Worse than Nothing

After months of compromise, backroom dealing and sellouts, the Senate Finance Committee, led by Senator Max Baucus, has unveiled its health-care reform plan. To put it mildly, the proposal is worse than nothing:

• No public option
• No requirement for employers to provide coverage
  
• Seniors and people living in supposed "high risk" areas would pay up to 7.5 times the premiums of other Americans regardless of income
  
• Premiums of up to 13% of adjusted gross income - before any deductibles, co-payments, co-insurance or any other out-of-pocket expenses
• Verification of citizenship before any treatment
• No public funds for abortion
  
• Very high annual out-of-pocket limits - up to $5,950 for individuals and $11,900 for families
  
• People denied or stripped of coverage due to pre-existing conditions must go without insurance for six months - and be responsible for all medical costs during that period - before being able to enroll in a "high-risk pool"
• Anyone who rejects the insurance plan provided by their employer (even if it costs too much and covers too little) and can't afford to buy insurance privately will be fined

And so on. This sorry excuse for a plan is what we get when bipartisanship is put above getting a good bill. It's been brutally obvious for months that the Republicans have no interest in working on any kind of health reform bill. And to no one's surprise, the GOP immediately rejected the Baucus plan out of hand.

Genuine bipartisanship works like this:

• Democrat: This is my bill.
• Republican: I don't like sections A, B and C.
• Democrat: All right, then let's work together to resolve the disputes.
• (Interlude, consisting of compromise)
  
• Democrat: I got rid of section A, made minor changes to section B and you're going to have to live with section C.
• Republican: I think that's reasonable. I'll vote for it.
  

But this is the kind of "bipartisanship" we've been seeing from the Republicans:

• Democrat: This is my bill.
• Republican: I hate this bill and everything about it. I won't vote for it.
• Democrat: I don't need your vote to pass the bill, but I want it anyway.
  
• (Interlude, consisting of teabagging and wild shrieking)
• Democrat: OK, I ripped the guts out of the bill, turned it into a shadow of its former self, and made it so that it's worse than doing nothing. Now will you support it?
• Republican: No. And you're a Communist.

Too many Democrats still labor under the impression that the GOP wants to compromise. They don't. Everyone knew the Republicans would reject anything Baucus could have come up with, and indeed he has done nothing but waste everyone's time and effort.

Since the Republicans have shown bad faith at every stage of the process, the Democrats should just tell them to go jump in the lake. They should use their strong majorities in both houses of Congress to pass a real health-reform bill, one which actually makes people healthier instead of insurance companies richer. If the GOP doesn't like it, too bad. They don't have the votes to block it.

Will the Democrats get some cojones and actually do it? Or will they continue to sell their souls for Republican votes they don't need and can't get anyway?