This diary is nothing fancy. This is simply my take as to why you should not get too bent out of shape over the Senate finance committee's Health Insurance Reform bill.
- The role of the finance committee is nothing more than what the name would suggest. The only part of their bill that matters is the part of paying for the reform. The HELP committee could not touch medicare or any taxation as those topics are beyond their reach.
- The CBO will eviscerate the Finance bill. Without an employer mandate the coverage will be limited and without the public plan the bill will be expensive.
- The bill will still need to pass through two levels of reconciliation. One of which is reconciling with the HELP bill. What will eventually happen is the medicare savings and tax plans from the finance committee will be adopted while the actual medical reforms from the HELP bill will be adopted.
- The final Senate bill will also need to be reconciled with the house bill, which is stronger than both of the Senate proposals. The likelihood of a public plan not being tacked on in either reconciliation is pretty unlikely.
That's it really. Folks need to take a step back and breathe for a second. The weak finance bill was totally expected and we shouldn't sweat it too much. We are still winning this fight.