 5% of Americans: [More...]

Just received these excerpts of President Obama's speech tonight on health care from the White House. The speech is at 8pm ET. If you are not by a TV, the White House is streaming it live here.

I am not the first President to take up this cause, but I am determined to be the last. It has now been nearly a century since Theodore Roosevelt first called for health care reform. And ever since, nearly every President and Congress, whether Democrat or Republican, has attempted to meet this challenge in some way. A bill for comprehensive health reform was first introduced by John Dingell Sr. in 1943. Sixty-five years later, his son continues to introduce that same bill at the beginning of each session.

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One of my most frequent criticisms of President Obama has been his style of communicating. He talks in his own world of ideas. Often, I don't understand him or his message. He focuses too much on the "why" and not enough on the "how."

Tonight Obama needs to be concrete. But, apparently, we're going to get the philosophical law professor.

....[H]is speech tonight will "make clear" that he sees [the public option] as "a means to an end, not an end in and of itself," a senior administration official told reporters this afternoon.

Previewing Obama's speech to a joint session of Congress, the senior official -- who the White House insisted remain anonymous -- said the talk was an attempt to shift the focus of the national debate about healthcare back to the goals behind reforms and the concrete improvements reform legislation should bring. People have been "very focused on the trees, and not the forest," the official said. "Tonight's the night when he can describe the forest."

I want a mechanic, who can look under the hood and tell me how to fix what's wrong with my car so I can safely get from point A to point B. Not someone who tells me Detroit needs to build better cars. We all know what the problem is with health care. It's time for the cure.