Public Option or Bust

[Joanne98]

Health care reform looks like it will be astronomically expensive, but that’s only if private insurers and big pharma get their way, writes Clinton-era Labor Secretary Robert Reich. Without competition from the government, AKA a public option, the health care industry will continue to gouge and Americans will still be in the weeds, a trillion dollars poorer.

Robert Reich in the Wall Street Journal:

But before we even get to this point, it’s important to recognize that those terrifying CBO cost projections significantly overstate the costs. They did not include potential cost savings from the lynchpin of health-care cost containment: a so-called public option that would give people who don’t get health care from their employer the choice of a public insurance plan. Why? For the simple reason that the Senate committees hadn’t yet agreed on a public option. Yet without a public option, the other parties that comprise America’s non-system of health care—private insurers, doctors, hospitals, drug companies, and medical suppliers—have little or no incentive to supply high-quality care at a lower cost than they do now.

Which is precisely why the public option has become such a lightening rod. The American Medical Association is dead-set against it, Big Pharma rejects it out of hand, and the biggest insurance companies won’t consider it. No other issue in the current health-care debate is as fiercely opposed by the medical establishment and their lobbies now swarming over Capitol Hill. Of course, they don’t want it. A public option would squeeze their profits and force them to undertake major reforms. That’s the whole point.

Read more

http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/20090624_public_option_or_bust/

[ejpoeta]

1. just this morning on the today show we had cramer on with matt lauer

and they were talking about how expensive a public option would be. why does no one ever say.... WE ARE ALREADY PAYING FOR IT!!!! we're already friggin paying for it NOW!!! this is bullshit. why are you not asking how we are paying for the wars!!! all the other crap we are paying for that we don't need to be spending money on. but no... the only thing we hear how are you going to pay for it is when talking about healthcare. this is bullshit.

[YewNork]

3. Because they don't want it to pass

and they were talking about how expensive a public option would be. why does no one ever say.... WE ARE ALREADY PAYING FOR IT!!!

Because the opponents are trying to scare people into inaction. It doesn't matter how they prevent it as long as they do.

[Faryn Balyncd]

2. K&R - We cannot afford to allow a counterproductive pseudo-"reform"

[SammyWinstonJack]

4. K&R