Today’s New York Times hands over a portion of its op-ed page to Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI) to explain what Republicans would do to replace Obamacare, a.k.a., Armageddon and the end of American democracy as we know it. Answer: a government takeover of health insurance.

So, Obama and the Democrats have triumphed in their heroic struggle to protect the little guy, right? The rapacious health care industry is licking its wounds and wondering how it’ll ever survive, right? Umm… not so much.

Radical moderate Dianne Feinstein, of all people, has a solution to the lack of a federal overseer for the insurance regulations: creating a Medical Insurance Rate Authority which would have say over insurer rate hikes at the federal level.

I’m not Raul Grijalva or Jerry Nadler, but I thought I’d try to respond to TPM reader MD’s “sob story” (as MD called it) because the story illustrates the issues at stake in health care reform.

I call bullshit on Dan Pfeiffer.

No one that I know of in the Democratic party ever dreamed of passing health care reform “like this.” That’s a GOP dream if ever I’ve heard one.

Ezra Klein has done the discussion on health reform a big disservice by making false claims about what could, in fact, start a race to the bottom in the insurance market.

Senators Snowe, Lincoln, and Landrieu have submitted an amendment that would effectively eliminate all state regulations concerning what insurance companies must cover. If you live in a state with strong minimum benefit insurance regulations (California, Minnesota, New York, and Vermont come to mind), you will lose your current health insurance, and your insurance coverage will get worse.

nahant brings to our attention an extremely important and tragic statistic this Veteran’s Day. Via the Huffington Post: According to a study released by the Harvard Medical School, 2,266 veterans under the age of 65 died last year as a result of not having health insurance. Researchers emphasize that “that figure is more than 14 [...]

Tomorrow, Susan Pearl is coming to Washington, D.C. She’s coming on behalf of her son, Ian Pearl. Ian survives on a ventilator, a lasting condition stemming from respiratory collapse he suffered in 1991. His premiums from a Guardian Insurance policy Susan bought in 1981 have risen from $100 per month to over $3,000 per month. [...]

I can sympathize with a doctor who yearns to spend more time with his or her patients, but is “concierge medicine” really the best alternative? Patients pay concierge doctors upfront fees that can top $1,000 a month. In return, the doctors limit their practices to a fraction of their usual size and offer patients easy [...]