Reply #50: But why is their support for a PO? Mostly because it was marketed to the people...

[slipslidingaway]

and sometimes even falsely marketed, when people were told to think of the public option as 'being like Medicare.'

Thanks for the reminder about Weiner's estimate, the Dems still have not pushed for a score.

:(

I posted about the polls here...

The Power of the Word Medicare -

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=6365319&mesg_id=6365319


Medicare was open to everyone 65 and older, the government did not give subsidies to people over 65 to purchase private insurance, therefore knocking out the competition.

Medicare had a ready pool of subscribers which allowed them to negotiate prices with providers, the public option has no such ready pool as people can chose to purchase from a private insurance company.

Over 90% of seniors were enrolled in Medicare by the end of the FIRST year.

Obama says that just over 3%, according to the CBO estimate he quoted, would be enrolled in a public option by 2019.

The basic benefits were automatically available to everyone over 65 and financed by an increased payroll tax.

It did not have to be self-financed in contrast with the current public option bills.


http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2009/sep/16/tom-price/medicares-history-public-option/

...Here's how an April 8, 1965, report in the New York Time's described the plan:

"As revised, the bill provides the basic hospitalization and nursing care benefits originally proposed by the administration while covering major doctor bills and many other medical expenses under a supplementary insurance program in which participation would be voluntary.

"The basic benefits, financed by increases in the Social Security payroll tax, would be automatically available to persons over 65. The additional coverage would be available to those over 65 who enrolled in the voluntary plan and paid premiums of $3 a month. Half of the voluntary plan's cost would be financed by federal subsidies of about $600 million a year from general tax revenues."

Johnson signed the Medicare law on July 30, 1965, and the program's aministrators began an intensive recruitment drive. At the end of the first year, participation was up to 93 percent of the elderly, according to The Politics of Medicare , a history by Theodore Marmor.


As we reviewed the history of Medicare, we noticed that legislators and policymakers drafting the legislation seemed to assume that Medicare participation would be very high. We could find nothing implying that Medicare coverage would compete with private insurers in paying for coverage...

This is markedly different from today's debate and discussion about the public option. Obama has said the public option would be one among many insurance proposals from which people could choose, and that it would be a backstop to keep private insurers honest. He also said it should not be subsidized by other tax revenues but pay for itself with customer premiums..."