That’s the judgment of Senator Baucus’s bill, which was released today [pdf], by Wendel Potter, former CIGNA health insurance executive turned whistleblower:

As I explained yesterday, Wendell is right in that judgment.

For further proof, look no further than the stock market:

Shares of health insurers rallied Wednesday after the Senate Finance Committee unveiled a health-care bill Wednesday morning that requires almost all Americans to have health insurance, but does not include a public option.

Shares of HealthNet Inc. /quotes/comstock/13*!hnt/quotes/nls/hnt (HNT 17.13, +0.61, +3.69%) advanced 3%, UnitedHealth Group Inc. /quotes/comstock/13*!unh/quotes/nls/unh (UNH 28.73, +1.03, +3.72%) increased 2.7%, Humana Inc. /quotes/comstock/13*!hum/quotes/nls/hum (HUM 39.97, +1.19, +3.07%) added 2.6%, WellPoint Inc. /quotes/comstock/13*!wlp/quotes/nls/wlp (WLP 53.98, +0.82, +1.54%) gained 1.7% and Aetna Inc. /quotes/comstock/13*!aet/quotes/nls/aet (AET 30.63, +0.66, +2.20%) rose 1.6%.

Investors have been eyeing the Senate bill as the next driver for managed care stocks, which have been volatile since the health-care reform debate heated up this summer. The $856 billion bill lays out a system of non-profit, non-government health-care cooperatives, which would compete with insurers, but not to the extent of a public option, analysts have said.

This bill is a bill for the insurance industry, not a bill for us. As Richard Kirsch said today, the Baucus bill is a failure:

The Baucus bill is a gift to the insurance industry that fails to meet the most basic promise of health care reform: a guarantee that Americans will have good health care that they can afford. The Baucus bill would give a government-subsidized monopoly to the private insurance industry to sell their most profitable plans – high-deductible insurance – without having to face competition from a public health insurer.

Under the Baucus bill, employers would have no responsibility to help pay for their workers’ coverage and would be given incentives to have workers pay more for barebones insurance. Americans who don’t get health benefits through work would still not be able to get good, affordable coverage.

We urge Senators on the Finance Committee to replace the Baucus plan with legislation that will do what the Senate HELP Committee and three House committees have done: guarantee that Americans have good health insurance that they can afford with the choice of a strong national public health insurance option.

It must be fixed.

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