Here are the FDL Action health care reform highlights for Friday, November 13.1. Jane Hamsher writes about a Goldman Sachs evaluation that says the House version of the public option would cause insurance stocks to drop 36% by 2019. Jane concludes, "It’s hard to look at this as anything but advocacy on their part to apply political pressure to weaken and pass the Senate Finance Committee bill, because it’s highly unlikely that no health care bill will be passed."
2. Jon Walker has more on the Goldman Sachs analysis. Walker highlights Goldman Sachs' belief that "the public option would be the dominant player on the health insurance exchange, with over 50% of that market...significantly more than the CBO’s projection that the public option would only sign up 20% of the customers on the exchange." Walker believes that Goldman Sachs is "much better at this type of analysis" than the CBO, and thus recommends "listening more to Wall Street’s analysis than the CBO’s."
3. Jane Hamsher marvels at Harry Reid's "list building off the public option," saying she is "[g]lad to hear it" and that "as long as reconciliation is a possibility, I doubt either the AFL-CIO or us will accept him shrugging his shoulders and saying 'what can I say, Joe made me do it' as a solid excuse for ditching it."
4. Jon Walker writes that the CBO analysis of the Senate health reform bill "is taking even longer than expected."
5. I've got a "Voices from the States" writeup by Betsy Muse of BlueNC, in which she writes, "Under the current makeup of our state government, I don’t think there is a chance that North Carolina will opt out of participating in healthcare reform."
6. Jane Hamsher highlights a story first blogged on Blue Virginia that "teabaggers" in Virginia are planning to burn Nancy Pelosi and Tom Perriello in effigy tomorrow afternoon. Fun times in Danville, Virginia! (not)
7. Finally, Jane Hamsher reports that Harry Reid's online poll indicates 67% saying that the public option is the "most important aspect of health care reform." Hamsher believes that Reid's effort is sincere, given that "You don’t list build by appealing to people you plan to punk."
I hope you had a lucky Friday the 13th! :)
