Written by: Tom Sawyer

Contrary to popular belief, the public option is not the entirety of the health care reform proposal in congress, or what President Obama proposed on the campaign trail as a fix for our broken health care system.  Health care reform includes everything needed to begin controlling health care costs, access to health care for all, and improved healthcare.

The public option is a plan.  For those who don’t have insurance provided by an employer, or for small businesses who want to buy a plan at an affordable rate, the bills would create a Health Exchange – a one-stop shopping market for health care.  Any private insurance company could offer a plan in the Exchange, but they’d have to adhere to certain standards:

• There would be a minimum set of benefits for all plans, no one could be turned down on the basis of pre-existing conditions.
• There would be guaranteed renewal of policies (no dumping a customer because they got sick.)
• You would not be charged a different price because of gender, health status or type of employment.
• You would be charged a different rate for age, but it would be more restricted than the Wild West of premium rates today.
• If you couldn’t afford the full premium and you made less than 400% of the federal poverty line (about $43,000 for an individual or $88,000 for a family of 4), you’d get a subsidy so your premium would be pegged to a fixed percentage of your income.
• Everyone would have a cap on out-of-pocket expenses. And finally,
• All of the information and presentation would be transparent — you would be able to compare standard benefits across companies to find the one that works for you.

Although these bills keep changing, Congressional leaders who were opposed to supporting a bill including a public option have decided they will support such a bill.  However, the public option has been changed to the point where it may actually be better for us all.  Bypassing public trust issues, is a progressively watered-down public option preferable to a Medicare expansion combined with a national non-profit insurance plan similar to the one offered to federal employees, regulated by the Office of Personnel Management?

Bernie Sanders, one of the leading advocates of the public option, is now arguing that these proposals combined “may be stronger than the very weak public options that both the House and the Senate have already passed.”

Health care reform must expand access to include as many as of the 46 million uninsured Americans as possible.  What has been proposed to this point will move us towards this goal. 

Also, reform must create competition and reduced costs.  Reaching this goals via a government-ran system is what has ruffled many feathers.  It is something that is necessary and of course the government will suggest a government solution.

Every solution on the table thus far could be described as suboptimal, but we need a change.  Too much time and energy have been spent opposing health care reform simply because of who is proposing it.  That energy would be better spent offering alternative solutions.  Isn’t that part of complaining 101?  Someone who constantly complains should have an alternative solution.  Otherwise, shut up and get in line.

Tags: bernie sanders, health care reform, Public option

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 13th, 2009 at 10:00 pm and is filed under Current Buzz. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.