Push for Public Option plan "Number 1"

[jsamuel]

Senate Finance Panel Outlines Options For Public Health Plan

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The first, a Medicare-like plan, would pay a rate based on Medicare rates and increased by 0% to 10% and would require doctors and hospitals that currently accept Medicare beneficiaries to accept the new beneficiaries. It would be administered by the Department of Health and Human Services and would not be required to hold cash reserves - as most publicly traded companies are.

The second option presented by the committee would be separated from HHS and instead run by regional administrators. The administrators would create their own provider networks - instead of adopting Medicare's network - and would have solvency standards that would require them to hold reserve funds.

That option tracks closely with a proposal recently hashed out by Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who sits on the finance panel, and is likely to have more support from moderates in the Senate who maintain that a public plan should be on a "level playing field" with private insurers.

"I think it's the only way a public plan could work," Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., said last week. Lincoln sits on the finance panel.

Schumer's proposal has seen traction recently, with Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., stating in a May 8 letter to the advocacy group Health Care for America Now that Schumer's plan could be a "starting point" for discussions on a public plan.

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While option number 2 is better than nothing, we should push for "Number 1" as it is the most likely program to succeed. There is serious danger of "Number 2" being underfunded as it will not allow for subsidizing costs. I fear that if too many people with low income and health problems sign up for the plan. Premiums would be low and cost would be high, leading to the program becoming bankrupt. They say that they want it to be a level playing field, but if we are picking up the people who have the least money and the most health problems, it won't be level without subsidizing the program.