Public Option Genie Will Soon Be Out of the Bottle

[marmar]

from OurFuture.org:



Public Option Genie Will Soon Be Out of the Bottle
By Jon Walker

June 23, 2009 - 7:49pm ET


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Very soon, the Congressional Budget Office will release a score for the House Democrats' draft health care legislation. Their bill contains a relatively strong self-financing public option. My research has led me to conclude that including a strong public option will result in the bill being scored several hundred billion dollars cheaper.

The House bill is very similar to the draft legislation from the Senate HELP (Health, Education, Labor and Pensions) committee. Both fix the size of credits, which would be given to help individuals buy health insurance, to the "reference premium". In both, the "reference premium" is the average of the three cheapest available plans. I explained previously how offering a much cheaper public option would reduce the cost of the "reference premium" and dramatically lower the amount in subsidies the federal government will need to pay out.

While the two bills differ slightly in who is eligible for subsidies, (House is people between 133%-400% of the federal poverty level, Senate HELP is 150%-500% of federal poverty level) the general effect of including a strong public option should be the same. The strong public option could easily reduce a bill's score by $100-$300 billion.

Once the savings of a strong public option is scored, it should dramatically change the nature of the debate. Already an overwhelming number of Americans support the public option. Once it is clear it will also save the country hundreds of billions, it will be hard to argue against it on vague ideological grounds. Members of the Democratic leadership, who once thought they would be able to use the public option as a bargaining chip, will quickly find out that including a public plan is the only way to receive significant grassroots support.

Soon the public plan genie will be out of the bottle, and it is going to be very difficult to put it back in.


http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2009062623/public-option-genie-will-soon-be-out-bottle

[billyoc]

1. This is why the Right fights so hard against any social program.

[sharesunited]

2. That is a welcome positive viewpoint.

If you are correct, the volume of the opposition's chin music can be expected to be raised accordingly.

[Fire1]

5. It's hard to argue with 'savings' from any stand point, but

I'm sure they'll find something.

[Fire1]

3. Thanks marmar. Just as I anticipated. Great news. n/t

[lindisfarne]

4. Remember cost is for 10 years, so divide everything by 10. Frankly, 100 billion annually is not much

for health care. And, it will be cheaper than what we have now AND few will remain uninsured by choice (even if mandatory, there will always be those idiots - some on DU - who argue against having to buy health care, even through a government option).