Reply #32: One thing to keep in mind [View All]

[Literate Dragon]

Is that the public option would have been single-payer by the back door. Without the profit skim-offs of private insurers, and backed by the financial resources of the federal government, the public option, unless it was encumbered with some ridiculous hold-downs to keep it from competing, would have grown over time to be the insurer of choice for most everyone, because it would have been both cheaper and better coverage. As such, it would have provided the leverage needed to drive health-care costs way down.

That's why the insurance industry pulled out all the stops on its effort to stop the thing, and why its loss is a big loss.