Public option - was it really just a dream?

[Politicub]

I was hoping against all hope that we would finally, unequivocally get on the path to ending health care inequality. But it's sounding more and more like it's not meant to be.

I felt like something was wrong when President Obama didn't utter the words "public option" during the presser last week.

He should veto a bill that has anything less than a true public option and send it back to the drawing board. But I have a feeling he won't. There will be a flashy signing ceremony, and blather about health care reform. But what really will be happening is the dream will be pushed further from our grasp.

Fuck the insurance companies. It's time like these that I hate our American corporatist system and the idiots that keep gleefully supporting those that keep it propped up.

Congratulations, universal coverage opponents. You are selling out your posterity to keep insurance company CEOs raking in the millions. I don't understand you and now I'm starting to utterly despise you and what you stand for.

Please, President Obama, stand up and speak truth to power for the public option. You will have an army of committed citizens behind you and you will go down in history as the one who bucked the system and set America on the right course in ensuring everyone has health care. You could end the fear that millions have from worrying about losing their job and then their insurance. And alleviating the anxiety that uninsured families have who are one emergency surgery away from going bankrupt and losing everything.

[Mnemosyne]

1. Word. KnR! n/t

[valerief]

2. Just bullshit before they pull a second 9/11 on us and totally enslave us.

We're China now. Only without the work.

[ingac70]

6. China has a national health system. n/t

[valerief]

8. Vive la China! nt

[lumberjack_jeff]

3. Stop with the wailing and rending of garments.

Public option still has a better than 50:50 chance.

[Politicub]

4. I'll take those odds over nothing

But I do wish there were more good news about it becoming more of a reality than slipping away.

[bobbolink]

5. Obama has the Constitutional right to make them STAY to get the bill out.

What he lacks is the spine.

:(

[Motown_Johnny]

7. A bipartition public option is a pipe dream. You can't make a deal with the Devil on a moral issue

[liberalpragmatist]

9. I wouldn't be shocked if what emerges is some version of Schumer's plan but called "Co-op"

I actually could see a so-called "co-op" working - IF it's national in scope, gets startup funding from the federal government, and is open to everyone. (Whether that's what Conrad, Baucus and Grassley are cooking up remains to be seen - and I'm fairly skeptical of that group.)

Part of what frustrates me right now is that for all the (important) focus on the public plan, the proposal for the national exchange is festering. The exchange is critical because it is only in the exchange that ANY public plan (in whatever form - pseudo-Medicare/Schumer model/"co-op") would exist, and it is only in the exchange that the most tightly-regulated private plans with the strictest cost-control measures would exist. Only people with access to the exchange get a choice in their insurance and only people with access to the exchange get the option of choosing any public option.

Yet right now, even the House's "strong" public option only exists within the exchange. The House bill *does* give the administrator of the exchange the authority to gradually expand it, but it is never explicitly permitted to get to the entire population. That means that if you have crappy insurance through your work, you'll probably have to keep it.

So frankly, I would be willing to take a (national) co-op, if it means a national exchange that EVERYONE can buy into, if the alternative is a strong public option but only in a very limited, restricted exchange.

I'll add, however, that I wouldn't get *TOO* worked up about what Baucus presents. It still has to pass the full Finance Committee, where more liberal members will want to strengthen it, then it has to go to the floor and be merged with the HELP committee bill, which DOES have employer mandates AND a public plan. And then it has to be reconciled with a more liberal plan passed by the House. Ultimately, conference is the most important step - what emerges from conference is very difficult to filibuster, and so could much more easily pass with under 60 votes. Moreover, the White House has openly signaled (in a conference call with liberal bloggers) that that's where they plan to apply pressure. The immediate goals seem to just get something out of committee, then to just get something passed by both houses. So I also wouldn't be shocked if the House passes a bill WITH a public option, the Senate passes a bill without one, and the conference committee bill DOES have one.

I'm not urging complacency, BTW. I go very up and down with health care reform - optimistic one day and pessimistic the next, but it's important to remind oneself that it's the nature of our political system that major legislative battles are EXTREMELY torturous and always look messy and like they're going to fail - until they pass. (Read up on the history of Civil Rights legislation and Medicare and Medicaid passing.)

[Politicub]

11. I needed that

Thanks for your thoughtful post and bringing me back down to earth (for the time being at least).

Completely relate to the ups and downs. And as soon as I tell myself I'm not going to let the MSM manipulation effect me, I still end up going off the reservation again.

[FormerDittoHead]

10. I think we WILL get a public option. An option no one WANTS.

...and then they'll say they got it!

"...The CBO report estimated only about 10 million to 11 million people would sign up for the public option by 2019.."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090727/hl_nm/us_usa_healthcare_4

[Romulox]

12. A "Public Option" that is not open to the public is more doublespeak. nt