Pelosi still pushing for Health Care Bill

San Fran Nan, the PVC-faced Princess of the Progressives and Squawker of the House, is still determined to push a broken Health Care Reform plan on the citizens of this country.

Politico is reporting that Pelosi is expected to schedule a vote next week on a scaled down version of a health care baill that will rescind a half-century-old exemption from antitrust laws for the health insurance companies....

The vote is part of her new two-track strategy to tackle things that won’t be included in a more sweeping bill — if Congress ever passes one — while giving her members something politically popular to vote on. The move also puts pressure on Republicans, the industry and wavering Democrats, who wish their leaders would abandon the push altogether.

The bill comes as party brass struggles to find a path forward in the broader health care reform effort and amounts to a concession to her caucus as more sweeping legislation twists in the wind. The House bill would resemble a section of the House health care bill that ends an exemption for health and medical malpractice insurers and grants the federal government more authority to regulate antitrust laws.

The Senate didn’t include an antitrust provision in its health care legislation because Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) couldn’t muster the 60 votes needed to include it.

Also, Nebraska Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson — himself a former state insurance commissioner — opposed the House measure, so the bill would face long odds in the Senate. More...