Is there anywhere that we could read the bill if we so choose?

Being from Massachusetts (granted I've only lived here 2 years) I LOVE the state's healthcare plan. I can't move even though I desperately need to because of it. I can't get healthcare without paying my entire life savings if I get sick. I'm a type 2 diabetic as well. Being that I'm in a tough business of entertainment and theatre, hardly any of the organizations I work for can afford to offer their employees healthcare. In order to keep my healthcare, I have to travel an 1hr 15 min. to work and then the same distance back. I live just on the border of Mass and RI.

People didn't vote for Scott Brown in Mass because they thought he'd save MassHealth (hehe play on words ;) ), people voted for him because Martha ran a TERRIBLE campaign. Being a blue dog Dem, I voted for Coakley under duress. I came VERY close to voting for the Libertarian, or simply not voting.

I also think that people don't like the Senate health bill in general. It doesn't seem like its going to help anyone. Of course like myself, we all naturally are thinking of our situations, but there are a TON of people who really really need this healthcare. Especially with the job market and this economy. Without MassHealth, a lot of people would be without it and the insurance companies would make a BUNDLE like they are elsewhere.

I believe its available on the senate website...its a pain in the a to find, and it also is wordy like all bills, but its worth a read. I'm not sure the exact number of the bill which makes it a lot easier to find.

The House Bill and the Senate Bill.

And what's more entertaining... after Kennedy died, they tried to change the law again.

Silly Democrats.

I thought I read that reconciliation could only be used for budget stuff so a lot of elements couldn't really be addressed. Is that not true?

Reconciliation can be used for any legislation affecting the budget.

Doesn't almost any legislation affect the budget in a loose sense?

And yet, it seems to only be used to specifically address budgets in the past, right? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconci...es_Congress%29

It seems to me that some contested elements of health care wouldn't seem to be reconciled under the usual uses of reconciliation, like handling the differences about abortions in the two versions.

Or even that some of the rules about the length of deficits would make it hard to use:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunset_..._the_Byrd_Rule

(I'm guessing that ADqtPiMel doesn't need the wikipedia links, but I thought other people might find them interesting.)

New info from Speaker Pelosi:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010...-health-house/

I understand that this doesn't mean the Senate bill will not be brought up before the House but it certainly doesn't look plausible at this time.

Points to you on this one :) I think that they will step back for a while and work on other priorities and then pick health care back up when they've negotiated a way forward...which I still think will involve the House passing the Senate bill. But I honestly have no idea what will happen...just extrapolating based on my experience watching these kind of situations.

Hey I hate to break it to you, but quite a few democracies have some kind of universal health care or stricter health care regulation then we have. And of course all democrats in the USA are black, unemployed with a bunch of illegitimate kids.

Oh yeah...the WHOLE PLANET gets their health insurance through their jobs...that's a strictly American strategy, and with our recent foray into the fun and games of a recession with record unemployment, we see how well that strategy works.:rolleyes:

You're an idiot. Shut up. Just. shut. up.

Yes we do have a a large amount of illegal immigrants. However by law we are not allowed to refuse emergency care to those who require it. I have to yield the floor to somebody who knows better, but I assume that those countries that have universal health require proof of at least residency before they treat you.

Do a little research. These socialist democracies have taken in a lot of foreign nationals including muslims fleeing persecution from regimes in their own countries. Have you been reading stories about the Dutch voting to outlaw minarets? How about the French having a little issue with fire bombings of their cars in Paris a couple years ago? We are not the only country that has a large number of immigrants looking for a better life in a richer, industrialized country. No, they aren't sharing a large border with one of these countries, but they are also much smaller countries, and they do provide healthcare and benefits to these people. I am very good friends with a Swedish couple who are often surprised at attitudes in this country, though, they do admit that a homogenous population like Sweden has experienced extensive growing pains from the number of immigrants they've accepted over the past 20 years.

BTW...neither of the plans passed by Congress would cover illegal immigrants. Even now, as Psi U stated, legal or illegal, anyone with or without money can receive care at an ER no questions asked. We are NOT allowed to refuse care. If the patient cannot pay, the tax payers are ALREADY paying for this care.