The Panel:

Ben Domenech is the managing editor for health care policy at The Heartland Institute, the editor of The New Ledger, where he hosts a weekly podcast called “Coffee and Markets.” Ben mentioned this piece for CBS News regarding possible opt-outs by the states during the discussion.

Jonathan Powell is an actuary, who formerly worked for CIGNA, a leading American health insurance company. He still works as an actuary in Washington, DC. He mentions this article from the New Yorker during the discussion.

Slothrop (“John”) is a former pre-med student and now a part-time adjunct teaching at public universities in California Georgia. He is a prominent commenter here on KSK and other sites. He currently pays for health care out-of-pocket.

Recorded March 31, 2010 ; runs 49 minutes. Listen here, Subscribe on iTunes.

Next week: Best of HOUSE OF PUNTE, Volume 1.

Just as you are, we’re gearing up for the holiday that celebrates challenging authority, blowing shit up, and casually neglecting the rights of women. Independence Day is Wednesday, which totally fucks our week, blah blah blah we’re gonna be lazy assholes.

We’re not posting tomorrow, and we’ll be fortunate to get one post up for Thursday and Friday. We don’t like it either, but this is how it’s going down. Some of us will be out-of-town, or even out-of-country, and you’ll have to split time with the people that put up with our shit in real life. When the withdrawal starts to set in, just remember that training camps will open less than three weeks after we come back, and to use lotion. Or sunscreen. Anything with lubricative properties is good.

And, oh yeah, the contest to pick the owner of KSK’s 14th fantasy team ended Saturday. We received over 11,000 submissions, give or take. The quality of your work was high, and the debate over who deserved to win was (sort of) intense. In the end, it came down to who we thought would make the best addition to our league. By the end of the contest, we had it narrowed down to four people, and the final decision was not unanimous.

We’ll be sharing our favorite submissions with you over the next couple weeks, and you can see what kind of badassery your submission was up against. Plus it helps us keep being lazy. That’s a win-win.

The 14th member of the KSK Fantasy Football League is Sarah, better known as commenter/troublemaker SportsGirl365 from the blog Strike Zones and End Zones. In the end, we liked her style, football knowledge, and her ability to deliver (and receive) trash talk.

Please give Sarah your warmest welcome in the comments.

UPDATE: Sarah’s submission appears below. I think she’s gonna fit right in: