More Like This Please

Will Al Franken become the Alan Grayson of the Senate? He’s already gotten 30 Republicans on record supporting KBR over rape victims. In this video he puts a health care reform opponent from the Hudson Institute on the grill:

Franken: I want to ask you, how many bankruptcies because of medical crisis were there last year in Switzerland?
Diana Furchgott-Roth: I don’t have that number for you but I could get back to you.
Franken: I can tell you how many it was. It was zero. Do you know how many medical bankruptcies there were last year in France?
Furchgott-Roth: I don’t have that number for you but I could get back to you, if you like.
Franken: Yeah, it’s zero. Do you know how many there were in Germany?
Furchgott-Roth: From the trend of your questions, I’m assuming the answer is zero.
Franken: Well you’re very good. You’re very fast. The point is I think we need to go in that direction not the opposite direction.

So, can you trust the “statistics” from an “expert” on cancer survival rates when they don’t even know the basics of health care in other countries? To health care opponents, only the negatives of other systems can be discussed, not the positives.

In other health care news, the opt-out public option has risen to the top again in the Senate. Jay Rockefeller, one of the strongest advocates of the public option in the Senate, has now signaled his support. I think it’s probably our best shot for getting a strong public option out of the Senate. The recent CBO scoring of the House bill is definitely helping the momentum of the public option.

No senator has been more enthusiastic in his support for the public option that Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.). And so it came as something of a surprise yesterday when he acknowledged that he’s open to a compromise proposal that’s been making the rounds.

“I think there’s one way that could work very well and could pick up some of the moderates,” Rockefeller told reporters. “I’m looking very much now at this opt-out public option.” Under the alternative proposal, the public option would be available nationwide but individual states could decline to participate.

Democratic Sens. Tom Carper (Del.) and Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) — himself a big cheerleader for the public option — have been working on that proposal for the last few weeks and the idea has received tentatively positive reviews from some liberal and centrist Democrats.

Rockefeller’s purported interest in this compromise is notable given his staunch support for the liberal gold standard for the public option: a nationwide program that would pay medical providers based on Medicare rates, a proposal Rockefeller said would save the government more than $50 billion over 10 years. “An opt-out would still save money,” Rockefeller said.

Rockefeller specified that he’s talking about the opt-out measure, not the opt-in. “So you start out with a public option, and if you don’t like it you can opt out,” he said, adding, “That has a sense of freedom.”/blockquote>

One advantage of opt out? It might make some grandstanding governor blowhards put their money where their mouth is. Even secessionist-sympathizing governor Rick Perry has taken stimulus money (and asked for more). It will be interesting to see these governors go against the popular will of the people (Texas has the highest uninsured rate in the nation – 24%!!!).