Legal Commentary

What Will "Health Care Reform" Actually Look Like?

By Big Tent Democrat

My series on political bargaining was intended to point out that what "health care reform" will eventually look like is effected by how you bargain for it now. Consider Ezra Klein's most recent post:

I keep recommending this Families USA brief (pdf, but worth it!) outlining the 10 most important elements of health-care reform. The public option is one of them, to be sure, and I think there's a substantial chance it will be present in the final legislation. But what about the expansion of Medicaid to 133 percent of the poverty line? That's a solid 20 million poor Americans who don't have coverage now, and will soon. What about the out-of-pocket caps, so no one goes medically bankrupt ever again? Or the assurance that no insurer can ever discriminate based on a preexisting condition? Or the subsidies for working Americans who can't quite afford coverage? Or the requirements that insurers spend more money on medical care and less money on premiums? Or the guarantee that the gruesome practice of rescission will finally end?

Even accepting Ezra's premise (and I do not), how does Ezra know all of this will be in a final bill? If today the public option can be jettisoned, what can go tomorrow? Max Baucus does not even have a bill on the table. Ezra suggests progressives bargain against themselves. Here's the ultimate question for Ezra, how does he expect all those good things to stay in the bill if progressives follow his advice and bargain against themselves?

Speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on August 24, 2009 (boomark / email).