The House has worked at alarming speed, rushing a mammoth 1,018-page health care bill through two of three committees since the markup process began on Tuesday.
During these preliminary stages of the legislative process, HuffPost's Eyes & Ears is calling on readers to help make sense of the health care bill using Insight, a new interactive research and commenting application.
This is not our first distributive investigation into a big piece of legislation. Hundreds of citizen journalists helped report on major bills like Obama's stimulus package and the financial bailout, finding items in both plans that had previously gone unreported. But using Insight means this can be the most crowd-powered E&E project yet.
Past investigations had limited community interaction. HuffPost readers and our Eyes & Ears investigation teams would email their findings directly to HuffPost editors, who would pool the collective research of hundreds of participants, cull through their findings and feature the best scoops on our homepage.
While these investigations included robust communication between HuffPost editors and individual researchers, they lacked significant interaction between participants.
With this health care investigation we are taking a giant step toward fully horizontal and interactive investigations by partnering with Insight, giving investigators the ability to start a public discussion about individual sections of the bill.
Newly released, Insight was created to give readers the ability to rate the accuracy and importance of widely cited quotes. This project will adapt Insight's interface for a slightly different purpose, allowing you to have a public dialogue on individual line items of legislation. So bear with us, as some aspects on the Insight interface will simply not apply to this project.
Using Insight, readers can create a public comment thread about an individual section of the health care bill simply by highlighting the relevant text. Other investigators will then have the option to comment on and rate the same section of the bill.
If using Insight sounds confusing, that's because there's nothing like it out there. To help you understand understand this new interface, the people at Insight have made a great two-minute screencast.
As Rep. Waxman's Energy and Commerce Committee pores over the bill, more and more people are coming together to discuss the legislation using Insight. Join the investigation here.
Looking into this House bill is just one aspect of HuffPost's Eyes & Ears health care investigation, which is keeping an eye on legislators and lobbyists as the battle over reform evolves.
Next week, citizen journalists at the Huffington Post Health Care Investigative Unit will also be mapping out connections between some of the most influential members of Congress and the funds that drive their campaigns. Meanwhile, reporters are in touch with congressional offices on a regular basis, keeping a record of their latest stances on health care reform.
If you are interested in joining the team, click here and check out Adam Clark Estes's latest update.
Follow Matthew Palevsky on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mpalevsky
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Health Care Bill Released: What Does Congress Hope You're Missing (INTERACTIVE INVESTIGATION)
Does anyone honestly believe that a public option in 2013 is the best we can do, or is something that we should settle for?
Nurses Praise House Vote to Permit State Single-Payer Laws
by Ron Moore
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/07/18-1
A Real Win for Single-Payer Advocates
by John Nichols
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/07/18-5
Canada achieved Universal Health Care one Province at a time. The Federal gov't. was obliged to comply.
Am I missing something?? I also believe as a senior citizen that Medicare should also be replaced with universal coverage. Many seniors are financially able to buy health ins and others could be on a sliding scale. Like many programs this may have out lived its need if we truly have universal coverage for all Americans. I wish someone would talk about all the current healthcare programs the government is paying for and how they play in this debate. Thank you Victoria
Short version: http://edlabor.house.gov/documents/111/pdf/publications/AAHCA-BILLSUMMARY-071409.pdf
Full test (scroll down to Learn More, then Read Bill Text): http://www.speaker.gov/blog/?p=1864
one month of my health insurance, will convince anyone.
just let me get theirs -- even if i have to pay for it.[at their price.]
The 2.5% penalty for those who are not on a plan is not too bad if the penalty is applied to the cost of their enrollment in a plan. That point was not clear to me. It did say the penalty was not to exceed the cost of a premium.
If health care infrastructure is improved as a result of this perhaps more jobs for people will also be a result.
I would also like to see the insurance companies out of the equation but perhaps they can be phased out over time.
It is a profit raising device first.
The whole bill is an insurance company boondoggle disguised with HOPE! of future enforcements, which will be ignored, unenforced, or changed.
That's the first thing I thought about when I, too, read the first part of this bill -- profits and protecting the status quo come first. It can't be stated often enough: It's a bad bill.
As to the analysis: American health care has three main problems:
1) It costs too much. It's the most expensive in the world.
2) It's employer based so losing your job and income is coupled with losing your health insurance.
3) It doesn't cover everyone.
After Obama's "reform" it will:
1) Cost $100,000,000,000 MORE PER YEAR!!! We made this problem worse.
2) Will still be employer based. In fact this tax on our businesses will get worse as additional businesses will be required to cover their employees.
3) Won't cover everyone. It fails to meet this basic minimum of the health care system of every other developed nation in the world.
How much more do you need to know?
americans want health care... republicans wants health insurance.
when you look at this battle going on in congress and divided them along these lines, you will get a better picture of whats happening.
It actually means EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE. Health insurance (private, for-profit health insurance which is obvioulsy what was meant if we're talking about Republicans) is the polar OPPOSITE of the government being involved.
If you're going to challenge people's posts, at least get the intent of the post you're challenging right instead of exactly backwards.
20 million under insured
fast food companies and insurance companies making profits hand over fist. Bushes tax cuts for the rich still in effect
Subtract 10 million poor/indigent/mentally ill, etc, who are uninsured and will have to get free care = 37 mill un-insured who can pay.
18.5 million can pay $50/mo = 925,000,000
18.5 mill can pay $100 = $1,850,000,000
20 mill under insured will switch and can pay $100 = 2,000,000,000
That is a grand total of $47,750,000,000
That is FOUR BILLION, SEVEN HUNDRED SEVENTY FIVE MILLION DOLLARS IN PREMIUM PAYMENTS PER MONTH. FIFTY SEVEN BILLION THREE HUNDRED THIRTY MILLION PER YEAR IN PREMIUMS FOR ONE SET OF PEOPLE.
That does'nt count the millions who'll switch from private companies if they can pay $100 or 200 per month and have their entire family covered even with pre-existing conditions. Repeal bush tax cuts asap brings another 700billion
After thinking about it more, we should have a 1 penny federal sales tax on EVERY purchase. I can hear the opponents shouting about making the poor poorer, but my statement is 1 cent on each purchase NOT on every dollar or hundred dollars. From candy bars to fruit to big screen tv's to your house. 1 cent on everything. If your grocery bill was $100. for 53 items, your bill would be $100.53. That's not putting people in the poorhouse especially when we've already been dealing with price increases
MANDATED healthcare is what the INSURANCE COMPANIES WANTED from the start.
THIS IS PRIVATIZATION OF HEALTH CARE ...........just as Bush wanted to do with SOCIAL SECURITY
Your INTERPRETATION Kaborka was right................but DO NOT GIVE UP !!!
THE middle class gets NOTHING...................NOTA
and their TAX SURCHARGE will only make the rich angry too....and you know the result !!!