Since some opponents of reform seem too obsessed with the length of the Senate health insurance reform bill to even bother looking at what’s in it for American families, we thought we’d make it a little easier for them to find some key of provisions they’re working so hard to kill:

* On page 78 you’ll learn that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ends discrimination based on pre-existing conditions.

* On page 17, it makes preventive care completely free, with no cost-sharing. (This might be of particular interest to those who have chosen to seize on concerns about the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force Recommendations on mammograms to spread baseless myths and advance their own political agenda.)

* Flipping back to page 16, you’ll find that insurance companies are prohibited from dropping your coverage or watering it down when you get sick and need it most.

* Also on page 16, you might notice that it puts an end to lifetime caps on coverage.

* Page 18 is where the bill extends family coverage eligibility for young Americans through the age of 26.

* On page 83 it requires insurance companies to renew any policy as long as the policyholder pays their premium in full – that means they can’t refuse to renew your coverage just because you get sick.

* Page 307 is home to tax credits for small businesses to help them afford insurance for their employees.

* And folks looking to scare our senior citizens about what reform means for them might be interested to check out page 923 and learn that it provides a 50% discount on drugs for seniors in the so-called donut hole.

I worried that the Obama folks might lose some of their edge in the transition to the White House, and while of course they can’t be as hard edged about some things due to their role as the government, they clearly are not going to roll over like so many Democrats in power too often do.

Voting for health care reform – and at the ultimate least, voting for that bill to get to a floor vote – should be a fundamental element of being in the Democratic caucus. If you’re going to be against it, you shouldn’t be there in the first place. There is a party opposed to reform of of one of the most important elements in American society. It is called the Republican party.

Senate Dems and their staffers have coasted along for far too long, protected from the world of actual politics because for so long they could do no more than toothless stunts and speeches. Now they’ve got to step up to the plate and deliver, and playing CYA wont’ cut it.

UPDATE: Chris Rock said it best.

N***as always want credit for some shit they supposed to do. A n***a will brag about some shit a normal man just does. A n***a will say some shit like, “I take care of my kids.” You’re supposed to, you dumb motherfucker! What kind of ignorant shit is that? “I ain’t never been to jail!” What do you want, a cookie?! You’re not supposed to go to jail, you low-expectation-having motherfucker!

So I got a full-on belly laugh reading this objection to botox taxes from a cosmetic industry flack.

In addition, he said the tax would be especially hurtful in tough economic times that have prompted many newly jobless women to look for ways to make themselves more marketable to prospective employers. He said, ‘They’re competing with people 10 to 15 years younger than them and they want to look better.’

It’s a testament to the art of shilling that someone could make that argument with a straight face. Maybe the botox stopped him from laughing?

In one of the few announced primary races on the Democratic side, Rep. Allen Boyd, a Florida Blue Dog who voted against the House health care bill, is already trailing state Senate Minority Leader Al Lawson in a two-way race.

Lawson leads Boyd 35-31 in the poll, conducted by The Research Network, with the rest undecided. Allen Boyd’s re-elect number is just 39%, and his job approval number is 44.5%. While Boyd has generally good favorability numbers, Lawson’s numbers are sky-high, with a 47.5% favorability and just 12.4% unfavorable. By contrast, Boyd is up to 38% unfavorable. The poll screened for likely voters, and has a fairly large margin of error of ± 4.6%.

If you’re a Democrat, you vote for health care reform, period. If you vote no, the Democratic party will abandon you and the GOP will blow you up anyway.

The health care bill will require $849 billion over 10 years in new spending, to be paid for with cuts to Medicare, while reducing the deficit by $127 billion.

A notice obtained by CNN went out to Senate Democrats saying, ‘All Senators should be aware that former President Clinton will be making a presentation on Health Care at tomorrow’s caucus lunch. Senator Reid has requested that all Democratic Senators attend.’

We need a bill on the president’s desk by Christmas, at the very latest, New Years Eve.

Look, blue dog Democrats are expected to vote stupidly on things like guns, abortion, and gay rights. I expect that. But on health care reform? If you’re not going to vote for that, don’t bother being a Democrat.

We should support the primary opponents of the following Democrats, and in the case of Artur Davis, not support his run for governor of Alabama. It would be great for Alabama to have a Democratic governor who is black, but it isn’t worth it if that Governor is going to be a lackey for the health insurance industry and the forces of the status quo.

The 39 Democrats who shouldn’t bother to be Democrats:

Adler
Altmire
Baird
Barrow
Boccieri
Boren
Boucher
Boyd
Bright
Chandler
Childers
Artur Davis
Lincoln Davis
Chet Edwards
Gordon
Griffith
Herseth-sandlin
Holden

Kissell
Kosmas
Kratovil
Kucinich
Betsy Markey
Marshall
Massa
Matheson
McIntyre
McMahon
Melancon
Minnick
Scott Murphy
Nye
Peterson
Ross
Shuler
Skelton
Tanner
Taylor
Teague

Office of the Press Secretary

_______________________________________________________________________________________

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

November 7, 2009

Statement of President Barack Obama on House Passage of the Affordable Health Care for America Act

Tonight, in an historic vote, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would finally make real the promise of quality, affordable health care for the American people.

The Affordable Health Care for America Act is a piece of legislation that will provide stability and security for Americans who have insurance; quality affordable options for those who don’t; and bring down the cost of health care for families, businesses, and the government while strengthening the financial health of Medicare. And it is legislation that is fully paid for and will reduce our long-term federal deficit.

Thanks to the hard work of the House, we are just two steps away from achieving health insurance reform in America. Now the United States Senate must follow suit and pass its version of the legislation. I am absolutely confident it will, and I look forward to signing comprehensive health insurance reform into law by the end of the year.

##

Right now the vote is 220-215 in favor, with one Republican – Joseph Cao of Louisiana – voting in favor.

Congrats to Speaker Pelosi and the Dems who voted with her. History will remember this day.

YES, WE DID. Now, it’s your turn Harry Reid and the Senate.

I am totally shocked.

The Congressional Budget Office said on Wednesday that an alternative health care bill put forward by House Republicans would have little impact in extending health benefits to the roughly 30 million uninsured Americans, but would reduce average insurance premium costs for people who have coverage.

The Republican bill, which has no chance of passage, would extend insurance coverage to about 3 million people by 2019, and would leave about 52 million people uninsured, the budget office said, meaning the proportion of non-elderly Americans with coverage would remain about the same as now, at roughly 83 percent.

The budget office has said that the Democrats’ health care proposal would extend coverage to 36 million people, meaning that 96 percent of legal residents would have health benefits. The Democrats’ bill would cost $1.1 trillion, with the costs more than covered by revenues from new taxes or cuts in government spending, particularly on Medicare.

The Republican party had years to improve the health care of Americans, they didn’t do a damn thing. If the Democratic party has any interest in not being complicit in the deaths and discomfort of millions of Americans, they’ll do the right thing and pass this law.

The Senate Democratic leader indicated Tuesday that lawmakers may not complete health care legislation this year, missing President Barack Obama’s deadline on his signature issue and pushing debate into a congressional election year.

With just eight weeks left, the Senate is running out of time to finish a comprehensive bill to extend coverage to millions of Americans and control rising medical costs. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., emerged from a closed-door meeting of rank-and-file Democrats signaling that delay was likely.

Asked if he could pass health care this year, Reid said: ‘We’re not going to be bound by any timelines. We need to do the best job we can for the American people. We want quality legislation, and we’re going to do that.’

Look, if health care reform doesn’t pass this year, it isn’t going to pass. The entire reason we’re this late on it is because Reid allowed Baucus to dick us around this summer. Harry Reid is a majority leader who acts weaker than a minority leader. He bends at the slightest sign of resistance. He talks big, then retreats.

If he doesn’t get a health care vote this year, Harry Reid should either step down or be removed from his leadership role.

UPDATE: And now, backpedaling. Message control in the Reid office is not a virtue.

“Our goals remain unchanged. We want to get health insurance reform done this year, and we have unprecedented momentum to achieve that,” Reid spokesman Jim Manley emailed. “There is no reason why we can’t have a transparent and thorough debate in the Senate and still send a bill to the President by Christmas.”

If history had taken a different course, Doug Holtz-Eakin would be inside the McCain White House driving the Republican president’s domestic agenda, including health-care reform. But now, one year after Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) lost the presidential election, the man who was by McCain’s side as the campaign’s top health-care guru remains unemployed — and his COBRA health coverage is running out.

Irony of ironies, it gets worse. Holtz-Eakin, who is about to start shopping for insurance on the individual market, is 51. And he has one of those pesky “preexisting conditions” that insurance companies often cite in denying coverage.

Also, the Washington Post is pretty hilarious in inferring that a McCain White House would be working on health care reform. The GOP ran the House for 12 years and the White House for 8 and they didn’t do a damn thing about the health care system in this country.

If the bill Speaker Pelosi and the House Democrats have produced makes them this angry (oh my God, it has a lot of pages!), we should pass it as soon as possible.

“Which of these would you prefer – (a plan that includes some form of government-sponsored health insurance for people who can’t get affordable private insurance, but is approved without support from Republicans in Congress); or (a plan that is approved with support from Republicans in Congress, but does not include any form of government-sponsored health insurance for people who can’t get affordable private insurance)?”

Fifty one percent said they preferred the public option; 37 percent said they preferred a bill with some support from Republicans in Congress. Six percent said neither and seven percent expressed no opinion.