You know what would have prevented all these dirty tricks insurance companies are pulling...

[no limit]

A public option. With a public option it wouldn't matter that insurance companies are finding loop holes to continue to deny children with preexisting conditions coverage. It also wouldn't matter that these same insurance companies are unfairly jacking up their rates after the reform to rake in as much profit as they can before 2014.

This would be the same public option that as much as 70% of this country supported. Too bad the president http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/21/lieberman-obama-never-pre_n_399355.html">didn't have enough time in his schedule to give Liebermann a call and ask him to support this.

And too bad the president decided not to keep the following promise he made:

Any plan I sign must include an insurance exchange -- a one-stop-shopping marketplace where you can compare the benefits, costs 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.

Maybe things would be much different today when it comes to giving people affordable and quality healthcare. Obviously they aren't. But if you're sick and can't afford care just relax, 2014 is only 1,197 days away and then everything will be better (because the president says so).

[customerserviceguy]

1. Nope

Public option would just have taken in everyone that the insurance companies wanted to get rid of. They'd surely have ways of ticking off the people who cost them the most, and they would gravitate to the public option plan, costing the people in that plan plenty, leaving the cream of the crop for the insurance companies.

Single payer is the only way out of this.

[no limit]

2. I don't see how these people having nowhere to go is better.

[customerserviceguy]

7. With single payer

There is only one place to go. For everybody.

[no limit]

11. I understand that and agree with you. But you miss my point.

Single payer wasn't going to happen. The next best thing (far down the ladder) was a public option. We didn't even get that. And eventhough it wouldn't have solved all our problems it would have solved many.

[customerserviceguy]

12. Now we have a half assed 'solution'

that will delay the coming of a real solution for years. Frankly, I hope the Repukes repeal it, it will give us a clean slate to start with in 2013.

[tridim]

18. They have somewhere to go. The competition.

And soon the exchange, which will create even more competition.

Not all insurance companies are breaking the law like Blue Cross.

[no limit]

20. You seem to have a funny definition of "soon" as well as "competition"

[tridim]

22. I'm glad we're having this ramp-up period.

It's weeding out all the asshole companies.

Otherwise Blue Cross would be on the exchange right now, selling us their crap.

[no limit]

23. Yup, I'm sure the people hurt by this are just as happy about it as you are.

[Name removed]

28. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[no limit]

31. Yup, it sure is.

[bahrbearian]

43. Yep it sure is,,wink, wink

I'm on your side.

[dkf]

4. You got it.

[AnArmyVeteran]

5. It doesn't matter. Not one leader had the guts to go up against the insurance companies.

[customerserviceguy]

10. We'll get that chance again in 2013

Let the Blue Dogs and the DINO's get washed away in a flood of tea, when America wants the grown-ups in charge again, we'll have progressive candidates waiting to be elected on the same ballot that President Obama is at the top of.

[AnArmyVeteran]

15. I hope so. Sometimes I wonder if democrats deliberately wasn't to lose congress this year.

If they lost they can show just how bad our country will get with a republican congress. What else can explain the horrible way they have been running congress and even letting the ignorant tea baggers outsmart them and totally control the message on every issue.

[county worker]

9. A public option is like Medicare. The only difference is the age requirement for Medicare.

Everyone pays into Medicare and everyone is eligible for Medicare. A public option would be available to anyone at any age who pays into it. The rates would be competitive with the insurance industry.

The idea of a public option is to offer to everyone an alternative to insurance companies not just those that can't get insurance that's why it is called an option.

[Recursion]

27. There were lots of "Public option" ideas out there; most were like MedicAID

not MedicARE. Run by the states, guaranteed to be underfunded, and pushing a lot of their costs onto people with private insurance by reimbursing providers at rates the providers can't afford.

Sometimes people act like the public option was simply abandoned as a capitulation to insurance companies; the bigger problem was that people couldn't figure out how to pay for it.

[no limit]

38. The reason people couldn't figure out how to pay for it was that they wanted this deficit neutral

If they had such high fiscal standards for the department of defense I might be willing to take it more seriously.

[Recursion]

40. That was probably the most important decision in terms of a public option

And even as a lifelong employee of the military-industrial complex I totally agree with you about DoD funding too.

[no limit]

42. Totally agree. I have lived off DoE funding and see much of that there too

[county worker]

3. I agree. There is no recourse to the insurance companies other than paying out of pocket.

We need to get a public option going asap.

[laughingliberal]

6. Pretty much what Wendall Potter just said on Hardball. nt

[napi21]

8. Yes & no.. Yes a PO could have prevented sick children from going uninsured,

BUT the ins. co's would have been THRILLED to let the sick ones get covered by the gov't and they then would only get the cream of the crop that have very little of any exoenses associated with their coverage. If you get a chance, listen to the ex ins. exec. who was interviewed on Chris Matthews show tonight. I can't recall his name by he's on fairly often as an expert since he was a VP at a very large Health Care carrier. He also said there was NO WAY a PO could have ever passed in congress because of the eormous power of the ins. co's.

[Scuba]

13. Exactly. Spreading risk without taking any risks.

[liberal N proud]

14. Single Payer

[stray cat]

16. Apublic option would not - only a no insurance option which wasn't going to happen

[no limit]

17. A public option wouldn't raise rates unfarily or keep children from getting insurance.

[eridani]

19. Only if it happened to be open to anyone who wanted to join

The watered-down version had too many restrictions, and would have been postponed until 2014. That's one of the biggest problems with HCR--no frontloading of actual benefits so that large numbers of voters could see, feel, taste the difference.

[w8liftinglady]

21. I am still in favor of NHP

as a nurse who has seen "Insurance" in action.

http://www.pnhp.org/

If someone wants to purchase supplemental insurance that will cover things like room choice,trade versus generic,cosmetic/elective then I say...fine.

[no limit]

26. Absolutely!

[Recursion]

24. You're joking, right? It would have made it easier for them to drop people.

And as a consequence it would have turned into Medicaid II: The Revenge.

[no limit]

25. Only if the law allowed them to drop those people.

[tridim]

29. The current law has consequences for what BC is doing.

Why are you ignoring that?

[no limit]

30. I'm not ignoring anything. You are the one using sick people that can't get care as pawns

[Name removed]

33. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[no limit]

35. Thanks. Have a nice day.

[ProSense]

32. How would a

public option in an exchange that doesn't go into effect until 2014 have stopped them?

The exchange is the deterrent. If they don't cooperate, they can be excluded. If they drop people, people will have other choices.

They lose business.

These insurers are simply trying to create the perception that the status quo was better, and they would have done it regardless of what was in the bill.

[no limit]

34. I never said it should have went into effect in 2014

but even if it had (assuming we are looking at the senate version of the public option), it would still be much better than the bill we have now.

[ProSense]

36. It wouldn't have stopped them

They would have taken advantage of any implementation period.

The bill is six months old.

[no limit]

37. Yes the bill is 6 months old, and a public option could have been implemented within a year

it wouldn't be that hard for them to do, the government already covers half of this country. So they aren't new to providing healthcare.

Instead they decided to offer up a shitty public option that might have covered 3% of the population and wouldn't be available until 2014. We didn't even get that.

[ProSense]

39. "Instead they decided to offer up a shitty public option "

So now you're complaining about the public option that was offered?

A public option is not a stand alone plan it requires the comprehensive reforms and the exchange.

Still, six months is still not a year so how would implementing it in a year stop them from what they're doing now?

[no limit]

41. Yes, I am absolutely complaining. It was a shitty option and we couldn't even get that

a real public option implemented within a year should have been put on the table. If it was passed that wouldn't be that far off. We would be looking at 6 months from now (a lot sooner than 3 and a half years). That 6 months would mean insurance companies would be scared shitless to pull the stuff they are pulling now as they would know very soon real competition would be available. And if they did pull it help to the people affected would be here very soon (probably not soon enough in some cases but better than what we have now).

[Gormy Cuss]

44. Absolutely right. That's why the implementation period should have been much shorter.

The long period for full implementation is the weakest part of this insurance reform.

[Zhade]

45. kick

kick