Robert Reich: Why a "trigger" for the public option is nonsense

[Better Believe It]

Why a "trigger" for the public option is nonsense
GOP Sen. Snowe suggests we give private health insurers a shot at reforming themselves first. Yeah, right
By Robert Reich
September 9, 2009


The White House is looking for a way to be in favor of a public option but also get enough Blue Dog Democrats -- many of whom hail from swing districts and states, and therefore need some cover -- to vote for it. One such cover is a Republican senator from Maine named Olympia Snowe. If she votes for the bill, Blue Dogs can calm their constituents -- who have been worked up into a lather by the right -- by saying "You see? Even a prominent Republican senator is voting for this."

The beauty of Snowe's proposal is that it seems to offer Blue Dogs a way out and liberal Democrats a way in. Nobody has to vote for or against a public option. The public option just happens automatically if its purposes -- wider coverage and lower costs -- aren't achieved. And the trigger idea seems so, well, centrist.

The problem is twofold. First, it's impossible to design airtight goals for coverage and cost reductions that won't be picked over by 5,000 lobbyists and as many lawyers and litigators even if, at the end of the grace period, it's apparent to everyone else that the goals aren't met. Washington is a vast cesspool of well-paid specialists who know how to stop anything resembling a "trigger." Believe me, they will.

Second, any controversial proposal with some powerful support behind it that gets delayed -- for five years or three years or whenever -- is politically dead. Supporters lose interest. Public attention wanders. The media are on to other issues. Right now the public option is very much alive because so many Democrats care deeply about it, with good reason. But put it off for years, and assign it to the lawyers and lobbyists I just mentioned, and you can kiss it goodbye forever.

What worries me isn't just that the mainstream media are calling Snowe's trigger "centrist," but that the White House might see it as an easy out. "I continue to believe that a public option within that basket of insurance choices would help improve quality and bring down costs," the president said Monday. Fine. But he hasn't yet said the public option is essential. He hasn't threatened to veto a bill lacking it. There's even reason to believe the White House has quietly encouraged Olympia Snowe to pursue her "trigger."

The best way to give Blue Dogs cover is for the president to explain clearly and boldly why the public option is essential to healthcare reform, and why he's ready to veto any bill that doesn't include it. That's also the only way to give the nation a good chance of getting true healthcare reform. Hopefully, that's what he'll do Wednesday evening.

Otherwise, we get a trigger to nowhere.

Please read the complete article at:

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2009/09/09/snowe/index.html

[joeycola]

1. "a trigger to nowhere." LOVE IT.

[Old Studentka]

2. K

R

[Better Believe It]

3. "Insurance companies have already had 15 years to changed their ways ...."

Here's what one person wrote in their letter responding to the article:

Here's another reason this is bullshit: Insurance companies have already had 15 years to change their ways (since the last time reform was tried). What have they done? Oh yeah, invented "HMOs" and "PPOs" and continued to gouge everyone in sight as they raise premiums and RAKE in the dough. Have they "changed"? Do they PROMISE not to hit us again?

Does ANYBODY in America think that these companies act with even the merest shred of integrity most of the time?

Does Wall Street?