So Howard Dean has joined the ranks of liberals piling on health reform and encouraging lawmakers to toss in the towel. (See Kos and Firedoglake for more reform-flogging from the left.) Health reform does not succeed or fail by the public option, despite

The Huffington Post declared the public option's time of death as 11:12 on 12/10/09--the time of a press conference in which Nancy Pelosi signaled her willingness to entertain a bill without the provision.   If that was the technical time of death, what w

A group of 33 major consumer and labor organizations from 14 states are calling on the Senate to take up a cost-savings measure that would help consumers get access to well-tested, fairly priced drugs by banning anti-competitive legal deals between brand-

Last week, the New York Times reported on the dire need to improve health care on Native American Tribal Lands. Unfortunately, one of the major components of overall health and the health care system was overlooked as part of the article – oral health and

Oops! Read the Public Option Post-Mortem and Dec. 14 Health Reform Insider here. And now for something completely different, Senator McCain proclaims himself a defender of Medicare The first week of Senate debate has seemed, at times, more like Monty Pyt

When we talk about lessons learned, today’s health care reform efforts are often held up to the measuring stick of President Bill Clinton’s failed health reform proposal in 1993. But an earlier national reform experience—President Richard Nixon’s attempts

Throughout the reform debate, a constellation of key issues—financing, affordability and the inclusion and design of a public insurance option—have been key focal points of discussion.  Now, as reform inches closer to the finish line, another set of issue

On Saturday night, history knocked on the door of the U.S. House of Representatives and, by a slim margin, they agreed to answer. Two-hundred nineteen Democrats and one Republican, two more than the bare minimum needed for passage, voted in favor of the A

At the last possible moment, House Republicans have unveiled their alternative health reform package. The proposal is a jumble of old ideas that does next to nothing to address the rising numbers of uninsured, provide health security to middle-income fami