Five things you could do in the time it would take to read the Senate's healthcare bill

 
The latest version of the healthcare bill may have to be airlifted from the Senate floor. It weighs in at a whopping 2,074 pages.

The House's version was certainly large at 1,990 pages, but this new one adds some hefty love handles. The table of contents alone takes up 14 pages.

As Politico noted, it could take as much as 48 hours, by some accounts, for someone to read the bill in its entirety.

That got us thinking. What else could these politicians be doing in the time it would take to read this cinder block of legislation -- because we know each and every one of them will read every last word of it, right?

5. Watch the last three seasons of "ER": For some perspective on what it's like to work in healthcare (or what it's like to be an actor on a series that wouldn't die), you could watch the last few seasons of "ER." You may be the first person ever to do so.

4. Take a motorboat from Alaska to Russia: Sarah Palin may be able to see Russia from her window (but probably not). However, it'll take about two full days to get there with a top-of-the-line motorboat. Trips like these make us wish for offshore drilling so we can make a pit stop along the way.

3. Read the Bible one and a half times: This one depends on your version of the Bible, but many prints are in the neighborhood of 1,200 pages -- that includes both the Old and New Testaments.

2. Accrue enough radio experience to host a national talk show: In Glenn Beck's "The Real America," a 2005 book by the political pundit, he writes, "After doing a total of maybe 40 hours of talk radio, I was asked to host a national show."

1. Watch 12 episodes of "Glenn Beck," 21 episodes of "The O'Reilly Factor" and a full week's worth of "The Rush Limbaugh Show:" That prescription of nonstop ranting should ensure you will vehemently hate the healthcare bill without ever reading a word of it.

-- Mark Milian

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Photo: The House version of the healthcare bill on display this month, courtesy of Republican Reps. Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, left, and Steve King of Iowa. Credit: Associated Press

Should Santa move to head of line for H1N1 shot?

Should the U.S. government move Santa Claus to the front of the line for H1N1 shots?

As the Christmas season approaches, malls are already setting up thrones for Santa, welcoming kids to jump in Santa's lap and whisper all their secret hopes in his ear. 

As for Santas, they're pressing Washington to let them join pregnant women and toddlers at the front of the line.

The kids are "little Petri dishes that are sitting on our laps and you have to protect them as well as yourself,"  said Robert Flemming, a Santa's helper at a mall in Fresno.

Some health officials think swine flu is so threatening that the mall visits to see Santa should be canceled altogether. "If we take this really seriously, and I think we should because people are dying, it wouldn't be inappropriate to say this is a year maybe we shouldn't do these mass gatherings," said Dr. Jack Turco, director of Dartmouth University's health services.

As they tend to be overweight, Santas are at increased risk for the disease, but one county health official in Ohio doubts the government will revisit the priority list. "I don't think the priority list is going to change," said Dr. Vicki Whitacre, of the Zanesville-Muskingum County Health Department.  Once the government has reached all of the high-risk groups, she added, it will make the vaccine available for everyone.

In the meantime, several Santa organizations already have held seminars on hand washing. And some Santas are even eschewing white gloves this year so they can continually wash their hands. Many malls are now putting hand-sanitizing dispensers at the gates of the North Pole.

And you thought it was as easy as donning a beard and a red velvet costume.

-- Johanna Neuman

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Stung by restrictions in healthcare bill, abortion rights supporters fight back

As the fight over a healthcare bill moves from the House to the Senate, abortion rights groups are rallying to make sure the Senate's version does not contain antiabortion language approved by the House.

After a pitched, months-long battle and a successful lobbying effort by the country's Catholic bishops, the House's narrowly passed version would make it impossible for many women to purchase health insurance that covers abortion. 

The Stupak-Pitts amendment says health plans purchased with the help of government money cannot include abortion coverage. Low-income women using federal subsidies, even small ones, to buy heath insurance would not be able to buy plans that cover abortion. Abortion foes contend that this is simply an extension of existing law, which for 30 years has prohibited the use of federal money for most abortions.

But supporters of abortion rights say Stupak-Pitts is more restrictive than current federal law. If the country ends up with a public option, Stupak-Pitts would prevent any of those plans from offering abortion coverage, which means a woman using her own money to purchase a plan through the (presumably less expensive) public option would not be able to buy a plan that covers abortion. Also, they claim, insurers would have less incentive to offer abortion coverage.

Such restrictions, say abortion rights groups, are unacceptable since abortion is a legal medical procedure.

This week, the Center for Reproductive Rights unveiled a new campaign, "Abortion Coverage is No Joke." At a press conference in Washington, Nancy Northup, the group's president, introduced a woman whose insurance company would not pay for an abortion even though her fetus was diagnosed with a fatal abnormality. Not exactly stand-up material, but check out this video, which will play for a week on cable in the DC area:

Meanwhile, 20 House Democrats who voted for Stupak-Pitts are the subject of a new Internet petition. All 20 are identified by both Planned Parenthood and National Right to Life rankings as either solidly in favor of abortion rights, or nominally so, and some are believed by abortion supporters to have "buyer's remorse" over the restrictive amendment they voted for. 

For every signature, Credo (a division of  Working Assets, the telecommunications company that donates a portion of its profits to progressive causes), will send a coat-hanger, that hoary symbol of the back-alley abortion, to the 20. So far, according to the petition's website, more than 113,000 hangers have been sent.

-- Robin Abcarian

Video: Center for Reproductive Rights

Meanwhile back at the ranch, Michelle Obama sells healthcare to the ladies

Lest anyone forget, while Michelle Obama's husband talks diplomatic niceties all over Asia for nine days and Todd Palin's wife pushes her book from Barnes & Nobles to Sam's Clubs all across this country, the first lady, stuffy nose and all, stays back home to continue the desperate political business of selling healthcare reform. Especially to seniors.

We said, ESPECIALLY TO US SENIORS. Because polls now show support for the president's plan the weakest and waning among older Americans, who as we saw in recent interim elections are unlike younger Americans in that they actually show up to vote two years in a row.

Obama tells seniors, NOT A DIME OF MEDICARE MONEY WILL BE USED TO PAY FOR THE $1.3-TRILLION HEALTHCARE REFORM PLAN. As you can see in the transcript below, she calls Medicare "a sacred part of America's social safety net."

However, the Democrats' recently-passed House healthcare version would cut $400 billion -- possibly up to $500 billion -- from Medicare and Medicaid.

Women are a crucial audience for the Obamas and Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid to convince or re-convince about the Democratic healthcare plans because, as in many matters of the typical family, they play a disproportionate role in finding, arranging and obtaining medical care for everyone else, often at the expense of themselves.

So Obama was before a friendly, receptive audience today when she gave her pitch and, revealingly in the ongoing PR struggle, felt the need to correct what healthcare reformers call misinformation or false information "out there."

(BTW, although she's still doing way better than her husband deep down in the 40s now in favorability ratings among Americans, new Gallup numbers indicate the first lady's popularity has started to slide too, from a high of 72% last spring to a still-impressive 61% now.)

Keep scrolling for the entire Michelle Obama transcript, along with a news video down there, courtesy of Politico.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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First Lady Michelle Obama's Remarks on Healthcare Reform and Older Women, as provided by the White House

MRS. OBAMA: Thank you, everybody. Thank you so much. First of all, forgive me -- I’ve got children, and now I have a cold. (Laughter.) It goes along with the territory.

Let me begin by first thanking Tina Tchen, who’s doing an outstanding job as Director of the Office of Public Engagement by opening up this White House to the American people and....

Embarrassed Republican Party opts out of abortion coverage for employees

Since 1991, the National Republican Committee has offered its employees a health care policy from Cigna that includes coverage for elective abortions. Given the GOP's major push to keep abortion coverage out of President Obama's health care reform bill, the news of the party's own insurance policy  -- which Politico broke yesterday -- came as something of an embarrassment.

“We were not aware of this, obviously, and this will, of course, be fixed,” said James Bopp Jr., a Republican National Committee member from Indiana and an attorney who serves as counsel to the National Right to Life organization. “I think Chairman Steele will see to it that that’s the case.”

That would be Michael Steele (pictured above), chairman of the RNC and a longtime abortion foe, who said in a statement today, "Money from our loyal donors should not be used for this purpose. I don't know why this policy existed in the past, but it will not exist under my administration. Consider this issue settled."

Michigan Democrat Bart Stupak rallied anti-abortion forces in the House this week to enact an amendment that would ensure no government funds go to abortion coverage. The bill is now in the Senate, where pro-abortion forces are galvanizing their supporters to reverse the vote.

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo: RNC Chairman Michael Steele. Credit: Win McNamee / Getty Images North America

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New poll shows Americans' confidence wanes in Obama's bid to halt H1N1 swine flu pandemic

With the H1N1 swine flu continuing to spread faster than the government's creaky distribution system can get out the vaccine, Americans' confidence in the Obama administration's ability to prevent a nationwide pandemic of the deadly illness is crumbling.

A new CNN/Opinion Research Poll of 1,018 adult Americans finds that a shrinking number are very or somewhat confident about the Democratic administration's plans, while those lacking confidence are increasing.

Although much of the popular media's attention has been devoted to the congressional struggle and vote over costly healthcare reform legislation — and then last week's Ft. Hood shooting that killed 13 and wounded dozens — the threat of a massive pandemic claiming hundreds of lives looms as the kind of public disaster for Obama that the Bush administration's poor preparedness was after Hurricane Katrina.

Last month Obama declared a national emergency over the H1N1 flu potential.

But steady delays in manufacturing the vaccine and the federal government's distribution have continued. Deliveries of millions of doses have gone way beyond the original schedule. So late are deliveries that some medical experts say an epidemic will be well underway or over before all the doses become available in late December.

GOP Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, never a fan of big new government programs, has called this year's H1N1 swine flu preparations a "total failure." His belief seems to be spreading like a virus as well, with several polls showing a majority of Americans now have no intention of getting the doses, even if and when they become available.

Now, the new CNN Poll, taken Oct. 30-Nov. 1 with a margin of error of plus or minus 3 points, finds that the proportion of Americans who are very confident that the Obama White House can prevent a pandemic has fallen from a meager 15% around Labor Day to a worse 11% now. The proportion of those feeling "somewhat confident" has dropped from 44% to 40%.

Meanwhile, the proportion of those lacking any confidence has jumped from 40% to 49%.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Bill Clinton to do lunch with Senate Democrats, look at 2010 elections without healthcare reform

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid put out the word last night -- this is a must-attend event.

Former President Clinton, whose presidency and arguably his marriage were clouded by his failure in 1994 to enact healthcare reform, is doing lunch today with Senate Democrats.

His expected topic: what the 2010 elections might look like for Democrats if the Senate fails again to pass healthcare reform.

The weekly lunch is of course closed to reporters, but already speculation is rife that Clinton -- on a mission for the Obama White House -- will focus his attention on the moderates whose votes could prove pivotal.

And he has personal ties to most of them. Clinton knew Nebraska Democrat Ben Nelson when they both were governors. There's the Arkansas connection to the state's two Democratic senators -- Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor. And he and Connecticut independent Joe Lieberman were once close personally. Of course that was before Clinton was impeached for lying about his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, which Lieberman decried as immoral.

Here's a younger Clinton, addressing Congress on healthcare in 1993.

Then as now, as MSNBC's First Read noted, "Clinton's at his best when he's giving others political advice, and he excels at framing an argument better than just about anyone on the political stage today."

Aside from politics, no word yet on what they are having for lunch.

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo: President Obama and former President Clinton at the Boston funeral for Sen. Ted Kennedy. Credit: Getty Images

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Does House healthcare bill end abortion coverage?

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is a great vote counter. 

As the healthcare vote on Saturday night demonstrated, she knew just how many votes she had to turn to win the bill. And she did it by allowing lawmakers from swing-state districts -- many with strong Catholic constituencies -- to first vote against insurance funding for abortion. 

Abortion foes hailed the move as what was called "a nail in the eventual coffin of Roe v. Wade."

Now, as the bill moves to the Senate, pro-abortion groups are mobilizing for a fight.

"It is unconscionable that anti-choice lawmakers would use health reform to attack women's health and privacy, but that's exactly what happened on the House floor," said Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America. "The fight is not over. ... We will continue to mobilize our activists and work with our allies in Congress to remove this dangerous provision from the healthcare bill and stop additional attacks as the process moves to the Senate."

Added Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, "Women do not plan to have unintended pregnancies. ... Proposing a separate abortion rider or single-service plan is tantamount to banning abortion coverage since no insurance company would offer such a policy."

New York Democrat Anthony Weiner said this morning that the House bill, in effect, leaves women without protection. Even if someone wants to purchase her own policy that covers abortion, he said, she might have trouble finding an insurance company to offer it. Take a listen.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo: Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer leave a Democratic caucus where President Obama spoke in advance of the House vote on healthcare reform. Credit: Getty Images

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What H1N1 swine flu? Majority of Californians intend to ignore the late vaccine: Times/USC poll

A new poll confirms that the Obama administration and federal health officials have failed to convince Americans -- at least those in the most populous state of California -- of the seriousness of a H1N1 swine flu pandemic.

A majority of those registered voters polled by a new survey team involving The Times and the University of Southern California said they believed the new, delayed vaccine was safe.

But a majority also said they had no intention of getting it.

The findings come from a new Los Angeles Times/University of Southern California College of Letters, Arts & Sciences Poll. The survey, which interviewed 1,500 registered voters from Oct. 27 through Nov. 3, was conducted for The Times and USC by two nationally prominent polling firms, the Democratic firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner and the Republican firm Public Opinion Strategies.

Today's results have a margin of error of plus or minus 2.6 percentage points.

Only 5% of those polled said they had already been vaccinated. Of the rest, 52% said they didn't plan to get vaccinated. Of the 40% who said they wanted the vaccine, 12% said they already had attempted to find it but couldn't. 

Of those polled, 70% said they think the H1N1 vaccine is safe for most people, and only 17% said there was a strong chance the vaccine is unsafe.

Last month the Obama administration declared a national emergency over the H1N1 pandemic, as The Ticket reported here. But the government program has come under fire for long delays in deliveries of the vaccine.

Rep. Ron Paul has even called the federal program a "total failure." Obama officials, who are overseeing the vaccine distribution, have blamed the delays on manufacturers.

A previous national poll, as The Ticket reported here, found a large majority of Americans also intended to skip the recommended medical action.

-- Andrew Malcolm

No margin of error here. One-hundred percent of those clicking here get Twitter alerts of each new Ticket item. Or follow us   @latimestot  And we're also available over on Facebook.

Photo: Baltimore Sun (Another satisfied young vaccination customer).

Healthcare bill -- morbidly obese? (Weigh here)

By some accounts, it weighs 70 pounds. It is 1,990 pages long. It is 1 foot tall. And if House Speaker Nancy Pelosi thinks she has the votes, the healthcare reform bill touted by President Obama should be on the House floor for a vote on Saturday.

You can read the entire bill here.

Or just watch Comedy Central's Jon Stewart making fun of critics of the bill's gargantuan size here.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Health Care: Bigger, Longer and Uncut
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

-- Johanna Neuman

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