healthcare reform

Things are looking up for Americans. The recession is over. And finally, meaningful healthcare reform is looking possible.

The Senate is on board with the public option, giving insurance companies a reason to offer consumers competitive rates. Today, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi revealed the details of the package that would provide insurance to up to 36 million people by expanding Medicaid, the combined state and federal insurance program for the poor, and by offering subsidies to middle-income Americans to either buy insurance from private carriers or from the new government-run providers.

David Herzenhorn, blogging in the New York Times, reports the cost would be $894 billion, and would reduce future federal deficits by about $30 billion over the next 10 years.

Meanwhile, Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada says the bill he will send to the Senate floor next month also will include a public option.

This is the same public option that was derided for weeks during the summer months, right up there along with “death camps.”

"While the public option is not a silver bullet, I believe it's an important way to ensure competition and to level the playing field for patients with the insurance industry," Reid said.

Reid is no doubt emboldened by polls that show growing public support for the public option.

So Joe Wilson shouts crudely, "You Lie," at the president from the House floor. What's the truth about illegal immigrants and health care?

Karen E. Crummy of the Denver Post, takes a look at the language of the House bill, and determines that while illegal immigrants are not exempt from the requirements to buy insurances and not prohibited from enrolling in the "Health Insurance Exchange," which offers access to private plans and a public option (should it ever come to pass) they must be in the country lawfully to receive subsidies based on income. That's according to research by the the Congressional Research Service, a nonpartisan arm of Congress.

"While there are no spelled-out citizenship verification procedures, implementing proper mechanisms would fall to the health choices commissioner, a presidential appointee position, created by the legislation, who would oversee a new regulatory body, according to congressional services. There are citizenship checks already in place for federal programs such as Medicaid, which could be used for this purpose.

Additionally, Leighton Ku, a health policy analyst and professor at George Washington University, said that because the bill ties subsidies to substantiated income, there already exists a good method to weed out fraud through tax returns.