New life for the public option

[cal04]

Sunday, October 25, 2009
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...


The resurrection of the public option is the latest and one of the most surprising turns in the long battle over legislation to overhaul the nation's health-care system. Under assault for months, and declared on life support repeatedly in recent weeks, the provision for a public insurance option is unexpectedly alive as House and Senate leaders prepare to send their bills to the floor.

That doesn't mean it's a done deal. Whether it survives the final battles, and in what form, are still the unanswerable questions. Multiple versions of a public option are on the table. Liberal and moderate Democrats are still at odds and are drawing lines in the sand in hopes of exercising maximum influence on the outcome.

Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) are still scratching for the votes to pass bills with a public option included. But by next week, both hope to have bills ready either for unveiling or to send to the Congressional Budget Office for analysis and scoring.

(snip)
What brought the public option back to life?

(snip)
With virtually unanimous Republican opposition likely, Democrats reevaluated the politics of the public option. Two recent events contributed to their renewed push to include it. One was the insurance industry's decision to attack the legislation and to issue a report warning of higher premiums. The report triggered a backlash among liberal Democrats, who decided to push even harder for a public option.

Then last week, new polls, one from The Washington Post and ABC News and the other from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, found clear majority support (57 percent) for a public option. The Post-ABC News poll showed support had risen five percentage points since August. The new numbers emboldened public-option supporters to press harder, even though the same polls continued to show the public divided over the overall shape of health-care legislation.

[RC]

1. Who is eligible for this "Public Option" and who will administer it?

The U.S. Government or some for profit health insurance company?

Unless this public option is open to anyone and administered by the government, it is a suckers option. The insurance companies will just dump off those that run their expenses up too high onto the public option, keeping the profitable cream.

Nothing less than Single Payer, Universal Health Care for everyone. Greed is the only thing stopping this country from acquiring this human right - Basic health care, no matter who you are or how much you make.

[bertman]

2. I'd love to see Single Payer too, RC, but I'd settle for a real Public Option as in Medicare

for any American who wants to buy in. No mandates and no restrictions if you already have a plan that is provided by an employer. If anyone wants to keep their current Insurance Industry Policy then so be it.

I have no faith whatsoever that there will be a reform package that benefits the nation more than it benefits the Insurance/Pharmaceutical industries.

[RC]

3. The public option is a scam unless it is open to everyone and government run.

Otherwise it will become a dumping ground for those needing help the most. It has to be government run or it will be useless for those that already have nothing.

[bertman]

4. Sad to say, I think you're right.

[Gently Used Deal]

5. Polls

The real question is:

Is it any wonder that Americans don't trust healthcare reform to a group of proponents that haven't delivered anything of this scale since Medicare? To mealy mouthed, pre-compromising, uncertain, Democrats?

We blew a hole in the budget and saved the economy from free-fall in our bank bailouts. But we can't see our own actions in the bouncing polls when it comes to Health Reform.

I challenge every Dem MOC and Senator: See yourself in the polls. Would you trust yourself to provide healthcare? Are you uncertain, scared to lose, and unwilling to stick your neck out?

Imagine if FDR highlighted a "Fairly New Deal" with a "Social Security Option" that marginal MOCs waffled on. Would it be any wonder if he, and the Congress, got swept out?

We'd live in a different world today: Short lived majorities, pre compromised programs, and a party whose only mantle is a backstop to a crazy, idealistic GOP.

Or maybe, it's been so long since we embraced big thinking, sweeping vision, and strong willed leaders, that we're already there.