As Senator Max Baucus
maneuvers to make his bill the Senate's choice,
sans a publicly provided insurance option as part of the menu of health insurance choices envisioned by
44, progressives in the House of Representatives are moving to insure that a public option is a robust one able to compete effectively with private plans and thereby influence market prices. To this end the Congressional Progressive Caucus, 80+ members of the House, are willing to use their key committee positions and votes to insure that the option is as "close to Medicare as we can get it", according to co-chair
Raul Grijalva, (D-AZ). The President's lukewarm endorsement of the public option is appeasing conservative Democrats, but making reformers very nervous he will abandon the provision in the end to get a deal. Reformers see the public option as an absolutely critical means of holding down escalating health insurance costs, and as a means of achieving universal coverage if less affluent Americans are required to buy coverage. (the Massachusetts plan). The plain fact is that the Baucus bill allows insurance companies to
charge older people more money for their plans. Any government subsidies paid to consumers will simply flow through to private insurers with no incentive to reduce their premiums.
According to the
Progressive Caucus the public option should have the following characteristics:
- the insurance plan should be operated by one federal government entity that sets policy and bears the risk of paying claims;
- be available to all American citizens and legal resident aliens regardless of employment or economic status without limitation and concurrently with other plans;
- allows patient choice of doctors, hospitals and other providers meeting defined standards, without lifetime caps on coverage;
- has the flexibility to structure provider rates to promote quality, prevention, chronic and primary care, and public health;
- use existing government insurance infrastructure such as Medicare to reduce overhead, maintain consumer protection and insure transparency;
- receive a level of government subsidy no less or no more than that received by private plans to insure a level field of competition;
- ensure premiums are at the lowest level possible to operate the system on a non-profit basis.
If the President stands firm for the public option to control exploding health care costs, he will earn the gratitude of the citizens who elected him to bring real change to America. Watch this video; you will be glad you did: