Senator Mike Crapo of Idaho points out that Senator Ben Nelson has made sure that three counties in Florida (Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach) would be exempt from any changes to Medicare advantage: John McCain offered an amendment that would have extended the exemption to every county in the US but it was defeated by the Dems. Evidently, the blatant politicization of our health care system doesn’t bother them.I think this proves beyond a reasonable doubt that ObamaCare will lead (and has lead) to the politicization of our health care system. If senior citizens live in a blue district and their Senator or House member has clout, they can keep their Medicare advantage.And of course this begs the question: if the cuts to Medicare aren’t that bad and wouldn’t impact care, why did Nelson make sure some of his constituents (in the districts he needs to win to be re-elected) are exempt?Did the other Senators know that Nelson made a deal for some of his constituents (wonder how the rest of Florida is going to react to the Senator’s deal)? Probably not, even the number two in the Senate has no idea what’s in the bill:

“I would say to the senator from Arizona that I’m in the dark almost as much as he is. And I’m in the leadership,” Durbin said on the Senate floor.

BTW, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services health care is going to cost us $234 billion more over the next ten years (and I bet that turns out to be too low). Thanks Democrats for making health care more affordable.Update: And even though Sen. Ben Nelson got the goodies for some of his constituents, he won’t vote cloture if there isn’t a ban on federal funding of abortion:

Even if all other issues on the health bill are resolved, abortion remains the hardest for Nelson. Regardless of the wording, he demands one result: no federal abortion funds.”If I don’t get it, I can’t support cloture [ending the filibuster] on the next round,” he said.

Well, good for him!