Reply #12: Solution: Uninsured are automatically enrolled. [View All]

[strategery blunder]

Subsidies based upon income. If you want to prevent RW hysteria about govt forcing healthcare on people :eyes: then leave an opt-out option.

Lots of young and healthy people out there who are uninsured and thus would be automatically enrolled. That would give public option the baseline number of clients it would need to negotiate rates.

Of course the number could change as some people opt-out, as people fed up with private insurance switch to public, etc...and the rates could be adjusted to reflect what should be a growing pool (people coming in from private insurance should outnumber people opting-out).

This approach avoids the chicken-and-egg problem described in OP.

Sadly, because it's actually plausible that it would bring costs down, it will never happen. :(