Public Option

House and Senate Democratic leaders will likely bypass the traditional joint conference for reconciling legislation and instead hold informal talks through most of January to work out the differences between the two bodies' bills. The last big sticking point is how to pay for reform.

As it now exists, health-reform legislation is hardly a leap to "universal" coverage -- some 23 million Americans will be left out. Plus, neither the Senate nor the House version takes effect before 2013, leaving many newly eligible without insurance for years.

Why is public support falling? People are confused by all the rhetoric, shocked by the huge price tag and scared that the proposed changes will only make the situation worse. Yet it's not too late for Congress to come together and improve a system that isn't working now.

As the health care debate continues to grind on, the public option seems to be, once again, on the way out. Supporters have hailed the proposal as a way to introduce competition into the marketplace, while opponents have attacked it as socialized medicine and the first step toward rationed health...

The biggest problem with the Democratic Party and its prospects in next year's midterms might not be the economy or jobs or health care after all. The problem might be rank stupidity. A new poll from Research 2000 indicates that Democratic turnout on Election Day was low because, quite simply,...

If you ask a progressive on the president's left flank, they'll probably tell you that the House health care reform bill that passed the House on Saturday is, in fact, a weak bill with a public option that's doomed to fail. I don't necessarily agree. The bill clamps down hard on insurance companies...

On Monday, Thomson Reuters released "Where Can $700 Billion in Waste Be Cut Annually from the U.S. Healthcare System," a white paper exploring American health-care costs. The report identified six factors -- administrative inefficiency, provider inefficiency, lack of care coordination, unwarranted...

Poor health insurers! They can't handle a little competition. So their Congressional peons try to scare people with the idea that introducing competition into the health care market will let the government pull the plug on grandma. Fortunately, Americans are still capable of thinking for themselves...

Health care reform has created a whirlwind of facts and fictions. Feeling confused about the issue? Walletpop cuts through the noise to give you clear and simple answers: Isn't the public option for freeloaders? Why should we adopt it when critics are calling it socialist? A public option...