Both houses of Congress have now passed a version of the sCHIP reauthorization/expansion bill; it now goes to a conference committee. In my opinion, this is a big step forward for those who believe in a larger role for the federal government in health care and a diminished role for private insurers. In addition to insuring 3 million more uninsured children, a couple of additional wonderful things might survive the committee: increases in tobacco taxes and cuts in excessive premium payments to private insurers for Medicare Advantage. The passage generated some truly bizarre commentary from Republicans such as this from Pete Sessions of Texas: "The bill uses children as pawns in a cynical attempt to make millions of Americans completely reliant on the government for their health care needs." Mr. Sessions evidently prefers the benign, compassionate attention to health care needs that comes with reliance on private insurers, not to mention unaffordable premium levels (why do you think these kids have no insurance?). He has also apparently forgotten that his state has the largest percentage of its population uninsured in the nation.

Also in the news: Humana (we're supposed to confuse that with humane) reported second quarter earnings double those of 2006. The chief executive reported "virtually every line of business doing better." Just so you understand how their lines of business "do better," it is by reducing the amount spent on care, increasing administrative service fees, and pushing sales of Medicare Advantage products generously subsidized by the Bush Administration (this is the Medicare privatization scheme) in an attempt to undermine regular Medicare. But help is on the way, keep the faith.

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