Senate may be gifting HealthCare Reform. America asks, “Did you happen to get a gift receipt?”.

Senate negotiators have ended the day announcing they are close to reaching a deal on a “progressive” set of Health Care Reform packages. While no one is giving any details on these compromises, they have been sent to the CBO (Congressional Budget Office) for further financial analysis. Once the CBO returns the numbers and they are found to be within the fiscal range of their goals, the legislation will go to the floor for a vote. While this entire parade has been back and forth, with many a moment of near death, it is expected that Health Care Reform will indeed pass the senate and become law.

Yet, for some reason, I do not find myself elated or excited.

While I think this country needs radical reform on many of its levels, both financially and socially, I have little hope that this bill will bring the reform we so badly need. The single payer plan was dead before it hit the tracks, but it still haunted reform with its possibilities. Many of us had hoped Obama would come to the table and revive it, bringing with it some of those terrifying socialist ideals (Ahh the horror!) that the right has been screaming about.

The plan as it stands now would allow people ages 55 – 64 to buy into Medicare, while expanding Medicaid availability to those within %150 of the federal poverty line. (Is it sad that I think I am one of those people?) A separate plan, offered up by Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), would create a program available to those within %300 of the poverty line, modeled after her own states Basic Health system.

While few had much to say, Harry Reid’s office released this statement.

I asked Senators Schumer and Pryor to work with some of the most moderate and most progressive members of our diverse caucus, and tonight they have come to a consensus.

It is a consensus that includes a public option and will help ensure the American people win in two ways: one, insurance companies will face more competition, and two, the American people will have more choices.

I know not all 10 Senators in the room agree on every single detail of this, nor will all 60 members of my caucus. But I know we all appreciate the hard work that these progressives and moderates have done to move this historic debate forward.

I want to thank Senators Schumer, Pryor, Brown, Carper, Feingold, Harkin, Landrieu, Lincoln, Nelson and Rockefeller for working together for the greater good and never losing sight of our shared goal: making it possible for every American to afford to live a healthy life.

As is long-standing practice, we do not disclose details of any proposal before the Congressional Budget Office has a chance to evaluate it. We will wait for that to happen, but in the meantime, tonight we are confident.”

I understand that some reform is better than none and that this may be the thing we need to pacify the mouth breathers of this country. Hopefully, when they see the world has not ended because fewer of us are dying from lack of coverage and they are still able to buy their chotskies from Wal-Mart, they will come to realize the error of their ways. Then again, I suppose that’s like hoping Levi Johnston will show us the junk. Yes I am still upset about that!

Whatever the case may be, it looks as if we have the reform that no one wanted, but everyone was apathetic about. Let’s hope this will be what is necessary to shake up the insurance industry and open the doors for affordable and fair price structures, whether they be private or federal.

It has been said that a “public option” will be set into motion if the current bill fails to deliver. The much touted “trigger” has been plagued with many a problem since the moment of its mention, mainly because no one knows what or when the trigger would take place. It could very well be an unlikely fiscal situation, allowing the current reform to force itself to either sink or swim. In place of the public option or single payer plan, the current bill uses federally funded, privately run insurance entities to offer coverage modeled after the Federal Employee Health Benefits system.

Read the entire article at The Huffington Post.