As a few of you may recall, on September 19th I wrote a diary suggesting some alternative tactics to take the pressure off the public option and distract its opponents by making them fight on new fronts. One of these ideas was that any insurer taking Federal subsidies for health care should be required to have a medical loss ratio of 90%, rising to 96% over time (see below the fold.)
Well, I'll be damned if they haven't taken me up on it. Tonight Sen. Jay Rockefeller, on Countdown, broke some news. Sen. Franken has just introduced the Fairness in Health Insurance Act of 2009, which would mandate that 90% of the $485 billion of subsidies given to private insurers in the Senate Finance bill be spent on actual health care. Sen. Rockefeller liked the idea so much he plans to offer Franken's bill as an amendment in the Finance Cmte. tonight or tomorrow.
Check below the fold for more.
