He says the public plan probably won't cost as much as estimated by the OMB, because obviously no Republicans will be signing up for it.
I mean, no Republican would dare sign up for inexpensive, easily portable health insurance. Not when red, white and blue All American for-profit health insurance is available. . . .Please explain, conservatives and wingnuts, why you wouldn't seriously consider switching to the public option if it turned out to be more affordable and portable from job to job -- not to mention the fact that you wouldn't be turned down for a preexisting condition; you wouldn't be randomly booted from the plan as soon as you needed it most; and you would never have to worry about health insurance coverage ever again. Employed or unemployed. Sick or healthy.
Simply put: it's Medicare, but for anyone who wants it. And this is somehow a nightmare scenario -- one that we must never be allowed to experience even though it would cost much less than our current system, it would cover everyone who wants it, and it would be accountable to the American people. This is somehow a terrible idea. Terrible to the private health insurance mafia, that is. They simply can't allow you to have an affordable public option because they need your financial support. Face it, $1.4 million a day to lobby members of Congress isn't cheap.
If Obama and the Democratic leadership don't use their political capital to get this passed this summer, or if they pass a watered down version without the public plan in order to garner a few Republican votes, this may be the last good opportunity for some time.
And, it will not have done much to fix our broken system. And it will leave a lot of people disillusioned with the possibility of reform, because it will have been defeated by the money paid out by insurance companies to preserve their lucrative broken plan.
This is not the time for tinkering. This is the time for bold action. The people will reward you, politicians.
Ralph
I think it's likely that we will get some form of plan that will include portability, elimination of pre-existing conditions exclusion, and universal availability.
ReplyDeleteThat will fix a lot of the problems that people experience, but it won't do much for controlling the cost. That's the strongest selling point for the public plan. But opponents would rather keep getting their lobbiest money, I guess, that really do something that will work.