Public option losing ground: charges that it is unfair to private insurers appear likely to sink it.

[Karmadillo]

http://features.csmonitor.com/politics/2009/08/13/us-as-a-health-plan-provider-reform-idea-losing-ground/

US as a health plan provider? Reform idea losing ground.
A 'public option' is popular with the left – and is supposed to serve, too, as a brake on medical costs. But charges that it is unfair to private insurers appear likely to sink it.

By Peter Grier | Staff writer/ August 13, 2009 edition

President Obama favors inclusion of a government-run insurance plan – a “public option,” for short – in health reform legislation. The president and his allies say such a plan is needed to help contain medical insurance costs and ensure that people in all parts of the country have adequate insurance choices.

But the public option has attracted strong opposition from Republicans and other critics who say it would be unfair competition for the private sector and could drive today’s insurers out of business.

Some analysts now say that the future for the public option looks bleak. It has been rejected by key players on the Senate Finance Committee, for one thing. For another, Mr. Obama has not actually insisted that it must be part of any health bill he will sign.

“There’s a lack of support for it, even in a significant portion of the Democratic political caucus,” says Thomas Miller, an American Enterprise Institute fellow who served as health policy economist for Congress’s Joint Economic Committee.

more...

[Curtland1015]

1. Oh those poor insurance companies...

Without a public option, is there even a POINT to any of this reform?

[BlooInBloo]

2. Yah. We should do away with public universities. No way privates can compete...

As I've said, this whole brouhaha is nothing more than another test of How Stupid Are Americans.

[yourout]

3. Our only hope is the Progressive Caucus standing there ground and voting down.....

anything without it.

[City Lights]

4. Let the public screw the insurance companies for a change.

I'd love nothing more than to see the health industry die a quick, painful death.

[redqueen]

5. What transparent spin... the AEI... oh no, I can't believe they don't approve.

:eyes:

[dipsydoodle]

6. What a load of old bollocks

In the UK the NHS and the private companies co-exist without any issues - to a certain extent they rely on each other.

[bkkyosemite]

7. What I'd like to know is who of those screamers really knows that it will sink the insurnace co.

because they are so brained washed that it is socialism. They haven't a clue what they are talking about.

[DebbieCDC]

8. Oh yeah, the AEI is TOTALLY unbiased

:crazy:

[InternalDialogue]

9. We need to keep repeating:

Public health care legislation has no responsibility to protect an inefficient private insurance business model.

[redqueen]

11. That's a good idea.

I've made myself a reminder. :)

[The Magistrate]

10. They May Be Whistling In The Dark, Sir

And people should not say 'may drive the private insurers out of business' in tones suggesting that is a bad thing....

[abumbyanyothername]

12. Santa Monica Public Library, Barnes & Noble, Amazon.

USPS, FedEx, UPS.
UCLA, USC, Occidental.
Metro Transit, Yellow Cab, Jim Falk Lexus.
Leo Carillo State Beach, Annenberg Public Beach House, Jonathan Club.
SaMoShel, Fairview Apartments, Loews Beach Hotel.

etc., etc., etc.

But I do fear we may be losing this battle politically and, if so, we need to switch and oppose mandatory coverage.

[spanone]

13. i'm always amazed at the ability of the repubs to get the very people who would benefit from somethi

something protest against that very thing.

[dorkulon]

14. As if corporate profits are more important than people fucking DYING.

It's "not fair" because it provides better service for less money? Fucking shit.

[TheKentuckian]

15. The soft assed support for the idea of Single Payer is seriously diminished

when you ask two questions

1. Would you give up you're current coverage for something like medicaid?

2. Are you supportive of eliminating private primary care insurance policies?

The majority doesn't really want Single Payer and Congress is entrenched against. We can't just project our hopes and goals on society?

[bkkyosemite]

16. The problem with #2 is the public does not know what HR 676 says it needs to get coverage now. And

#1 Medicaid.........Medicare is not medicaid and HR 676 covers much more than medcial...i.e, dental, prescriptions, vision, mental health, etc. Anybody would be crazy to not want HR 676 but they can't be crazy because the powers that be are keeping this out of the media so those people you talk about do not know what is in the bill and how advantageous it would be for them and their families.

[kenny blankenship]

17. So first they say the Public Option can only cover the uninsured, because it would be "unfair"

to insurance companies, we were told, if their captives were allowed to escape to a public plan run with only public health as its goal, not profits. The bizarre appeal to fairness and pathos --as if insurance companies had some Constitutionally protected right to ever greater profits-- is just staggering by itself. But then again people seem to believe the crooked banks enjoy such a right, which allows them to make the American people indebted forever to bail out their failed scams- so fuck it, why not grant the insurance companies this right too?

AND THEN, after securing that concession from the "reformers", they say it is unfair for a public option to exist at all. That's what you get for being willing to negotiate and compromise with these parasites. That's what incrementalism gets you.