(Don't miss John Walsh's comment regarding the importance of having two Senators from Massachusetts.
Note to Christopher: the public option and the exchange are very different. The exchange is very similar to the Connector that we have here in MA -- a centralized place where consumers can compare and purchase health insurance. The public option is a government-operated health insurance plan, which presumably will be one option among those offered in the exchange. So, when you go to the exchange, you can choose between (for instance) plans offered by Blue Cross, Aetna, Cigna, Tufts, Fallon, and the government (public option). - promoted by David)
Last night the Senate voted on straight party lines to open debate on the Democratic leadership's health reform bill. All 60 members of the Democratic caucus voted for cloture on the motion; 39 Republicans (Voinovich of Ohio not voting) voted against. As far as I'm concerned there's no reason in the world for this particular procedural vote to not have been unanimous. All this was was a vote on whether to talk about it. The Democrats should be hammering the GOP by saying we may have our disagreements, but the Republicans don't even want to talk about an issue affecting millions of Americans. Ben Nelson of Nebraska asked rhetorically why he would vote against an opportunity to make the bill better. I hope Reid stands fast for a public option though Lincoln's floor speech confused me because she sounded like she wanted an exchange, but not a public option which I thought were one in the same.
