Market opens down: We'll see what effect, if any, the health care bill has on today's trading. So far not much - Dow is up about 40 points.
Winners, losers: Millions more folks will have coverage, which should be good news for hospitals and drug makers. But lots of regulation and a different way of doing business might gum up the plusses. From the NYT:
One place where the rules of the insurance game may shift most significantly is in a new kind of state-supervised marketplace, called exchanges, in which insurers would be required to sell their policies for individuals and small businesses. The exchanges are expected to involve much greater regulatory oversight than insurers now typically face and to alter their business models drastically. Currently, insurers seek to protect profits by trying to enroll only the healthiest individuals, while also charging enough to recoup the expense of covering sick people. But the legislation requires insurers to cover even people with potentially costly pre-existing conditions. The new law would also place strict limits on how much more an insurer could vary premiums among the people taking out the same policy, largely to factor in age differences.
Schwarzenegger's numbers: More Californians disapprove of his job performance (71 percent) than any governor in modern state history, according to a Field poll. (SF Chronicle)
No word on MGM: So much for the Friday deadline on a second round of bids. Actually, there's no official word of any updated bids, which is not great news for the movie company. (The Wrap)
Council OKs film incentives: The city will allow production companies to film in municipal buildings for free and open city parking lots to productions, among other things. (Daily News)
Rosie preps new show: She's formed her own company and intends to distribute the talker both on broadcast and cable. Look for the premiere in the fall of 2011, when Oprah steps down. (NYT)
Larry David's new home: Believe it or not, the TV Guide Network (owned jointly by Lionsgate and One Equity Partners) has bought syndication rights to the show, and the even weirder part is that the channel plans to run them in hour-long slots (the shows run for 29 minutes on HBO and are tough to cut for a commercial channel). From the NYT:
Mr. David has come up with an idea to add some special content for "Curb" on TV Guide: He is putting together 7-to-10-minute panel discussions of each episode, covering ethical issues the show raises -- which, as any "Curb" fan knows, come in abundance, ranging from rudeness to race.