Democratic senators say they have a tentative deal to drop a government-run insurance option from health care legislation.Democrats in the Senate are so desperate to pass a bill they'll kill the main reason the created this mess in the first place. Of course, without a public option the bill probably doesn't have a chance in the House, so I'm guessing the plan is to put the public option back should the bill make it to conference committee.
No further details were immediately available.
But liberals and moderates have been discussing an alternative, including a private insurance arrangement to be supervised by the federal agency that oversees the system through which lawmakers purchase coverage. Additionally, talks centered on opening up Medicare to uninsured Americans beginning at age 55, a significant expansion of the large government health care program that currently serves the over-65 population.
Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa told reporters he didn't like the agreement but would support it to the hilt in an attempt to pass health care legislation.
Tuesday, December 08, 2009
Public Option Dies in Senate
At least the public option as originally designed by ladies man and health bill writer Sen. Max Baucus:
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3 comments:
I just don't understand what the big deal is with providing the people of this country with an option to purchase public health insurance! The people of this country need this option. Congress should quit worrying about whether they'll get re-elected and do the right thing.
The problem with a public health option, touted as a means for controlling health care costs, is that the public option has no need to generate the profits a commercial entity must earn to provide the sums of liquid assets, required by government, needed to pay any and all claims filed by the insured. Putting a public option in place becomes an alligator in a shallow pond. No private insurer can compete and the government has control by default. The government can then raise taxes at will to provide funds for the public option, and can restrict care to control the costs. In addition, they can restrict payments to medical professionals even though such notions will reduce the number of doctors/nurses. If restricted health care is the desired lifestyle, then the public option is just the ticket. Else...remove ALL tentacles of such a plan.
Marly you need to read more.
The government is already in health care; that's what MediCal, Medicaid, and Medicare are all about. People in these government programs hate the poor quality and long waits for service; and the cost over-runs are huge.
I work for a state entity, and we are constantly reminded how expensive our benefits are to maintain. You don't think our administrators wouldn't dump us into a "public option" if they had the chance to save thousands of dollars per employee??? You don't think your employer would do the same to save money?
Only the very rich will be able to opt out of government health care by paying cash for the services they need; the rest of us will be told to get in line and wait.
We need health care reform, but not like this.
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