President Obama is already honing his skills in defending what will likely be his biggest domestic policy issue “win” for the foreseeable future — passage of the healthcare reform bill. Guess whom he’s attacking (throwing under the bus?) to get the job done — the progressive bloc of the Democratic party whose coattails on which he sailed into the presidency on their mandate. Obama, on his pending signature legislation which does not reference a public option — from NPR:

This notion I know among some on the left that somehow this bill is not everything that it should be … I think just ignores the real human reality that this will help millions of people and end up being the most significant piece of domestic legislation at least since Medicare and maybe since Social Security.

Yes, this is significant legislation, but Insurance will not be shedding a tear on a provision whose contingencies it has been expecting and planning for^[1] this entire time. | LINK

1. The Senate version of the reform bill uses tax credits in a more restricted manner than the House to allow patients to shop for coverage in an exchange. Within the exchange, the House bill would make available a government-run plan, which negotiates with doctors and hospitals on payment rates. The plan couldn’t pay doctors and hospitals at a lower rate than Medicare does. The Senate would require the Office of Personnel Management to contract with insurers to offer at least one multistate insurance plan in each exchange. [↩]

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