The Nation newsite has a very cool weblink to listen to a Q&A, or explanations, on the current healthcare debate. It's called Breakdown and can be found here. This week the author, Chris Hayes, is talking about the real effects of a reform on the economy: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20100322/hayes_breakdown

Found the President's Healthcare Proposal on the White House website - short, sweet, and comprehensive: http://www.whitehouse.gov/health-care-meeting/proposal

Key elements are:

+It makes insurance more affordable by providing the largest middle class tax cut for health care in history, reducing premium costs for tens of millions of families and small business owners who are priced out of coverage today. This helps over 31 million Americans afford health care who do not get it today – and makes coverage more affordable for many more.

+It sets up a new competitive health insurance market giving tens of millions of Americans the exact same insurance choices that members of Congress will have.

+It brings greater accountability to health care by laying out commonsense rules of the road to keep premiums down and prevent insurance industry abuses and denial of care.

+It will end discrimination against Americans with pre-existing conditions.

+It puts our budget and economy on a more stable path by reducing the deficit by $100 billion over the next ten years – and about $1 trillion over the second decade – by cutting government overspending and reining in waste, fraud and abuse.

Here's a second link to "What Healthcare reform means to you" to which the first question is "I have coverage thru my work. Will the premiums change?" Go to: http://www.whitehouse.gov/health-care-meeting

The White House is also giving us a number a day - a number with meaning. Today the number is 8.

8 -- The number of people every minute who are denied coverage, charged a higher rate, or otherwise discriminated against because of a pre-existing condition. [Source: HealthReform.gov]

8 -- The number of lobbyists hired by special interests to influence health reform for every member of Congress in 2009. [Source: Center for Public Integrity]

http://www.whitehouse.gov/health-care-meeting/by-the-numbers?utm_source=email37&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=healthreform

Update on the numbers. Here is a short sweet blurb from Politico.com on the cost of the healthcare bill - it will save us billions! http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/34627.html