Sunday, December 27, 2009

Save the filibuster, cont.

The Times' Reed Abelson today recalls the debacle of the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act, passed in 1988 and repealed in 1990 after an uproar from Medicare beneficiaries who saw their premiums rise to pay for coverage they had already bought for themselves.

The analogy with pending health care reform legislation is obvious: taxes begin right away while the signature benefits, subsidized health insurance offered on the exchanges, won't kick in until 2013 or 2014.

"The specter of repeal is going to be around for awhile," says one scholar of the Catastrophic Coverage Act, UCLA's Thomas Rice.

May I humbly refer HCR supporters to my warning of a few days ago: save the filibuster, protector of the Patient Protection Act?

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