http://healthplans.hcpro.com/content.cfm?content_id=234081&topic=WS_HLM2_HEP"...Former governors Howard Dean, MD (Vermont), Jeb Bush (Florida), and John Kitzhaber, MD (Oregon), agreed that the current system is functionally flawed. And they agreed that health plans, employers, and consumers need to take more responsibility for their own healthcare...
But Dean considers public health insurance a necessity. "I think it is absolutely essential. And I don't think health reform is worth doing without a public option."
"What the president is proposing to do is say, if you like what you have, you can keep it.
If you're comfortable with the private insurance market, you can keep it. Not only that, but we'll help you buy it. There will be a government subsidy based on your income, particularly helpful to small businesses, that you will receive to buy healthcare in the private market," Dean said. "But you will also have a choice of buying into a public plans such as Medicare or some other public plan. And I'm one of the few defenders of that in this room."
"Now I know people in this room, in this industry, are very, very fearful," he said. "This is the center of opposition."
He looked at the rows of representatives of Aetna, Blue Cross, and dozens of other companies assembled and said, "Your living is at stake here. But I don't think it's going to be as tough as you think it is."
The reason, he said, is that most of the nation's CEOs, despite "incredible inflation," prefer to have employer based health insurance. He emphasized that there is still a role for private health insurance, but one that would be shared by public plans.
Bush, however, argued for government to step back. "Beware of too much intrusion by the federal government in all of this," he said. "I'd be very, very cautious of ever expanding federal government."
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