The age of miracles (minor ones, at least) is not passed.

Cloture on the Enzi bill (essentially overriding state mandates for health insurance) failed yesterday by a score of 55-43.

(Sign it's a gone goose: Frist did not flip his vote to nay to enable him to move cloture again.)

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Yesterday's action in the Senate on the Enzi bill (S 1955) usefully rounded up in a Kaiser piece.

Earlier pieces here discuss the bill. I'm as yet unconvinced of its utter iniquity. But I certainly don't think it should pass until it's been examined in the cold light of day - and not by a Congress in its last throes just six months before the next Congress is elected!

Frist has threatened to fill the amendment tree; Dems, who, if he did, would be unable to propose amendments containing their own policy ideas, have threatened to filibuster.

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Having had a Grandfather with diabetes, my ears perked up about a month ago when I heard that diabetes advocacy groups were lobbying against a recent bill sponsered by Sen. Enzi entitled the "Health Insurance Marketplace Modernization and Affordability Act."

The bill seeks to make it more affordable for small businesses to offer insurance plans, but does so, in part, by essenitally gutting state requirements for what sort of treatments insurance companies are required to cover.  Everything from treatment for diabetes to cancer screenings to coverage for contraceptives is at risk.  

These state requirements were passed for important reasons.  The legislatures and the people of these states have determined over many years that if insurance is going to be offered in their state, there are certain basic protections that states want to ensure all consumers have.  To allow insurance companies to ignore these requirements in the name of health insurance "modernization" is ridiculous.

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The surrealistically named Health Insurance Marketplace Modernization and Affordability Act of 2005 (S 1955) is designed to do what I was talking about earlier today: enable insurance companies to provide health cover which doesn't cover what you'd think it covered.

Brownstein of the LA Timesexplains it.

Cliff Notes: some states stipulate that health insurance must cover specified procedures, like maternity care. S 1955 provides an override to enable insurance companies to sell health insurance in those states which does not cover all or any of the specified procedures.

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