Public Option Myths

[garybeck]

I DID NOT WRITE THIS. Debate away, but don't shoot the messenger. Received by email, forwarded by Kevin Zeese,

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Weak Public Option Myths That Liberals Believe
By Kevin Gosztola

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Myth #1 – Public option will help control costs

Dr. Margaret Flowers with Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) explains that Americans have been led to believe that “the public option is going to keep companies honest and help control costs.”

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Anesthesiologist Dr. Samuel Metz, who is with the Mad as Hell Doctors, explains, “Massachusetts has been held up as an example of a state that has come closest to providing universal health insurance. However, not only has it failed to provide universal health insurance. It is also now the most expensive place on the planet for healthcare. It leads the U.S. in annual cost per person.”

The public option, “will not reduce the cost of healthcare,” says Metz. “In fact, it's anticipated it will add $800 billion more into a system that's already twice as expensive as the average industrialized nation.”

Myth #2 – The public option is a "public" option

The public option that came out of the House, according to Dr. Flowers, is “even worse than we could have imagined because they're predicting that maybe 2% of the population will be able to go into that public option, that it will be run by private insurance companies, and that it will actually cost more than private insurance.”

What's so public about something only open to 2% of the population?

As Kevin Zeese from the Prosperity Agendaexplains, “No matter how much you hate your current insurance, no matter how much they've abused you with premiums, co-pays, denials of care, no matter what they've done to you, you can't leave your insurance and go to the public option,” said Zeese. “90% of Americans can't even choose it. So much for choices.”

Flowers adds the government would be subsidizing the purse of private insurance to try to help people buy their products. Government would be putting public dollars into the pockets of private insurance companies. And, a private corporation would be allowed to run the public option.

How many Americans really think putting reform in the hands of those who have created this crisis in health care in America will ultimately work or produce any favorable results?

Myth #3 – Public option will make single-payer possible

Doctors, nurses, and patients following the de-evolution of health care reform closely know that the public option (especially the idea of a robust public option) is a carefully calculated political carrot being offered to progressives so they will sit down, shut up about single-payer, and support this current corporate giveaway to private insurance companies, which is moving through Congress right now.

Hendrickson explains, “The reason why the public option was introduced, according to congress people that have spoken to the single-payer movement, was because of the single-payer movement. There was such an up swell in the progressive part of this country for single-payer that they opted for some compromise that would not have been given if there wasn't so much support for single-payer.”

If you ask Zeese, this won't do anything to get us closer to single-payer.

This bill will “enshrine and deepen the power of the insurance industry.” Hundreds of billions of dollars in new revenue, according to Zeese, will now be available for corrupting and influencing Congress.

It will be even harder to get single-payer if a weak public option remains in the bill. And the money government gives away will help private insurance fight any additional reforms to legislation passed by Congress and Obama.

Metz concludes that the public option will make it impossible for us to achieve universal coverage for at least a decade.

“Every passing year we'll see more Americans with worse health and nobody will do anything because we will point to our legislation and say give it another couple years to work,” says Metz. “And in five years, we will have exhausted the financial resources of the government, we will have exhausted taxpayers, we will have exhausted the good will of voters, the patience of voters, and no one will want to attempt health reform again.”

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Kevin Gosztola is a documentary filmmaker currently completing a Film/Video degree at Columbia College in Chicago. Currently, he is working on a documentary project on Renaissance 2010 and Chicago Public Schools.

[RoyGBiv]

1. You need a link n/t

[Truth2Tell]

2. here

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Weak-Public-Option-Myths-T-by-Kevin-Gosztola-091120-950.html

[RoyGBiv]

4. Ah

Ok.

[garybeck]

3. delete

[Cant trust em]

5. I believe that myth 2 is being addressed by the Wyden amendment

Which would allow for people who would normally get insurance through their employer to be given a voucher or something to purchase insurance on the exchange.

[garybeck]

6. that would be nice

but a proposed ammendment is just that, at this point. there are many proposed ammendments, some of which will never see the light of day. I hope that one gets in the bill but the indications are the public option will be become weakened during debate, not strengthened.

[Cant trust em]

7. Since there are many amendments, it is likely that the bill will be strengthened

in some points and weakened in others.

[lonestarnot]

8. cool.

[slipslidingaway]

9. Just adding this for discussion, not sure of the details of the agreement...

http://news.firedoglake.com/2009/11/20/reid-wyden-baucus-reach-agreement-on-version-of-free-choice-amendment/

Reid, Wyden, Baucus Reach Agreement On Version Of Free Choice Amendment
By: David Dayen Friday November 20, 2009 12:13 pm

"A day before voting on the motion to proceed in the Senate, Ron Wyden has reached agreement with the leadership to get an amendment into the bill which would allow as many as 1 million additional individuals who get health care from their employers to participate on the insurance exchanges, including selecting the public option.

Wyden, who has been insistent on opening the exchanges to provide more choice for all Americans, had been holding out on supporting the bill without it moving in that direction. This agreement presumably secures some of that support. Here’s his statement:

“As I have long said, empowering Americans to choose the health insurance that works best for them and their family is the single best way to hold health insurance companies accountable,” said Wyden. “While this is just one step in the direction of guaranteeing choices for all Americans, it is a major step because – for the first time – it introduces the concept of individual choice to a marketplace where it has long been foreign. This is a significant step toward real reform.”

The amendment would allow Americans with employer-based coverage at a certain affordability level, where their premiums are between 8 and 9.8 percent of total income, to “convert their tax-free employer health subsidies into vouchers that they can use to choose a health insurance plan in the new health insurance exchanges,” says the release. A CBO score on this amendment said that over one million people would subsequently be covered by health insurance..."