Healthcare Hope

Just when I thought any meaningful healthcare reform was dying in the Senate, the Gang of Ten (as opposed to the Gang of Six, the Gang of Fourteen, and the original Gang of Four, but not to be confused with the energy Gang of Ten) appears to have come up with a plan that might just work. The bad news is that the public option is gone. But that's not really so bad because any teeth the public plan may have had have been negotiated out of it. In return for dropping the plan, it appears that people over 55 (like me) could buy into Medicare, the eligibility for Medicaid might go up to 150% of the poverty line, and the insurance exchanges would offer a version of a healthcare plan offered to members of Congress.

Expanding Medicare coverage would offer some real hope of cost control, and apparently people could buy in as early as next June. That provision alone would make more of a difference to more people than anything I've seen so far.

Maybe there is some hope after all.