An awakening of sorts has taken place this week in the netroots, as progressives realize that a "compromise" health reform bill might be worse than a missed opportunity. It might be bad -- really, really bad. It might force millions of Americans to buy lousy insurance they can't afford. It might make Democrats as popular in the voting booth as Michael Vick at a PETA meeting.
The turd in the jello bowl is the mandate that everyone buy health insurance. Such a mandate would be fine if Congress also makes sure that folks can buy decent insurance at a decent price. But this part of the reform equation costs money. Most of the trillion dollars in the House bill goes to subsidies generous enough (barely) to make the individual mandate work.
