If President Obama wants a public option, Congress will have to re-write their health care plans which fall far short of the public option proposed by President Obama.
President Obama said:
"Any plan I sign must include an insurance exchange: a one-stop shopping marketplace where you can compare the benefits, cost and track records of a variety of plans - including a public option to increase competition and keep insurance companies honest - and choose what's best for your family."
Hasn't President Obama read or been fully brief on the House of Representatives and the Senates "The Affordable Health Choices Act"
health care proposals? Their plans DO NOT provide a public option where everyone is free to choose the best plan for themselves or their family. Severe restrictions exist on what employers and individuals can choose the public option. According to Congressional aides, only 9 million people will have qualified for the public option in 2019, a full decade from now! Everyone else will be covered by mandatory private insurance!
So if President Obama really wants a public option available to all employers and individuals at "a one-stop shopping marketplace" he'd better instruct the Democratic leadership in Congress to write a new bill because it just can't happen under the current Congressional health care proposals.
Once again, here's the hard facts about the current proposed legislation that President Obama is going to have to deal with and change if he truly wants the strong public option that he proposed in his speech, a public option that we and employers will truly be free to choose.
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For many workers, insurance choices may be limited after health care overhaul
BY MARY AGNES CAREY AND JULIE APPLEBY
17 July 2009
President Obama and leading Democrats have stressed that people who like their employer-sponsored insurance would be able to keep it, under a health care overhaul. But they haven't emphasized the flip side: That people who don't like their coverage might have to keep it.
Under the main health bills being debated in Congress, many people with job-based insurance could find it difficult to impossible to switch to health plans on a new insurance exchange, even if the plans there were cheaper or offered better coverage. The restrictions extend to any government-run plan, which would be offered on the exchange.
Democratic lawmakers and administration officials say the restrictions are critical to maintaining a strong employer-based insurance system, which covers 158 million Americans.
But critics argue that the rules run counter to suggestions from health care reform advocates that an overhaul could provide people with a broader choice of insurance options. The rules, they say, could be especially unfair to some lower-income workers who are enrolled in costly job-based insurance. Also, they argue, the restrictions would hurt the proposed public plan by limiting enrollment.
Jonathan Oberlander, associate professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said the restrictions create a "big gap between the rhetoric and the reality" of health reform. "The rhetoric is that Americans will gain new alternatives," he said. "But the reality is that they are putting up firewalls that are going to restrict the access of people with employer-sponsored insurance to the exchange."
One result, he said, is that any public plan would be substantially smaller than what many backers are envisioning. That would reduce the public plan's power to compete with private insurers and hold down costs, he said. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that nine million to 10 million people would enroll in the public plan by 2019.
Please read the complete article at:
http://www.newjerseynewsroom.com/healthquest/for-many-workers-insurance-choices-may-be-limited-after-health-care-overhaulIf the employer has 10 employees or fewer they may qualify for the public insurance option sometime in 2013.
If the employer has 20 employees or fewer they may qualify the public insurance option sometime in 2014.
If the employer has more than 20 employees they may be able to get the public insurance option sometime in 2015, if approved by "the Commissioner". However, there is nothing in the legislation mandating such approval or requiring the government to make the public insurance option available to all employers for their workers at any time in the future.
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"Public Option" Would Only Be Available To The Otherwise Uninsured
TPM Cafe
July 16, 2009
I'm not sure that people really understand how the "public option" would work, given the rhetoric of the administration that people could "keep" their current insurance if they want to or choose a public option.
Last night on The Daily Show, Secretary Sebelius, in response to a question, made things a bit clearer regarding just how the public option would work. She was asked "who would choose" whether or not to use the public option: the employee or the employer? The Secretary said essentially it would be the choice of the employer because if the employer provides health insurance then that is the insurance the employee would have to use. Only if the employer chose not to provide health insurance would the employee be able to enroll in the public option.
Most of the people I know that have employer provided health insurance are glad they have insurance as opposed to not having it, but they hate the plans they have because the expense is totally unreasonable and with each passing year, less and less coverage is provided while costs go up. So, leaving the choice to employers is not the same as providing choice to citizens at all.
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/oleeb/2009/07/public-option-would-only-be-av.php?ref=reccafeAnd congressional aides say only about 9 million will be insured by public plan by 2019! 21 million will be insured by private companies in the exchange by 2019. Another 164 million would be insured with private insurance through their employers.
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The Health Insurance Exchange: It's run nationally, though states can opt out of the national structure and go it alone if they choose, and if they follow federal rules. In the first year, it accepts those without health insurance, those who are buying health insurance on their own, and small businesses with fewer than 10 people. In the second year, it accepts small businesses with fewer than 20 people. After that, "larger employers as permitted by the Commissioner." In other words, expansion is discretionary, not mandated. The only people able to access the public plan in the early years will be on the exchange, and the exchange will be, relative to the population, pretty limited. So the public plan will be limited, and so too will any anticipated savings.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2009/07/the_house_releases_its_health-.html?hpid=news-col-bloghttp://www.reuters.com/article/reutersComService_2_MOLT/idUSTRE56D7JX20090714-------------------------------
by snaxattack
Daily Kos
July 16, 2009
I mentioned in a previous diary the importance of the insurance exchange as a tool for enacting real health care reform. Without access to the health insurance exchange, there is no access to the public option and no access to portable health insurance. The House and Senate approaches both restrict access to the insurance exchange through a process called "firewalling", forcing everyone who has employer-based health insurance to keep that insurance. Firewalling is an impediment to real reform and must be stopped!
The Senate committees are making it hard to even enter the exchange as an individual. In order to prevent insurance companies from seeing real competition and make it more difficult to receive government subsidies, they are creating a "firewall" that puts a barrier between the insurance exchange and employees of companies that offer their own group insurance plan.
We need to start lobbying our congressional representatives for a STRONG insurance exchange, with no firewall to prevent employees of large companies from accessing high quality, portable insurance through the insurance exchange. We need to ask our congresspeople to implement a plan that allows large employers to contract with the insurance exchange, just as small businesses will be able to do.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/7/16/754237/-Newhttp://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/7/9/751637/-The 
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