Brad Blog:

Okay, I've now been able to get independent information from multiple sources that all of this precedes what are said to be possible federal indictments against Palin, concerning an embezzlement scandal related to the building of Palin's house and the Wasilla Sports Complex built during her tenure as Mayor. Both structures, it is said, feature the "same windows, same wood, same products." Federal investigators have been looking into this for some time, and indictments could be imminent, according to the Alaska sources.

The BRAD BLOG has not been able to receive confirm from any federal sources on this. Our information comes from local Alaskans who follow Palin, and who have been keeping an eye on this for some time, while keeping it quiet at the request of federal investigators.

Diarist Something the Dog Said at Daily Kos:

In a nut shell, the Health Care Insurance companies are concerned about protecting their near monopolies. The way these companies are going at this is by controlling major portions of a local market, at the State level. The Department of Justice considers a market "highly concentrated" if one company holds 42% of market share. Highly concentrated is just a step or so below a monopoly. This would still not be too bad if the remaining 58% of the market were made up of many other companies competing for business, but in health care this is not the case. In 30 States there is this highly concentrated market. In 12 States (nearly a quarter of the United States) 80% or more of the market is controlled by only the top two health care insurers. [...]

This is why the big companies are so freaked out by the idea of the public option. They can not buy out a government competitor. Since a public option will not be for profit with shareholders who will take a very sweet deal to leave a market, they will not be able to use their deep pockets to buy market share. Worse from their point of view, they will not be able to collude with a public plan to keep rates artificially high, under the premise everyone wins, well everyone except the consumer who only needs health care to stay alive and healthy and happy.

We all know that competition is critical to a well-functioning market, right?

Is it a parody? Or is it real?

"Unfortunately, people have a soft spot for kids with cancer."

Transcript of Obama's Wednesday press conference via NY Times:

QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President.

Two of the key players in the insurance industry, America's Health Insurance Plans and Blue Cross/Blue Shield, sent a letter to the Senate this morning saying that a government health insurance plan would, quote, "dismantle," end quote, private insurers.

QUESTION: Why are they wrong?

[...]

MR. OBAMA: Why would it drive private insurance out of business? If — if private — if private insurers say that the marketplace provides the best quality health care; if they tell us that they're offering a good deal, then why is it that the government, which they say can't run anything, suddenly is going to drive them out of business? That's not logical.

Via slinkerwink at Daily Kos, five of the Congressional Progressive Caucus's nine principles for a strong, robust Medicare-like public option:

• Available to All. Be available to all individuals and employers across the nation without limitation. […]

• Paid for Wellness, not Sickness. Have the ability to structure the provider rates to promote quality care, primary care, prevention, chronic care management, and good public health. […]
  
• Can Negotiate Payments. Establish or negotiate rates with pharmaceutical companies, durable medical equipment providers, and other providers to achieve the lowest prices for consumers.
  
• Equally Supported. Receive a level of subsidy and support that is no less than that received by private plans.
  
• Real Competition. Ensure premiums must be priced at the lowest levels possible, not tied to the rates of private insurance plans.

Digby's on a roll today:

I know that most people are covered under their employers, so this doesn't affect them. But there is a sizable population of freelancers, students and self-employed people who are reliant on the individual market. (And the Republicans want to put all of you in it!) We are pretty much slaves to our insurance. We can't even contemplate moving to a new state without taking into account whether or not we will be able to get a new policy. We hate the idea of going to a doctor because it will put a pre-existing condition on the record, thereby making it even more difficult to ever switch. [...]

You cannot have a dynamic, growing economy when people are not able to take risks for fear that they will lose everything they have, even their lives. If you can't change jobs or start a business or move to a place where there are more opportunities for fear of being without health insurance, the whole system slows down.

Digby:

The idea that the US doesn't ration healthcare is absurd. We certainly do. We just make people do it to themselves out of economic hardship. I guess that's supposed to be a tribute to our sense of individualism and personal freedom.

Hey, nobody's going to tell you you can't be treated — you made that decision all by yourself when you opted not to have a lot of money.

NY Times:

The rapid rise in medical costs has put many employers in a tough spot. They have had to pay much higher insurance premiums, which have increased their labor costs. To make up for these increases, many have given meager pay raises. [...]

Research by Katherine Baicker and Amitabh Chandra of Harvard has found that, on average, a 10 percent increase in health premiums leads to a 2.3 percent decline in inflation-adjusted pay. Victor Fuchs, a Stanford economist, and Ezekiel Emanuel, an oncologist now in the Obama administration, published an article in The Journal of the American Medical Association last year that nicely captured the tradeoff. When health costs have grown fastest over the last two decades, they wrote, wages have grown slowest, and vice versa.

So when middle-class families complain about being stretched thin, they're really complaining about rationing. Our expensive, inefficient health care system is eating up money that could otherwise pay for a mortgage, a car, a vacation or college tuition.

LA Times:

An investigation by the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations showed that health insurers WellPoint Inc., UnitedHealth Group and Assurant Inc. canceled the coverage of more than 20,000 people, allowing the companies to avoid paying more than $300 million in medical claims over a five-year period. [...]

A Texas nurse said she lost her coverage, after she was diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer, for failing to disclose a visit to a dermatologist for acne.

The sister of an Illinois man who died of lymphoma said his policy was rescinded for the failure to report a possible aneurysm and gallstones that his physician noted in his chart but did not discuss with him. [...]

Late in the hearing, [Rep. Bart] Stupak, the committee chairman, put the executives on the spot. Stupak asked each of them whether he would at least commit his company to immediately stop rescissions except where they could show "intentional fraud."

The answer from all three executives:

"No."

In related news, Dr. Ira Kirschenbaum writes at WebMD that the CEOs for 23 health companies were paid a combined 14.9 billion over the last five years. That's an average of almost $650 million for each CEO. No wonder the industry is terrified of a public option. A public-option plan could charge its customers $3 billion less a year by simply not paying its CEO like a Saudi king.

Zachary Roth at TPM Muckracker:

In a jailhouse interview with the AP over the weekend, Scott Roeder, the anti-abortion zealot who's been charged in the murder of Dr. George Tiller, revealed:

I know there are many other similar events planned around the country as long as abortion remains legal.

Roeder declined to elaborate. That means we have a suspect in custody who has admitted to having knowledge of specific terrorist attacks planned for the future. In order to thwart those alleged plots, we need more information from Roeder — information he doesn't seem likely to give up voluntarily.

By the logic of the ticking time-bomb scenario, we should be waterboarding Roeder already — or at least banging his head against the wall. After all, terror attacks could be imminent, with an unknown cost in terms of human lives and the creation of a climate of fear. It's a no-brainer, right?