Insurance premiums for small businesses are being driven higher not just because of an increase in healthcare costs, but also because Wall Street wants higher returns:

The higher premiums at least partly reflect the inexorable rise of medical costs, which is forcing Medicare to raise premiums, too. Health insurance bills are also rising for big employers, but because they have more negotiating clout, their increases are generally not as steep.

Higher medical costs aside, some experts say they think the insurance industry, under pressure from Wall Street, is raising premiums to get ahead of any legislative changes that might reduce their profits.

Now, you might think with health insurance reform pending in Congress, the industry would be concerned about screwing its customers. But you'd be wrong because Washington doesn't run this country, Wall Street does:

“There’s no one out there who hasn’t had to do a mea culpa to Wall Street,” said Sheryl Skolnick, an analyst for Pali Capital who follows the companies. While the industry is particularly vulnerable now in Washington, she said, “it seems like they’re more afraid of Wall Street.”

Sure it costs 2-3 times as much as other developed countries. But someone has to pay for lifesaving drugs like this:

And it's not just snark, those damned Europeans really are more innovative in pharmaceuticals. No back room deal with Billy Tauzin required.

Helen Thomas explains to Robert Gibbs why she keeps asking if Obama will fight for a public option (h/t Melissa McEwan):

Of course, I'm sure Helen realizes that:

1) Obama isn't going to fight for a public option (even a puny, useless one and if you don't believe me, watch the video again); and
2) Robert Gibbs doesn't have a conscience.

My son wants to know, how to argue with "liberals" who say, isn't it a good thing if we cover more people than we do now?

My son is a consummate liberal. He's tried to get me to give him good arguments.

My arguments:

The present plan may, in fact, insure a handful - a hundred thousand -- but at the expense of charging a hundred thousend.

It insures only half (maybe) of the uninsured by pouring money into into the for-profit insurance companies.

Why would any person calling him/herself liberal, want to pour even more money into the for-profit insurers?

Folks, my son wants to know. He's a son of a baby-boomer who has, so far, resisted giving in to generational resentment. All your input is welcomed!

[Information copied from handbills posted around the 'hood, and Healthcare-NOW.]

There will be a meeting to discuss Single Payer Health Care and HR 676, tomorrow, Wednesday 26 August, at 7 PM. Location: Holy Trinity Church, 20 Cummings Street, NY, NY. (One block north of Dyckman St. at Seaman Avenue.)

Town Hall on Health Care Reform with Governor Howard Dean
Tuesday, August 25 at 7:00pm

Event: Town Hall on Health Care Reform with Governor Howard Dean
"Hosted by Congressman Jim Moran"
What: Informational Meeting
Host: Congressman Jim Moran
Start Time: Tuesday, August 25 at 7:00pm
End Time: Tuesday, August 25 at 9:00pm
Where: South Lakes High School

Jim Moran USED to be a cosponsor of HR 676, but this year he backtracked. Tell him we can't afford NOT to have single payer!

"If the drug companies and the insurance industry are smiling, it can only mean that the public interest is being left behind. "

... and so much more. Man, he's good:

In a guest post at Naked Capitalism:

The Obama Administration cannot energize their health care reform because the public demands reform in the financial sector, and quite frankly Obama has lost the 'high ground' of the reformer by his inability to free his administration from the growing taint of scandal and conflicts of interest.

And what of the FKDP?

A father's heartfelt open letter to Obama, as his health insurer will only pay for 4 of the 6 injections his diabetic daughter needs every day.

Until you tell me Mr. President what I am supporting I can not support you. I will not invest my energies to be taken for granted and dismissed or told to back off. I will not invest my energies in supporting bad legislation. I will support a strong public option. A platform you campaigned on.

via Mike the Mad Biologist

The same lobbying and PR firms:

The similarities between the campaign against mitigating the consequences of climate change and the campaign against health insurance reform go far beyond the use of distortion and fiction. The parallels are everywhere.

For example, those with vested (monied) interests in the status quo are turning to the same lobbying and public relations outfits to carry out the campaigns.

Hrynshyn concludes:

Susie nails it.

I want to again raise the issue of preemption and whether HR 3200 and other bills being bandied about would preempt state efforts at implementing their own single payer. My concern is something Jane Hamsher said at FDL in comments:

Kucinich did nothing. Not one single thing while the bill was in Committee to work out the details. He just dropped it in at the last minute. It’s completely unworkable within the framework already set out.

I confess to not knowing exactly what she's referring to, but since HR 676 is all worked out, it sounds to me like she's referring to Kucinich's amendment to HR 3200 that would permit states to enact their own single payer. And that it is unworkable within the framework of HR 3200. If that's true, then that's potentially a big damned deal because it likely means not only that we're not getting national single payer, but this bill would prevent states from experimenting with their own single payer systems.

I'll explain why after the break.

National Lessons from State Health Reform: The Mass. Case
Watch the Hearing Live, Right Here, on Thursday, Feb. 25 from 2-4pm