Should I be proud that one of our WA Senators managed to do SOMETHING, or disgusted that this is, so far, the best they can accomplish in spite of being the "dominant" party in Congress?

Doesn't Basic Health have something like a two year waiting period? And aren't they kicking 40,000 people off it by January 1, 2010?

I know I've never qualified, and I've been broke and without health insurance for a long, long time.

And how many lawmakers are going to vote for this quasi-public plan, crow about how they've stepped up for the uninsured, and then leave the rest of us in the exact same sinking ship we were in before? They win the PR war and still get to keep all the money from their real constituents: the insurance companies.

I call bullshit.

while it is 75% bullshit, it is 100% better than nothing.

all in all i am shocked that cantwell finally did something. yay her! boo it wasn't really a public option...

I'm not convinced this is better than nothing.
Here's the damning phrase: "It is a public plan, but negotiated with the private sector."

100% bullshit. It's a private plan, in which public dollars will be spent on the horrifying layers of useless and incompetent bureaucracy--for which private health insurance is eponymous.

Thanks for assuming I don't know what orthogonal means, and don't know how to find out. I should have realized Slog was keyed to the 9th grade reading level.

allows states to negotiate with insurers on behalf of people between 133 percent and 200 percent of the poverty line

Make that 1,000 percent, and maybe they'll get somewhere with this. Health care costs are strangling the middle class. Protecting the poor is very nice, but it's not good enough.

When the dems don't get returned to power next year and ask why, just say "What was the point?"

So far agreeing with @4. @8: would you rather push dems to do the right thing (which Cantwell is responding to, if just a little,) or elect republicans?

I say we push harder for a progressive agenda. Surprisingly, they are responding a bit! Roll with it!

This is a bigger and more public plan than most Slog commenters apparently realize.

It covers the lion's share of today's uninsured, it funds their coverage, and it makes the State the Buyer - acting with monopsony leverage against multiple competing sellers.

Bogus!

All or nothing.

Every US citizen must have a public option.

Period.

@12: don't be an absolutist. After all, the Public Option is a fractional compromise to begin with.

@10: >>It covers the lion's share of today's uninsured, it funds their coverage, and it makes the State the Buyer - acting with monopsony leverage against multiple competing sellers.

I'd like to believe that; can you attribute these bits?

@ 13 - For points 2 and 3, I can direct you to the release (as Eli did) but I can't read it for you.

For point 1, google "Distribution of the Nonelderly Uninsured by Federal Poverty Level" and pull up the cached version.

RonK: That was seriously dickish. Or douchey. Way to piss off people who are agreeing with you. I'm sure you feel better. I don't; I just know whom to avoid in the future. That'd be you.