It appears as though the public option in health care reform is DOA or dead on arrival. Rhetoric from the President and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius this weekend seems to imply that the option is no longer a make or break factor in reform but just a small “sliver” as the President put it, in the overall package. I heard him say this watching his town hall meeting on TV Saturday in Grand Junction, Colorado! Apparently the talk on the news programs Sunday seemed to suggest that the administration is now willing to endorse a co-operative option. I knew we were headed to some kind of half-assed bill but I was still holding out hope that we would get something more robust from our strong Democratic majorities in both the House and Senate. We’ve been told by a multitude of Democrats this year and last during the elections that the public option for insurance coverage was needed in order to keep the private insurance companies in check and to control costs for the consumer. I guess we’re going to trust the private insurance companies to do the right thing again.
Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., who is co-chairman of the Middle Class Caucus, said that "leaving private insurance companies the job of controlling the costs of health care is like making a pyromaniac the fire chief."
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I know it may not be all bad if we can at least get some provisions which are sorely needed like stopping the insurance companies practices of denying coverage or dropping coverage for no reasons and denying coverage due to “pre-existing conditions”. I guess what I want to know from everyone out there is do we push forward with watered down legislation and declare victory or do we hold out for something better and try again next year or the following year?
I'm all for tabling the reform bill a year or two until we can have true health care reform but I'm not sure this is ever going to happen. I guess we can continue to try every 14 years or so. Change we can believe in...
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