Or maybe it's just his centerfold, but they're positively drooling over the Senator Elect from Massachusetts. And they can barely conceal their glee about what Brown means for the Senate:
Senate Republicans increased their clout this week after Scott Brown (R-MA) scored an upset victory over Martha Coakley (D-MA) in a January 19 special election for the Massachusetts Senate seat that Paul Kirk (D-MA) has held since September 2009. After Brown is sworn into office, the Senate’s membership will include 57 Democrats, 41 Republicans, and two Independents who caucus with Democrats.
This means that Senate Democrats will need support from at least one Republican to secure 60 votes on key procedural motions, with significant implications for the health reform debate and other legislative priorities.
So, can we please, pretty please stop pretending the Senate bill is nothing but bales of cash being thrown to the insurance industry with nice sparkly bows on top? I'm still not sure if it's the centerfold or the HCR prospects, but you can be sure AHIP is sighing dreamily right now.
And we have simply got to burst their little bubble. We must pass the bill. I know everybody wants reconciliation and fixes and this and that; I really believe the dkos community is * gasp * unanimous on that. Some of us disagree as to the timing. Okay, fine. But speaking of timing, a brand new Senate bill through reconciliation would both be limited in scope and take at least one month. That would probably be true even for just a companion bill for the house.
Several Important reforms kick in immediately and the longer we delay moving forward on this, the worse this gets:
America's Health Insurance Plans said it put up funds at the behest of its members.
Aetna Inc. quotescomstock/13*!aet/quotes/nls/aet (AET 30.88, 0.42, 1.34%) , Cigna Corp. quotescomstock/13*!ci/quotes/nls/ci (CI 36.78, +0.06, +0.16%) , Humana Inc. quotescomstock/13*!hum/quotes/nls/hum (HUM 49.81, 1.19, 2.33%) , UnitedHealth Group Inc. quotescomstock/13*!unh/quotes/nls/unh (UNH 33.13, 0.03, 0.09%) and Wellpoint Inc. quotescomstock/13*!wlp/quotes/nls/wlp (WLP 65.73, +0.63, +0.96%) .
...each insurer secretly put up at least $1 million and that the organization as a whole contributed $10 million to $20 million dating back to last summer.
The Journal reported that AHIP solicited the funds and funneled them to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to underwrite the ads.
...AHIP did not want to fund the effort directly, the Journal story said, for fear of running up against the same public relations problems that the industry encountered with its "Harry and Louise" ads.
The Mandatory Medical Loss Ratio alone can help put an end to this nonsense. Even the Senate bill has that. And in light of the recent GOP SCOTUS decision regarding political advertising, delaying Health Care Reform is truly to kill Health Care Reform. Make no mistake.
Passing this bill is one small step forward for true progressive HCR, one giant leap forward for HCR in general.
Update [2010-1-25 12:37:3 by Cedwyn]: HCAN is asking people to call for the House to pass the Senate bill as well.
Health Care for America Now is putting its money where its mouth is. Last week, the nation's largest reform campaign put itself on the side of major labor organizations, and leading members of Congress, saying the way out of the Democrats' health care conundrum is for the House to pass the Senate's legislation, and then pair it with a separate package amending key financing and structural aspects of the bill. This week, they're stepping up their efforts to make sure that happens.
Please make those calls, people:
Toll-free numbers for House and Senate:
1-866-338-1015
1-866-220-0044
1-866-311-3405
And please write LTEs! I am happy to help anybody with writing/proofreading them!