Obama's Healthcare Proposal Now Online

Obama's healthcare proposal is rather genius. Check it out here. I like the way it's broken out. If you want to see the simple version, just look under the "what reform means to you" tab. There is even a tab that has the republican ideas. Note that it also gets rid of the special deals that were arranged for states, including Ben Nelson's deal. Hip Hooray for that. This proposal simply leaves the republicans without an excuse. They have to show up Thursday in good form.
The bipartisan healthcare meeting is scheduled for Thursday, 10 am eastern and will be live streamed at WhiteHouse.gov.

If you're reading this at around 10:30 am eastern, Obama is speaking to governors here.

Linda Douglass, White House spokeswoman for health reform:

Dr. Joe Wanted to Work in a Third World Country

Dr. Pedro Jose Greer's dream was to work in a third world country. He discovered he kind of does. He found third-world poverty in his own back yard and founded the Camillus Health Concern to help homeless and low-income people get health care. Is it acceptable for insurance companies to refuse someone based on a pre-existing condition, he asks? He answers: "I hope they're enjoying all the money they're making."
While people like Greer, winner of a 2009 Presidential Medal of Freedom, believe in doing the right thing, insurance companies today said that if health reform passes, insurance premiums will go up. Now they're threatening us? I really hope that one day we can rid ourselves of the evil that is the health insurance industry.

The health insurance industry (America's Health Insurance Plans) says they'll have to raise rates:

The White House fires back at the industry:

White House spokeswoman Linda Douglass called the report a "self-serving analysis" from an opponent of any kind of health insurance reform.

"It comes on the eve of a vote that will reduce the industry's profits," Douglass told TPMDC. "It is hard to take it seriously. The analysis completely ignores critical policies will lower costs for those who have insurance, expand coverage and provide affordable health insurance options to millions of Americans who are priced out of today's health insurance market or are locked out by unfair insurance company practices." TPM

Fixing the Baucus Bill

Nancy Snyderman talks to Linda Douglass, a White House spokeswoman:

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A good story about caring for yourself in the WSJ today:

What cures colds, flu, sore throats, sore muscles, headaches, stomach aches, diarrhea, menstrual cramps, hangovers, back pain, jaw pain, tennis elbow, blisters, acne and colic, costs nothing, has no weird side effects and doesn't require a prescription?

Plain old-fashioned time. But it's often the hardest medicine for patients to take.

"Most people's bodies and immune systems are wonderful in terms of handling things—if people can be patient," says Ted Epperly, a family physician in Boise, Idaho, and president of the American Academy of Family Physicians.

"I have a mantra: You can do more for yourself than I can do for you," says Raymond Scalettar, a Washington, D.C., rheumatologist and former chairman of the American Medical Association. But, he says, "some patients are very medicine-oriented, and when you tell them they aren't good candidates for a drug they've heard about on TV, they don't come back."

Also, if healthcare is going to be mandated, it better be a good bill. But I'm getting kind of nervous like the republicans. Let the mark up begin:

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White House Take on Baucus Bill

Linda Douglass, White House healthcare spokeswoman, more or less dismisses Howard Dean and says the Baucus bill has some strong points. Douglass says the dems are united in that the status quo is unacceptable (I think that's all they agree on). Douglass reiterates that this isn't the final bill. In the final bill, health insurance has to be affordable (unlike the Baucus bill).

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Obama is Not Abandoning Public Option

I knew at the get-go the media was wrong on this. Obama is not abandoning the public option.

The White House sought to reassure jittery supporters Monday that President Obama is not abandoning the fight for a public health insurance option.

President Obama "believes the public option is the best way" to reform health care, a White House aide says.

The assurance came amid a media firestorm ignited over the weekend by administration officials seeming to indicate a willingness to drop such an option in order to secure congressional approval of a health care reform bill.

The verbal maneuvering reflected the steep political challenge facing an administration trying to balance the competing priorities of the more conservative Senate and the more liberal House of Representatives.

"The president has always said that what is essential is that health insurance reform must lower costs, ensure that there are affordable options for all Americans, and it must increase choice and competition in the health insurance market," White House aide Linda Douglass said in a written statement.

"He believes the public option is the best way to achieve those goals." CNN

This is what happened--the AP wrote a story saying that Kathleen Sebelius, on This Week this past Sunday, signaled that the White House was abandoning the public option. I've watched Obama's people day in and day out and Sebelius didn't say anything different, neither did Gibbs, but an AP writer thought they saw something. The AP story gets picked up everywhere and then the rest of the media feels like it has to follow on. In fact, they have no choice. If a media outlet didn't follow on, it would appear as if they weren't in the know. The media is hyper sensitive because they're always looking to be first to break news.

Gibbs this morning:

On W.H. officials’ rhetoric in recent days on the public option: "If it was a signal, it was a dog whistle that we started blowing about three months ago, and it just got picked up," Gibbs said. "It’s crazy. It’s not a signal. It’s what we’ve been saying for months on this. The goal is choice and competition. The preference is the public plan. If there are others that have ideas on how we obtain choice and competition in a normally closed private ins market for people who are looking to buy private insurance … but enter a market that only has one entity in it, we’re certainly happy to look at those plans.” -Obama has not reached out to "liberals or lawmakers" on their concern about the fate of public option. “He’s not made any calls," Gibbs said. Politico

Americans may be chickening out, falling prey to wingnut propaganda, according to a new poll, but Linda Douglass insists nothing has changed:

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White House Beats Back Internet Rumors

Douglass explains health care won't be rationed: