The national news media seem to be more interested in the process this week than in chasing facts on reform and explaining the details.
So far, few outlets have taken on the task of explaining what this means to the consumer - you.
Politico breaks it down very well, and on Fox News, you see reporters brushing over details like co-op plans and a trigger option - until host Bret Baier has to pause to say, “Let’s explain those things.”
NPR’s Mara Liasson and The Weekly Standard’s Steve Hayes offer a concise picture of where the various reform plans are and what to look for.
First Liasson gives her take:
The House, I think, will probably pass something, and it will be a liberal version with a public option in it. The White House has been pretty clear. The president has signaled an openness to this non-profit co-op idea instead of a Medicare-style public option. Rahm Emanuel now has signaled his openness to a trigger, in other words, a public option that would only be enacted if certain circumstances were [met]
Then Hayes does a yoemans’ job of parsing out the track ahead.
Meanwhile, Democrats in Congress are falling all over themselves in efforts to change parts of the bills that certain groups find offensive or impractical.
The Washington Post’s JoAnne Allen referred to a “double-barreled setback” on healthcare and climate change.
Politico’s Patrick O’Connor and Chris Frates score the healthcare setback very well, from about every angle conceivable.
From Blue Dog Democrat’s concerns about the direction of the current bill - and that representatives actually have time to read it before a vote - to rural and western Dems’ insistance that inequities in health care reimbursements get fixed, the left appears to be fracturing and momentum on healthcare reform stalling.
Tags: Blue Dog, Chris Frates, Fox News, healthcare, JoAnne Allen, Mara Liasson, NPR, Patrick O'Connor, Politico, Steve Hayes, The Washington Post, The Weekly Standard
