Why We Can't Compromise On Public-Plan Choice

[marmar]

from OurFuture.org:



Why We Can't Compromise On Public-Plan Choice
By Jacob Hacker

May 27th, 2009 - 2:45pm ET


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Of all the components of the health reform package that will be debated in Congress this year, none inspires greater admiration or ire than the idea of “public plan choice.” Public plan choice means simply that Americans younger than 65 who do not have employment-based health insurance should have the option of enrolling in a new public health insurance plan that provides good coverage on equal terms in all parts of the country.

As I have argued at length, by creating a benchmark for private plans and a new means of reining in costs and improving quality, public plan choice is the key to ensuring that health reform provides quality affordable care to all Americans over the long term.

Recently, some policy experts have called for a “compromise” approach that would involve state-based public plans designed to mimic state self-insured health plans. Some have even backed models that simply involve a government contract with one or more private insurers to administer claims. Neither approach would achieve the cost savings nor delivery system changes that a truly national public plan could. Indeed, in an online debate, Stuart Butler of The Heritage Foundation correctly stated that a self-insured nonprofit health plan such as those now run for public employees in many states would be “a public plan in name only.”

A true public plan cannot rely on private insurers to set premiums, provider rates, or terms of coverage, and it must be publicly accountable at the national level. The simplest, most workable, most cost-effective, and most attractive way to achieve these crucial goals is to model the new public plan on Medicare, the successful and popular public health insurance program for the elderly and disabled. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2009052227/why-we-cant-compromise-public-plan-choice

[subterranean]

1. The public option is already a compromise.

We don't need to compromise on the compromise.