R. I. P. public option.

[Cleita]

http://www.brookings.edu/opinions/2009/0929_public_option_aaron.aspx

R.I.P. Public Option
Health Care, U.S. Congress, U.S. Economy
Henry J. Aaron, Senior Fellow, Economic Studies
The Brookings Institution

SEPTEMBER 29, 2009 —
R.I.P., public option. Opponents saw it as a stalking horse for a government take-over of health insurance. Supporters saw it as a powerful instrument for disciplining private insurers. In truth, the public option was always a red herring. Neither the fears nor the hopes were based on reality. Ever alert to protect economic interests of their constituents, members of Congress were never going to let a public insurance plan put private health insurance companies out of business. A likely, but little discussed, possibility was that a public plan would become a dumping ground for bad health insurance risks.

If so, it would be expensive and therefore seem inefficient even if it was well run. The proposed health insurance cooperatives, now likely to be included in the bill reported out by the Senate Finance Committee, are a harmless sop that will likely be about as important in health insurance as credit unions are in the financial world - a nice option for a few but of little overall significance.

The endless and tedious debate on the public option was not innocent, however. For weeks it has been clear that public option was going nowhere. That reality did not prevent the frenzied attention lavished on it from diverting attention from reform issues that really count - how to create health insurance exchanges, what powers to give them, how much insurance people should have, what subsidies low-income households need to make that insurance affordable, and how to change health care delivery to realize the full potential of modern medicine.

Although it would be nice to think that debate about the public option really is behind us, such hopes may be premature. Though decapitated by the Finance Committee, it may well run around the barnyard once again if and when bills passed by the House and Senate go to conference.

So it seems the way to go again is to demand Medicare for all who want it.

[valerief]

1. Single payer! Single payer! Single payer!

Single payer! Single payer! Single payer!
:patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot:
Single payer! Single payer! Single payer!
:patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot:
Single payer! Single payer! Single payer!
:patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot:
Single payer! Single payer! Single payer!
:patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot:
Single payer! Single payer! Single payer!
:patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot:
Single payer! Single payer! Single payer!
:patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot:
Single payer! Single payer! Single payer!
:patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot:
Single payer! Single payer! Single payer!
:patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot:
Single payer! Single payer! Single payer!
:patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot:

[SammyWinstonJack]

12. Yea that isn't gonna happen. The PTB will never allow that. We can all eat shit and die! And the

sooner the better.... for them! x(

[timeforpeace]

20. Obama will get involved at the last second and pull it out! He said he's just getting started.

[SammyWinstonJack]

24. Well for all our sakes, I hope you are correct about Obama.

:-) But why is he waiting for the last second? :shrug: Seems counter-productive?

[timeforpeace]

45. Well, it's not because he's inept or incompetent as some have suggested.

[HughMoran]

26. You didn't bother to look at the date of the article or get the point of it

:eyes:

[valerief]

28. I saw Brookings Institute and figured it just said blah-blah-blah. Who cares? Single payer!!!!!!

That's what I want. I know I'm just a pebble under the bricks that support the ruling class in the penthouse.

[HughMoran]

30. We all want single payer

We should start a chorus and sing carols in Washington.

[mike_c]

2. to hell with congress's lame-ass public option....

Single payer universal health care was always the only reform worth seeking. Frankly, I hope the republicans and the blue dogs are successful at defeating this turkey We need HR 676, medicare for all.

[emulatorloo]

3. Sounds like Liebermann is doing his darndest! n/t

[tekisui]

4. The extreme opposition to the public option should be used

as evidence to why we need real reform. Single Payer.

[maryf]

42. Yep

Hope it gets voted down, its worse than the status quo, and that is deadly as we all know...

[Coyote_Bandit]

5. The ONLY reason

single payer hasn't been an option is because we the people are too frickin lazy to demand it.

This clusterfuck of a public option needs to die. And we the people need to manufacture some intestional fortitude and DEMAND that the bastards we've elected enact meaningful healthcare reform - not frickin INSURANCE reform that largely serves the interests of ther corporate boys.

Nope. I don't expect it to happen - for more reasons than I care to list. Primary among themn however is a lack of hummanity and community.

[endless october]

16. single payer hasn't been an option because a lot of money was paid to keep it off the table.

[SammyWinstonJack]

21. Who cares what we demand? They could not care less what we demand. That that is not obvious is

astounding to me. :shrug: How many time over the past 30 yrs have the PTB ignored our demands? :shrug: This talk about lack of community and humanity eludes me and I am not the most social of people. But I think we all give a shit about each other, I do believe that, the majority of us do. To our detriment, we allow the richest, greediest among us, to divide us and we must stop them!

[wtbymark]

6. Brookings......look at the board of Trustees and tell me where their..

Interest lies. It's a who's who of corporate America, 3 members also sit on Goldman Sachs.
http://www.brookings.edu/about/Trustees.aspx

[Cleita]

9. True, but the author is an expert in health care.

I have read other articles by him and he does seem to come from a place of unbiased reporting and he does try to keep his facts in front of him as much as he can. Also, Brookings is considered left of center although it's not as left as I would like it to be. They are for sure more DLC than Mother Jones.

[Barack_America]

7. The PO has died and been resurrected a dozen times since this was written. nt

[Dr Robert]

8. what a load of misinformation

If you are willing to spread falsehoods in your fight for Single Payer,
what makes you any better than the Repukes who will lie, cheat, and steal to keep the status quo?

[Cleita]

13. What falsehoods? The man offered an opinion about what he thought

the public option was about, a red herring, and I have to agree with him because the true public option, allowing anyone who wants Medicare to buy into it is non existent. Then they raised the cost so the insurance companies could compete on what was left. The only thing left is to omit it altogether to get Lieberman not to filibuster. So what will emerge is an insurance company bonanza without a public option. If that isn't an red herring, I don't know what is.

[Dr Robert]

17. I'm referring to your Headline, which is completely untrue.

[Cleita]

22. The DU rules for posting from other websites is to use the headline of their

article in your headline. As you see I also used it in the post as it was copied from the other website just so you wouldn't get confused. There is no doubt.

[Dr Robert]

32. you asked me what the falsehood was, and I told you

it's even worse that the falsehood is in the very headline.

you didn't notice?

[Cleita]

33. You are creating a straw man with your argument and you have none.

If you object to the rules, take it up with the mods, not me.

[Dr Robert]

34. i know what the rule is. My question is, why even post the article if you know it is BS?

[Cleita]

35. Because it isn't BS. It is my opinion that the author is right and that

the public option is dead. There is no option in the present bill, it's just some bone to throw at a small segment of the population. There is no option. An option would mean everyone can participate if they want to. None of the bills offered so far have anything like that except HR676, which won't probably even get to the floor.

[Dr Robert]

36. your definition of Public Option is distorted

you want virtual Single Payer via Medicare for All

but this can only be achieved incrementally, due to the existence of the current Insurance Industry.

What you want would end Health Insurance, and that would inevitably effect the economy in a major way, not to mention the thousands of jobs it would cost.

The only way to do it is to kill them softly.
Over time, gradual expansion of the PO can eventually lead to a steady decrease in the size of the Industry until one day it becomes wholly unprofitable.

You would rather have the door slammed in your face than have your foot firmly wedged into the next room?

[Cleita]

37. I guess it's distorted if you disagree with it.

There is nothing magical about extending Medicare to all who want it. Everyone pays into it so they should be able to choose if they want to use it. If they want to pay for some expensive private insurance let them, but don't shut out those who want it and who do pay into it. That is a true public option.

[Dr Robert]

38. That is Single Payer. Why would anyone buy Private insurance if that was passed?

You aren't looking at the Big Picture if you think you can just collapse the current system in one fell swoop.

[Cleita]

39. This is exactly what we were promised and it's disappeared.

There was supposed to be an exchange of insurers to pick from including a robust public option. The robust public option was supposed to be like Medicare or tied to Medicare, but you or your employer would have had a choice of keeping the insurance you were satisfied with or if not you could choose the Medicare public option. Well, poof, poof piffle, it's mostly disappeared. So it was bait, the red herring, that was described. When it's all over with there will be something called a public option that won't be available until a trigger sets it off or some such nonsense. We don't need hoops to jump through. We need a card that says we have access to health care and the providers need to know that they will be paid for services from the insurer, whether a private one or a public one. We won't be getting any of that from the proposals I have read.

[Dr Robert]

40. you mean a National Health Insurance Card, right?

I know what you want.
You still aren't considering why that won't happen all at once.

Uninsured people will be able to get coverage under this plan.
Prices will stop rising and eventually go down.
Medicare for all will be achieved once the success of the PO becomes apparent.

[Cleita]

44. A national health card down the line would be lovely.

I would have wanted this as our first option. However, what you think is going to happen won't unless people can buy into the national plan, just like they do insurance. The legislation is worded so that this doesn't happen. While I was watching some telly, Eugene Robinson came on TV and said that whatever the public option morphs into, it won't be that. We need something that isn't called that but finesses the same idea. See, smart guys can think.

[Dr Robert]

46. yes it will. Once people see friends and neighbors getting low PO rates

they will put immense pressure on Congress to expand it to everyone.

[SammyWinstonJack]

29. Most of all of here are better than the repukes who will lie, cheat, and steal to keep the status

quo. How are you any better than those who will fight to on 'our' side to keep the status quo? :shrug: And sadly, there are many of you.

[Dr Robert]

31. the PO is not the Status Quo and you know it. Obama will make it Law,

and you will owe him thanks.

[budkin]

10. This shit is OLD NEWS... why the hell would you post this??

[Cleita]

14. Because it helps me make a point and a month old isn't old news.

[Dr Robert]

18. perhaps your point is incorrect, seeing as you have to go back a month to find support for it

[Cleita]

23. I was looking for a post from this particular author, not just some random

post to look like I know how to use google.

[Bleacher Creature]

11. What's the point of posting an out-of-date article?

This post is why the negative recommendation was invented.

[Cleita]

15. Single payer for all.

That's all I've got to say.

[Bleacher Creature]

19. Turtles and peaches.

Just as relevant.

[HughMoran]

27. lol

Tried and true false choice post - complete with rah! rah! trolls.

[Greyhound]

25. K&R.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

41. K&R

[maryf]

43. K&R

its even worse now...