The Blue Dogs have approved a health care reform package that includes public option. That is great, because the public option is necessary to make sure the program actually works. Many more will be covered with a public option. However, their plan does not allow the government to control costs. The Pharmaceuticals, the hospitals get to charge what they want, just like under unreformed private health care. This takes something the country needs desperately and turns it into another boondoggle. Why support a tax to pay for health care reform if the government can't force costs down?
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Brian Williams and his experts on NBC News say forget about the public option with cost control. And I'd give pause to cheering on any forthcoming failure to deliver on these critical components to health care reform. Corruption and failure are nothing to cheer about.
All that corrupt dirty private health insurance industry money that went to the "gang of 6"* so-called moderate Senators, and Energy and Commerce Committee chair, Senator Max Baucus**, and many Blue Dog Democrats† may have helped kill public option with cost control.
The public option is health care insurance available directly from the government, like Medicare. In fact, it IS Medicare. It would be available to anyone who loses their private plan for any reason, not just those over age 65. As such it offers security, assurance you will never be without health insurance. Many people, including me, could stand a little security.
The public option with cost control is what its name suggests. It acts in the public interest by providing health insurance and controlling the cost of doing so. It drives down costs with negotiating power and bureaucratic streamlining. Government plans spend about 4% of revenues on administration, while private spend about 15%. Across a political unit as vast and populous as the United States, the savings would really add up.
Immediately, the cost of living would be lower.
There will be new taxes. What? That's a deal breaker? We can't keep borrowing from China, so there will have to be new taxes. Taxes are a better way to pay for health care. Premiums, copays and sudden denial of coverage are not based on ability to pay, but taxes are. When you swap taxes for medical bills, you get fairness, or at least a situation that is more fair. Taxes are higher as a % of income on those with higher income. That may make those with high net worth mad, but it won't make them poor, or even not rich. Consider that medical expenses have turned wealthy people into poor people almost overnight and you can see my point on the relative fairness paying via tax instead of the way it;s done now.
How many people have had their credit rating ruined by medical expenses? A huge improvement in credit scores would be a part of health care reform as a side effect. Increased spending power is money that gets released into the economy.
If a lower cost of living improves quality of life, how about improved health care itself? Ask anybody on a government plan anywhere in the world about quality of care, they will tell you they rarely had an issue. The issue of longer wait times in England was resolved in the 90s. Their wait times are the same of ours here (if you have insurance). In other countries, it's even faster. Even bizarrely fast (Japan, Taiwan).
Without a public option, there can be no reform. Without cost control, there can be no reform.
* The gang of 6. Six health-industry supported Senators who oppose public option:
1. Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Ne.)
2. Mary Landrieu (D-La.)
3. Ron Wyden (D-Or.)
4. Joe Lieberman (I-Ct.)
5. Olympia Snow (R-Me.)
6. Susan Collins (R-Me.)
**Baucus contributors
†Wikipedia says Blue Dogs are a coalition of fiscally conservative Democrats in the United States Senate and House. They got their name when Pete Gehran of Texas, who served in the U.S. Congress 1989-1997, said he felt like he was being "choked blue" by the extreme liberal leanings of the mainline Democratic party. LINK: Blue Dog Coalition. In 2007, the Blue Dogs refused to contribute their party dues because of anti-Iraq war sentiment among some fellow Democrats. The dues were waived to apologize for the rancor. The dues are not collected from Blue Dogs anymore.
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In other news: The public option is not dead. Yet.
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picture: thinkprogress.org
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