States like Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts and New Hampshire that have imposed ObamaCare-style regulations have seen premiums jump for everyone. If people can wait to get sick until they obtain insurance, fewer healthy people will carry insurance. The cost of an older, sicker insurance pool naturally rises. To prevent this spiral of “adverse selection,” ObamaCare imposes a mandate requiring all adults to buy insurance. But Senate Finance Committee Dems — sensitive to its politically unpalatable r

Kaiser Health News staff writers Eric Pianin and Mary Agnes Carey report on yesterday's Senate Finance Committee action.

In my decade-plus of working in Washington on policy matters, I've followed more bills than I care to remember. But the health care reform debate strikes me as different this time around for what it says about what we as a people value...or don't. It seems as the Senate Finance Committee continues to plod through its own contribution to the health care reform debate, a fundamental lesson is emerging from the entire spectacle that warrants our attention. The lesson is not that this has been

Reporting the score as it stands a halftime is fine sports journalism. But it isn’t big news, just a progress report. The real news is who won, and how they did it. So the big news story of Tuesday, October 13, was a halftime report : After months of relentless courting and suspense, Senator Olympia J. Snowe, Republican of Maine, cast her vote with Democrats on Tuesday as the Senate Finance Committee approved legislation to remake the health care system and provide coverage to millions of

Olympia Snowe was right on two fronts yesterday. The Maine Republican was smart to back the Senate Finance Committee's health care bill. And she was correct to remind Democrats she may not vote for it on the Senate floor. First, why she was right to back it. . --William McKenzie/Editorial Columnist