The main worry expressed by the Blue Dogs is that the Congressional Budget Office has predicted that leading bills on Capitol Hill won�t bring down medical inflation. The irony is that the Blue Dogs� argument � that a new public insurance plan designed to compete with private insurers should be smaller and less powerful, and that Medicare and this new plan should pay more generous rates to rural providers � would make reform more expensive, not less.

Jacob Hacker.

House Democrats reached a deal with conservatives in their caucus that would reduce the overall cost of the package and ensure more funding for rural hospitals, concessions that could allow the Energy and Commerce Committee to finish its consideration of the legislation.

Apparently Collin Peterson and Keith Ellison are unhappy with the compromise. I am beginning to wonder if any bill gets you to 218 and 60.

Labels: health care, politics