As the week winds down, bloggers are turning their sites to some issues beyond the Senate Finance Committee.
Jacob Goldstein of the Wall Street Journal’s Health Blog reports that the sale of smoking cessation drugs could get a bump under the Finance panel’s health reform bill.
Wonk Room’s Igor Volksy posts a clip of Former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., where Frist argues against claims that President Obama’s health overhaul push amounts to “socialized medicine.”
Michelle McCarthy of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America reports that the group was successful in efforts to get an “advanced appropriations” bill. McCarthy says, “Budgets are often late because of Washington DC’s divisive and partisan politics. And a late VA budget means the VA cannot effectively plan and provide health care for veterans. They often have to ration care.”
Heritage’s Conn Carroll titles his post “Obamacare Puts You On Welfare” and elaborates: “Of those 29 million with new insurance coverage, almost half (14 million), will get their coverage through the welfare programs Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). That is equivalent to adding every resident of Ohio and Nevada to the welfare rolls.”
TPM’s Brian Beutler reports that some progressive leaders in favor of a public plan option might be softening their criticism of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
Hot Air’s Allah Pundit jumps off today’s Washington Post piece about wellness incentives and offers a different way of framing the health reform debate: “The ObamaCare debate is fundamentally about whether health insurance should be like insurance, i.e. where your own individual risk factors determine what you pay, or like welfare, i.e. you’re covered no matter what because that’s the humanitarian thing to do.”
Salon’s Joe Conason argues that coverage for undocumented immigrants should be part of a health care overhaul.
Uwe Reinhardt on the New York Times’ Economix addresses arguments from hopsitals that they must shift costs to private insurance if the government doesn’t pay for a certain percentage of services.
And if you’re in more of a listening mood, The Cato Institute has a new podcast about the Finance bill’s effect on insurance markets:
