Let the Games Begin...

The continuous struggles of Health Care reform has finally reached the Senate, with The Senate health committee approved a massive overhaul bill in a party-line 13-10 vote Wednesday morning. As expected, the Senate has expressed concerns regarding the amount of spending of public-option Health Care.

Also, as reported by Politico, the House version of the bill is dramatically different, with a surtax on the wealthy that may be a nonstarter in the Senate...a good sign.

The prospects of the Senate Version of the bill seems promising, for chances of Bi-Partisanship currently seem greater with players like Kennedy, Baucus, and Schumer.

Senator Kent Conrad, Democrat of North Dakota, said that negotiators continued to discuss some of the most controversial issues including a compromise on the government-run insurance plan that would instead use nonprofit health cooperatives to provide the desire competition with for-profit insurers.

The bottom line so far, as reported by the NY Times is this: "Even the most centrist Republicans such as Olympia J. Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine have shown no inclination to break with their Republican colleagues on the health care measure." - this simply means that the proposed health care bill still needs to seek common ground, even with Republicans reportedly being involved with over a 100 amendments to the House bill.

As always, there still 2 sides to even the idea of a public option Health Care.

On one hand.."Nationwide, health care costs consume 18 percent of our gross domestic product. If we continue on our current path, health care costs will consume 34 percent of our GDP by 2040, and the number of uninsured Americans will rise to 72 million, according to the Council of Economic Advisers."

On the other hand, "Should a "public option" be inserted into the health care market and perform like other government programs, 120 million Americans would lose their current coverage, according to actuaries at the nonpartisan Lewin Group. It's not hard to foresee employers dumping their private provider in search of less expensive, government-subsidized coverage."

...let the fight continue between the Dems and Republicans.

In my opinion, although such hefty price tags have been attached to current Health Care legislation, we must not forget that President Obama promised that the Administration will not be open to deficit spending. Health care reform will be paid for, and it will be deficit-neutral over 10 years. Also, one can't deny that President Obama is trying to cross party lines to keep open and bi-partisan discussion. So let's not loose all faith in this progressive initiative...