Monday finds commentators somewhat subdued as they continue to follow developments in the health overhaul debate in Washington.  As the people in the know stay focused on the hottest political show in town, others are offering a different kind of analysis. Exhibit A – some dueling health reform songs:

Here’s Paul Hipp, with a tongue-in-cheek song about the World Health Organization’s ranking of the world’s best health care systems — the U.S. comes in at #37.  Some lyrics:

“We’re Number 37
We’re the USA
The big Number 37
And we want to keep it that way
Be sure to bring the kids
All of the boys and girls
Because the #1 health care system in the world.

Is in France???”

And YouTube user BornTwyce parodied Don McClean’s American Pie with a song called “The Day Obamacare Died:”

“A long, long time ago
I can still remember
How, the protests used to make me smile
Cause I knew we could ram it thru
Before they ever had a clue
Then maybe they’d shut-up for a while
But the protests grew and made me shiver
Pelosi and Reid could not deliver
Now our push for health care has to wait
Til September [Spoken: or October or next year]
I cant remember if I cried
When I heard the right had organized”

Over in the wonkosphere, a few bloggers focused on the economics of health insurance:

Bob Laszewski digs into the Senate Finance Committee’s proposal to tax insurers offering plans over a certain dollar value and says the tax will be passed to consumers: “At any rate, whatever the tax, it will be passed through to those who pay the premiums. This is not a theoretical exercise. Taxes like this are what we call a premium load. You can load these costs as long as there are premiums available to load—loadings available.”

Insure Blog’s Bob Vineyard looks at a new health insurance regulations in Maryland and declares, “This effectively closes the door for new, individual health insurance policies in Maryland until further notice.”

And Wonk Room’s Igor Volsky blogs about a debate between former presidential candidate and DNC Chair Howard Dean and Karl R0ve, adviser to President George W. Bush.  Describing contention about Medicare’s administrative costs, Volsky writes:

But, one man’s ‘excess overhead’ is another man’s profit and the public industry’s ability to provide care more efficiently is precisely the reason why private insurers and Karl Rove — who actually criticized the President for vilifying private health insurers in his address — are afraid of competing with an efficient Medicare-like public option.

Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey lambast’s the Washington Post/ABC News’ statistical sampling for their latest public opinion poll on President Obama’s speech and health reform and concludes:

Given the fact that Obama continues to lose ground even in skewed samples of all adults, it means that he’s getting clobbered among likely voters.  The speech didn’t even stop Obama’s slide.  At best, it may have slowed his descent a little.  That’s not nearly good enough, and it shows that the more Obama appears on TV to angrily repeat the same old slogans, the less people care what he has to say.

Elsewhere, former Speaker Newt Gingrich on AEI’s blog suggests three ways for Obama to “prove” he is serious about bipartisanship: include an amendment requiring valid identification to prevent illegal immigrants from receiving services, reduce fraud and set a cap on non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases.

But The New Yorker’s Hedrik Hertzberg disagrees with Gingrich, examining the president’s strategy to pass a health overhaul bill in light of intense conservative activist opposition and says:

Bipartisanship is a fine sentiment and an appealing tactic, but where health care is concerned it was never a great idea. The boorish South Carolina Republican who shouted “You lie!” at the President after he said, truthfully, that reform “would not apply to those who are here illegally” did the public weal a favor by underlining bipartisanship’s futility. A bill that reflects a necessary compromise among Democrats is bound to be stronger than one that reflects an unnecessary compromise between Democrats and Republicans. And that’s no lie.

And finally, another health policy and politics blog has arrived on the scene — Politico has expanded the Politico Pulse feature to be updated throughout the day, blog-style, here.