Robert Laszewski

As the State of the Union approaches, there are lots of reports about a healthcare reform “Plan B” — pushing through the Senate bill with a parallel corrections bill that could be passed in the Senate using reconciliation rules.

Just when you thought you couldn’t be more cynical about the healthcare bill. There wasn’t a lot of hope the same administration that ignored the rule of law in granting unions priority over Chrysler bondholders was going to offend them on the “Cadillac” tax.

I was encouraged by remarks White House Budget chief Peter Orszag made in Washington on Wednesday. There has been substantial debate in recent days about whether the pending House and Senate bills have the kind of robust cost containment we need to really "bend" any healthcare cost "curves."

The accounting gimmickry in Harry Reid’s Senate health bill is astounding even by Capitol Hill standards.

Readers of this blog know of my yearlong pessimism over our getting a trillion dollar healthcare bill in 2009.

Two things happened this week that in tandem have the potential to lead to a compromise over a healthcare bill.

Out of almost nowhere has come momentum for a proposal to create a bipartisan entitlement and tax commission to draft proposals to control the long-term costs of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

Our healthcare system is truly titanic, in more than one sense of the word. Not only is it huge, but it's also growing at unsustainable rates that undermine our healthcare security and fiscal stability.

So far, Congress' response to the healthcare crisis has been alarmingly disappointing in three ways.

It appears that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is going to include a robust Medicare-like public option in his Senate draft.