The somewhat good news here is that the seamless coverage regulations proposed by the Department of Health and Human Services have been widely praised. They are designed to do all those calculations backstage, so that the consumer need only to visit one portal to figure out which program they slot into. And it sets up a process for annual eligibility review, so individuals are not responsible for flagging their increase in income. Individuals who end up making too much for Medicaid will get to keep their coverage until they get a new plan on the exchange.

The somewhat bad news is that because of the new rules, the tax credits just got less affordable.

The most dangerous plans I’ve seen coming out of the debt limit talks are chained CPI and the Medicaid blended rate. I’ve written extensively about chained CPI, which would cause a Social Security benefit cut of hundreds of dollars a year for the average beneficiary. The way that can be most easily combated is by calling it what it is – a tax increase. Only $100 billion of the $300 billion projected savings in chained CPI comes from Social Security; the other $200 billion comes from the effect of slowing the cost of living adjustment in other programs, including… tax brackets.

Shopping for insurance and medical treatment: fun for all ages.

You can pretty much figure out AHIP’s game here. With no restrictions on cost until 2014, the industry can raise their premium prices almost at will. Even the bad publicity suffered from that 39% rate hike of Anthem Blue Cross plan has not stopped that scheduled increase from taking effect in May. And when outrage is expressed by families facing double-digit rate hikes, AHIP will clear their throats and blame the pre-existing condition exclusion for children, forcing the poor insurance companies to take on a sicker risk pool and raise prices to survive.

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.

Jay Rockefeller is making a lot of noise about a provision in the House health care bill that would fold the SCHIP (State Children’s Health Insurance Program) into the insurance exchanges when they begin running in 2013. Rockefeller, who changed the Senate Finance Committee bill to rescue SCHIP from the same fate, released this statement [...]

This New York Times article, Little Hope For GOP to Support Health Bill, illustrates the problem with bipartisanship and getting Republican votes. It’s like people haven’t paid attention to the GOP votes against the stimulus bill, against the ACES bill, and against the S-CHIP bill. Why would they vote for the health bill out of the Senate Finance Committee after showing such a consistent pattern of votes against President Obama’s agenda?

Opponents of the Employee Free Choice Act in Congress made their Big Lie into a bill Wednesday, when Republicans John DeMint (S.C.) and Mike Enzi (Wyo.) introduced the so-called Secret Ballot Protection Act.

Before we go further, let’s clear up the bill’s false implication right now:

The Employee Free Choice Act would not—repeat after me—would not, take away the secret ballot National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election process if workers seeking to form a union wanted to use it.

They may be party animals when chugging $8,204 worth of booze but, after the hangover is over, the staff at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce goes back to being their ugly anti-worker selves.

Seems that some 100 or so Chamber of Commerce staff recently ran up an $8,204 tab at The Exchange, a sports bar within staggering distance from the Chamber’s architecturally ever-so ponderous Washington, D.C., headquarters.