Why do we need congress for a public option?

[trudyco]

I was just wondering that if the public option is self funded, so no entitlement, does Obama need congress to approve?

What about for co-ops? Why do we need congress's approval for co-ops? Why can't some of the uber rich just pool some seed money and start their own health insurance co-op? A non-profit with a guaranteed overhead of no more than X % (7% or whatever)? What's stopping them? Are health insurance companies regulated like the radio waves and congress gets to decide who gets to be one? FDIC insured like some financial institutions?

[BlooInBloo]

1. Umm.... Because Congress makes the laws?

Is this a trick question or something?

[trudyco]

2. But what law is required to start a health insurance co-op?

[BlooInBloo]

3. Um... the one that says exactly where PUBLIC money goes, and how much?

You know - the PUBLIC part of "public option"?

Is this still a trick question?

[trudyco]

4. What public money? That was my original point...

If this is completely funded by those who participate in the plan then there is NO public money, ergo what is congress's role? There is no money to allocate, no law to pass allocating that money.

[BlooInBloo]

5. We're done here. Have fun.

[ashling]

9. Actually, she makes a good point

The only public money going into the PO under Obama's plan is the start up money. It would then have to run on its own. What she is suggesting is a non-profit that gets its start up money from other investors.

Sounds like a valid plan to me. Form a strong non-profit. Small donors came up with the gawdawful amount of money to get Obama Elected (plus the money donated to other candidate.) that is quite a sum of money. As there would be no limits imposed by the federal election commission, it could recieve large donations from the likes of Bill Gates, Soros, et al.

The people that would benefit from such a non-profit would be the Public, as competition would help everybody.

[ManiacJoe]

6. By definition, that would NOT be a "public option".

[Deja Q]

7. Because they represent us?

:hide:

[Feron]

8. Co-ops have been tried and have failed in the past.

http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/so-whats-a-health-insurance-coop-anyway/

[trudyco]

10. Thanks for this info. Of course it would be a different kind of co-op

if the President backed it. I'm just trying to think around what appears to be a bought (by health industry) "Democratic" legislature. It's so sad we can't even get a public option for a measly 5% of the population. Especially when we really need insurance decoupled from your employer so you have freedom to quit your job (and no pre-existing conditions) and a public option for everybody, like in Germany.

[trudyco]

11. I don't quite buy the analysis you provided Feron, the overhead

for private insurance is huge according to thom Hartmann. Something like 28% overhead versus medicare which is less than 3%. Of course the privates get quite a bit of cost saving by not paying whenever they can get away with it, but still there is a lot of room for improvement.