Instead of a public option, what does the Senate bill contain?

[midnight]

* A removal of the ban on annual limits that Reid slipped in at the last minute, in violation of the President's promise in his September address to Congress
* An exemption from anti-trust law for insurance companies that will reduce competition
* Taxes that start up in January, but benefits that don't start until 2014
* No ability to negotiate for Medicare drug prices (you know, that thing the Democrats passed in the "first hundred days" in 2006 when it didn't matter)
* No cost controls, so health insurance premiums will continue to rise at a rate of $1000 a year
* A tax on middle class insurance plans that is designed to cut back insurance benefits, reduce coverage, and increase co-pays and deductibles.

That reduction in your insurance benefits is a feature, not a bug - it's how they're going to "bend the cost curve."http://leftinthewest.com/

[Skittles]

1. but we should suck it up and enjoy the VICTORY!!

WOOO! :o

[midnight]

2. I know this is the consensus throughout the lobbiest, and the paid media, and as much as I would

like to, my principles say otherwise.

[Skittles]

3. mine too

and for anyone who is truly paying attention

[Dr.Phool]

4. Why do you hate America?

[customerserviceguy]

5. You forgot to mention the mandate

to stuff more of our hard earned dollars into cash-grubbing insurance companies.

[midnight]

6. The flawed thinking in fixing this bill later, and that it is "an awesome achievement".

Paul Krugman, while calling the legislation "a seriously flawed bill we'll spend years if not decades fixing," applauded it as "an awesome achievement."

This typifies the current thinking of the "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good" crowd. Unfortunately, there are three faulty premises at work in this line of reasoning. First, that those who oppose the bill do so because it's not perfect (as opposed to because it's a hot health care mess). Second, that the bill is, well, good (as opposed to a total victory for Pharma and the insurance industry -- witness the spectacular spike in health care stocks following Monday's vote).

Third is the premise that this is as good a bill as we can get right now, and we can always go back and improve it later.

It doesn't work that way. We heard the same kinds of sentiments about No Child Left Behind when it passed in 2001. Backers on both sides of the aisle had problems with it, but both sides celebrated it as a major step forward -- and promised to make it better in the future.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/the-senate-health-care-bi_b_400006.html