The public option was said to be a plan that would allow all Americans to buy in to the plans available to Congress, or perhaps "Medicare-for-All".
In any event, it was promoted (& I promoted it as such), as a route to eventual Single Payer, a plan that would allow all Americans to purchase a fair-priced public policy.
The "public option" was DEFINITELY NOT to be a low-income-only charity plan with limited, and likely inferior, provider participation.
But the "public option" of
H. R. 3200 is NOT what we were promised. (
Here's the glowing, sparse on details, P.R. piece that the house sponsors prefer you read.)
The bottom line: H. R. 3200 is NOT a plan that makes available a dignified public plan to all Americans. It will NOT provide a public option to millions of struggling middle class Americans who do not have the "affordability credits" (said to require an income less than 4x FPL ($44K for individual, $58K for family of 2, $88K for family of 4).
What these families get instead is
a MANDATE to purchase private insurance, but NO PUBLIC OPTION.And what exactly will Americans who DO qualify with "affordability credits" get when they spend their hard-earned thousands to buy in to the public plan? Will they be in a plan that includes Americans of all income levels, and which has wide physician/provider participation (as does Medicare)? Or will they end up in a program which, EVEN THOUGH IT IS ECONOMICALLY SELF-SUSTAINING, has limited, perhaps inferior, physician/provider participation (because the AMA has successfully lobbied to make physician acceptance voluntary), and which is perceived to be a low-income, second-tier plan?
Do not Americans of all income levels deserve better?
H. R. 3200 puts us in the position of officially sanctioning a two-tiered system: a "public option" for indigent, lower-income, and some moderate income families, and a mandate to purchase private insurance for everyone else, including many millions of struggling middle class families.
And the lobbyists who created this sham don't want to stop there. They want to PRIVATIZE MEDICARE itself.
:kick: