The push for health care reform is moving (or is it?) so I thought it’d be helpful to have semi-daily “Health on the Hill” updates that should help you keep track of the reform debate and get to the meat of the issue. Enjoy!

Today’s Updates – 12/15/09:

If it were up to Joe Lieberman, this is all we would have out of the health care reform bill: Free Band-Aids for All, courtesy of ol’ Joe, your favorite Senator. I mean, really?! What is the Obama Administration thinking? Cutting a deal with this (insert your favorite word here) to get a reform bill that has absolutely no public option, no wanna-be public option, no triggers; it is unfair and quite sad that our legislative process has come to this.

For those that don’t follow this health care drama regularly, this is where we are at: the Senate has one week to pass its health care bill, as the White House would like to see a bill before Christmas. However, in order to accomplish that, with all the crazy procedural steps it takes to pass a bill out of Senate, they would have to start voting to end debate this Thursday and hold the final vote on the bill on Christmas Day. Probably not gonna happen.

That just means the debate will continue into January, further prolonging the other equally as important pieces of legislation that Congress needs to focus on, such as the climate bill and the SAFRA bill, to name a few. On top of time line obstacles, the Senate is also being held up by a handful of senators who refuse to give health coverage to millions of Americans and instead just want their way. Like Joe Lieberman, who now looks to be getting his way, because in order to pass anything, the Senate needs 60 votes, and he is the lucky number 60.

This will be my last Health on the Hill update for 2009 – I am leaving the country, but will be back after the New Year — hopefully to a country that has decided to pass real health care reform for the good of its people instead of for one (insert your second favorite word here) from Maine.

News Links:

Sen. Reid bows to centrists,will drop Medicare buy-in to pass bill

Reid indicated at a closed-door Democratic Conference meeting on Monday that he would drop a controversial Medicare buy-in provision, which was offered as a replacement to the government-run health insurance option, to win the votes of Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Ben Nelson (D-Neb.).

Obama: ‘Last chance’ for health reform

White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer told POLITICO: “If President Obama doesn’t pass health reform, it’s hard to imagine another president ever taking on this Herculean task. For those whose life’s work is reforming health care, this may be the last train leaving the station.”

Sen. Lieberman’s Donors Benefit From Obstruction

Lieberman has now invented a new excuse for his intransigence every month since June, and this latest act of duplicity has left many observers musing about what motivates him.  The hypotheses include spite for the left, “sociopathic indifference” to the consequences of his actions, and plain lack of intelligence. But it’s also worth noting once again that Lieberman has friends in the insurance industry who will benefit from his obstructionism.