President Snowe shits on the Medicare buy-in and suddenly, like the public option, it gets hacked to pieces by compromises. Sam Stein via Ezra Klein:
At this juncture, it doesn't appear that everyone in the 55-64 age bracket would be granted access. Negotiators are considering limiting consumers to those who would qualify for high-risk insurance pools already set up under the Senate's health care legislation. This would mean primarily those who have been uninsured for a certain amount of time, have a history of poor health or are unable to get insurance because of a preexisting condition.
At some point soon, Harry Reid has to put an end to this. With every trade, the conservadems and Snowe reneg on the liberal compromises. How much more can we take? It's like Hemingway's The Old Man & The Sea.
UPDATE: Clarification on this. (Yes, I was snared in the sketchy unsourced trap again.) It appears as though the high-risk pool will be able to buy-in beginning 2011, and then Medicare will be available to everyone 55-64 when the exchanges kick-in in 2014. More above...