Careful, Max. You'll wrench your shoulder patting yourself on the back that hard.

Health Insurers say the Baucus plan will lead to more expensive insurance:

Health insurers and hospitals are concerned that the weaker mandate to buy insurance in the Senate Finance bill could result in fewer new customers, the Wall Street Journal reports. After initially embracing the Baucus proposal and agreeing to new regulations with “the expectation that millions of new customers would be brought into the health-care system,” the health industry is now arguing that the bill’s softer mandate penalties may lead to higher premiums and increased costs:

- Karen Ignagni, President and CEO of AHIP: “People will drop coverage and those who stay in would see rate shock,” Karen Ignagni, president of America’s Health Insurance Plans, the insurance industry trade group, said in an interview Monday.

- Alissa Fox, Lobbyist for Blue Cross/Blue Shied: “It might seem like they are solving the problem, but what happens is premiums for everyone are going to get more expensive in the new market.” “It only works when everyone is in the pool.”

...

The health insurance industry’s millions of dollars and millions of lobbyists have convinced a large block of lawmakers to oppose a public option that could lower premiums by 10 percent, save the government some $150 billion over 10 years, and lower the cost of the overall bill (by reducing subsidies). Over the last decade, private insurers have stomped out any meaningful competition and have stopped negotiating with providers on behalf of their beneficiaries. They’ve monopolized the health care markets and allowed premiums to increase some 119% in the last ten years.

http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2009/10/06/insurers-affordability/

Because victory doesn't mean giving more people health care coverage, or giving already-covered people better coverage, or ensuring fairness and human decency in the health care market, or even, y'know, something like "keep people from dying". "Victory" means saving $81 billion over a decade, which incidentally, loosely extrapolating from this article I just happen to have open in the other tag, is about how much we'll be spending on "missile defense" over the same period.

So will Baucus finally be releasing his talons from the health care legislation soon, then? And once he does, is there any way to exert pressure on the "conference" members to make sure as little as possible of the Baucus bill survives?

Yeah, Max. This is just great. Only, just imagine how many more people would be covered and how much more money would be saved if there were a public option!

Yay for you Max. If CBO says it'll save 81 billion, it'll probably save twice that. Except, of course, for the fact that this bill would be a blight on the Democratic Party if passed as-is because it leaves millions uninsured. Fortunately, most every Senate Democrat except you, Conrad, Landrieu and the imbecile from Nebraska seem to get that.

The idiot is not talking to Rockefeller. This guy who is an elderly senator from Montana isn't talking to Rockefeller. Tells me all I need to know about MaxBucks.

Now, if only this whole policy debate was about reducing or increasing the deficit, we'd be in great shape. One thing I do know, if we don't slow down the increase in costs for health care, we're all going to be in a (personal) deficit or without insurance.

Bacaus: "I've found this new incredible substance, with which we can cause the ground to be bountiful, the flowers to grow fragrant and tall, and there seems to be be an increasing supply in Washington."
Public: "It's crap!"