Harry Reid stood up for America today.

He put a public health insurance option in the Senate bill, the merged version of the two health care bills passed out of committee that will now go to the Senate floor for debate, amendments, and passage.

This is a huge victory....

Yesterday, Majority Leader Harry Reid testified in support of a bill championed by Senator Leahy to repeal the anti-trust exemption health insurance companies currently enjoy. The bill has received a ton of support:

Leahy's bill would repeal the exemption established in the 1945 McCarran-Ferguson Act for any companies...

Olympia Snowe's trigger is a plan to kill the public health insurance option. Not kill it as in make it weaker, but kill it as in make absolutely sure it will never, ever come into existence.

Senator Snowe's trigger is literally a catch-22, defined by Wikipedia as "a set...

To borrow a phrase from Ezra Klein, here's a simple, easy to understand chart of how health care would work if health care reform is passed. It's really not that hard to understand, and it's certainly much more specific than the Republican plan.

For your consideration (click for...

Those that want a trigger for the public health insurance option are saying, "Let's give the insurance industry one more chance to clean up its act." We've been there and done that, fifteen years ago.

That was the same argument the insurance industry made in 1994 and we've seen what...

Today, the Health Care for America Now coalition is having a national call-in day. Our message? The House of Representatives needs to pass reform now, before they go home for vacation.

Can you join us? Call toll free, 1-877-264-HCAN to be connected with your representative. Or click here to...

The Blue Dog negotiating list for health reform has been floating around for days now. Here's the list:

--Effectively bend the cost curve
-- Realign incentives to reward high quality, efficient health care; include value-based purchasing, value index, innovation center for Medicare and Medicaid, and other delivery system reforms
--Increase...

Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley gets a pretty sweet deal as Senator on health care. He pays $356.59 per month, and the most he pays when visiting a doctor or hospital is $300. Compare that to your average Iowan family,...

As the health reform fight moves forward, the issues people are talking about change. While it once seemed like our biggest battle was over whether we are going to get a strong public health insurance option as part of reform, that question has now joined a host of others in...

The HELP Committee has released their final version of a health care bill, including a public health insurance option and a provision for shared responsibility:

Democrats on a key Senate Committee outlined a revised and far less costly health care plan Wednesday night that includes a government-run insurance option...

In the last few days, there has been a significant shift in the political winds in Washington towards real health care reform, with a robust public health insurance option at its heart. The last thing we need is someone nay-saying that reform won't pass. Let's take a look at the...

According to new information obtained by the Washington Post:

One week after the nation's health insurance lobby pledged to President Obama to do what it can to constrain rising health costs, Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina is putting the finishing touches on a public message campaign...

Just four days after standing next to President Obama and declaring their commitment to control health care costs to the tune of $2 trillion over 10 years, the insurance industry, drug and medical device makers, and hospital groups are backing off their promise:

Senator Chuck Schumer floated what he's calling a compromise on the public health insurance option, encompassing four points:

• The public plan must be self-sustaining. It should pay claims with money raised from premiums and co-payments. It should not receive tax revenue or appropriations from the government.

The Senate was set to vote last night on whether or not a minority of Senators could block health care reform using a process called budget reconciliation.

The way it was supposed to work was this: Republicans were going to offer an amendment to tell the Senators negotiating a...

Yesterday, Ken Johnson at the Eagle-Tribune in Massachusetts, noticed something fishy going on with the letters to the editor his paper was receiving:

Across Massachusetts, senior citizens are writing letters to newspapers demanding that their representatives in Congress protect a form of health insurance called Medicare Advantage.

Last week, President Obama concluded his strategy review on the war in Afghanistan. In his speech announcing his conclusions, he explicitly stated the reason this war continues:

As President, my greatest responsibility is to protect the American people. We are not in Afghanistan to control that country or...

It comes down to this: Do you think health care reform should get a straight majority vote in Congress? Or should a few Senators be allowed to single-handedly block reform?

As we speak, the Senate is working on President Obama's budget. At stake is something called "budget reconciliation," a...

Last week, Health Care for America Now rallied with health care reform supporters from across the political spectrum - from doctors to union members to single payer activists - and tried to present Karen Ignagni, CEO of America's Health Insurance Plans, the insurance industry lobby, with an award for...

DC often feels left out of politics. We don't have a vote in Congress, and so we can't give our Congressional delegation a call when we want reform. But today, DC got to make its voice heard.

As noted earlier, America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) is having a conference...