Although the public option is gone and there’s still a lot that could happen to the bill in conference, the new health care reform bill now pending in Congress does eliminate the ability of insurance companies to deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions. For many people, coverage is the difference between productive work and an incapacitating disability.
And on a related point, as a matter of pragmatic political calculus, why is it that the Senate rejected the public option and medicare expansion, two proposals very popular with the public generally? I don’t understand the politics behind those moves.
