The public option mirage

[IndianaGreen]

The public option mirage

A plan that forces people to buy insurance, and then offers no affordable alternative, isn't reform at all, but the opposite.

November 3, 2009

AFTER MONTHS of rancorous right-wing complaints about a government "takeover" of the health care industry, a proposal for a "public option" has made it into proposed legislation for health care reform under consideration in both the House and Senate.

But the public option is so scaled back that it's barely public--and it can hardly be called an option for most of the millions of uninsured in the U.S.

The House version of health care legislation is supposed to be more "radical" than the Senate's, and closer to what proponents of reform have long pressed for. But the 1,990-page bill unveiled by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi October 29 shares all the hallmarks of proposals that put the interests of the medical-insurance-industrial complex before those of ordinary people.

Liberals like Rep. Anthony Weiner admit that the public option--a government-run program to provide health insurance for people who aren't covered through an employer plan--has been whittled down to a shadow of what they first envisioned.

According to a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) study of the House bill, only 6 million Americans would be enrolled in the public option by the time it's fully phased in, in 2019. That's just 2 percent of the 282 million Americans younger than 65 (who aren't covered by Medicare). The CBO explains that the low numbers are in large part because the plan "would typically have premiums that are somewhat higher than the average premiums for the private plans."

http://socialistworker.org/2009/11/03/public-option-mirage