Lawmakers warm to the public option: Senators Offer State Opt-Out

[TomCADem]

Source: Washington Post

House Democrats are coalescing around an $871 billion health-care package that would create a government-run insurance plan to help millions of Americans afford coverage, raise taxes on the nation's richest families and impose an array of new regulations on private insurers, in part by stripping the industry of its long-standing exemption from federal antitrust laws.

Senate Democratic leaders, meanwhile, huddled with President Obama on Thursday, and lawmakers said Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) was increasingly leaning toward the idea of including a version of a public insurance option, albeit one that would allow states to opt out of such as system, in the chamber's bill.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and her top lieutenants said Thursday that they are close to corralling the 218 votes they need to move forward with comprehensive legislation that would include a version of the public option prized by liberals as a fundamental pillar of reform. House leaders were still trying to defuse a number of lingering disputes, including a battle over abortion. But senior lawmakers said that major sections of the measure have been locked in and that a final bill could be made public as soon as Monday in preparation for debate before the full House early next month.

"We feel very confident we have the votes to move forward," said Rep. John B. Larson (Conn.), the third-ranking House Democrat, as he emerged from the latest of dozens of meetings aimed at uniting the Democratic rank and file. "We want to make sure that when we do our 'Kumbaya' moment, that we're all there."

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/22/AR2009102202820.html?hpid=topnews

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The question is whether the Democratic base has the grassroots strength to run through the tape or does the insurance industry start flooding the room with more "independent" studies attacking health care reform.

[laughingliberal]

1. I do believe the industry has been thoroughly discredited

I could be wrong but I think they played their hand with that phony report and the extortion attempt. I believe the public had already started turning on them and that was the last straw. The real question is if the Democrats can stand against the thought of losing those lovely campaign contributions.

[bluestateguy]

2. Very few states will have the political courage to opt out

You would need a wingnut Republican governor and legislature, and even then they would balk at pulling out, just like with the stimulus money. They might blow smoke about refusing the public option, but it's another thing to actually do it.

[JDPriestly]

5. State will see the lower cost of the public option and decide

that it could help them foot their Medicaid bills. That's when they will if not at the beginning, gradually over time opt in rather than out. The big states like California and New York -- the populous states will not opt out. They will be in with the public option.

[rbixby]

7. Opt out is a great idea

If state legislatures decide to opt out of the program, they do it at their own peril. I seriously doubt that they'd deny the people of their state health care like this. People will definitely decry this opt-out program because they say it will negatively effect the poor in red states which do decide to opt out of the program, but I don't know of anything else that would motivate people to get out and vote more than the risks to their own health.

[Alcibiades]

3. I love the opt-out idea

Let the state legislatures decide. Once folks in the death belt states see that a public option is working well in other states, providing more coverage to more people at a lower cost, this will discredit Republicans at the state level as well.

It also eviscerates the arguments against the public option, because it simply won't be available to people who elect Republicans. The New Federalists, Reagan and his ilk, claimed that states can be a laboratory for public policy. Very well: let's set up the experiment and see how long it is before the control group begs to be included in the experimental group.

[Abacus]

8. I do too, for the same reasons

well stated :)

[earcandle]

4. Thanks you for your hard work.

[fujiyama]

6. I definitely prefer the opt-out option

to the trigger. With the opt out states that don't join initially will eventually. Plus, I'm tired of the millions in more densely populated states being held hostage in a sense by smaller, conservative states.