Has the "Public Option" Been Thrown Under the Ambulance?
President Obama's health care APB I regret to say I didn't catch. Read reactions from the redoubtable Peter Suderman and the indefatigable Matt Welch.
Can anybody say for sure that the so-called public option is either dead or alive?
I see different readings of the same entrails. Indomitable Bill O'Reilly says it's dead, and (because if you're like me, the term public option seems to mean different things on different days) he offers a useful definition: There will be no United States Insurance Corp. that will pick up some larger portion of the currently uninsured.
Yet speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi (D-California, and was there an H.M.S. Insufferable?) calls the public option "essential," and some opinionaters, such as implacable O'Reilly guest Marc Lamont Hill, say the speech doubled down, rather than punted, on the public option.
Hooz rite?
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post comments
I won’t believe that it’s dead until I see its head on a pike and its dead and festering body splayed open wide on Pennsylvania Ave.
Fuck me it’s a three way. A trifecta of Obama punditry. One more and we can call it a circle jerk!! As it stands not it is more of a triangle jerk.
*not = now
If you specifically mean an overtly government run insurance option, I think that’s probably unlikely. But reformers have been playing fast and loose with how they define “public option.” Speaking about co-ops, Harry Reid said: “We’re going to have some type of public option, call it ‘co-op,’ call it what you want.”(1) So I think it’s possible we’ll end up with a co-op or some other variant, but I think O’Reilly is right here: There won’t be a U.S. Health Insurance Corp.
1) http://congress.blogs.foxnews.com/2009/07/09/reid-says-co-ops-might-be-public-option/
The structure of the speech was designed to obfuscate on this, but I’m certain that the prez was saying the public option must exist as one of the plans available in the national healthcare marketplace. He said it would be self supporting, funded entirely from it’s own premiums and attaining low low costs because it didn’t need to show a profit. He drew an inapt comparison to the public university system not crowding out private colleges. He said he would not back down from coverage for everyone regardless of ability to pay.
Which, you know, kinda makes me want to ask how the public plan will be self supporting what with people not needing to pay premiums and all. I dunno. I thought he doubled down. Now I don’t know what he meant.
The trigger won’t fly. The only reason it got through on the last healthcare bill for pharma was it was pretty much impossible to fail.
They will pretty up public option and try to sell us a Chinese made Gucci of a program.
“He said it would be self supporting, funded entirely from it’s own premiums and attaining low low costs because it didn’t need to show a profit.”
HUH?
Does Obama have any understanding of economics at all?
Here Are Some Of My Hand Good Shoes Or Bag,Nike Air Max
Jordan,Lv,Coach,D&G,Chane
Here are some good hand-me shoes, clothes, bags and so on,
are interested friends can look
???
Here are some good hand-me shoes, clothes, bags and so on,
are interested friends can look?
http://www.crispstyle.com
bikini$25
(air jordan, air max, shox tn, rift, puma, dunk sb, adidas)
nike jordan shoes 1-24 $32
lv, coach, chane bag $35
COOGI(jeans, tshirts, hoody, jacket) $30
christian audigier(jeans, tshirts, hoody) $13
edhardy(shoes, tshirts, jeans, caps, watche, handbag) $25
Armani(jeans, tshirts,) $24
AF(jeans, coat, hoody, sweater, tshirts)Abercrombie & Fitch
$31
http://www.crispstyle.com
(thanks) !!!
Does Obama have any understanding of economics at all?
Sure. You gots moneys and he wants them. And grandma needs to die.
Spambot followed me!
It’s pretty clear you’re already drinking, Tim. But don’t get me wrong, I like it.
Anybody notice the number of uninsured mysteriously dropped from 47 million to 30 million? That’s a full 30%. Hmmmm
Does Obama have any understanding of economics at all?
He knows how to speak, that is all. I have been saying for a while that he seems a bit challenged. He is the special one afterall.
If you’re confused about where Obama stands on the public option: He doesn’t not fail to support a lack of resistance to opposition to it.
Does Obama have any understanding of economics at all?
It’s not even a matter of not understanding economics. It’s a matter of not understanding accounting.
Well I watched the speech, and O’Reilly’s wrong:
“I have no interest in putting insurance companies out of business. The provide a legitimate service and employ a lot of our friends and neighbors. [STAGE WHISPER] I just want to hold them accountable. [APPLAUSE] And the insurance reforms that I’ve already mentioned would do just that. But an additional step we can take to keep insurance companies honest is by making a not-for-profit public option available in the insurance exchange.”
Obama clearly called for a public option in the speech. It’s alive and well.
Unless it isn’t.
Forget about the public option.
Obama is a “sellout” to the corporations.
As I said it before… Democrats don’t really want any health care reform… they want the best of both worlds: to be seen as supporting reform, but at the same time simply blaming Republicans for their inability to pass the bill.
That is why the public option is so important. Without the public option, health care reform might actually pass, and the Democrats will have bought a lemon. The public option is the deal killer that will cause health care reform to (thankfully for the Democrats) fail.
When health care reform fails, they can go back to business as usual blaming Republicans for health care.
Anybody notice the number of uninsured mysteriously dropped from 47 million to 30 million? That’s a full 30%.
That’s because they backed out the illegal aliens. Now they are claiming that not one single dime will be spent on health care for illegals.
How they plan to accomplish this without putting in some kind of hard-core screening for illegals, I don’t know.
And it is a measure of their dishonesty that they had been including the illegals in their count of uninsured all along, without also admitting that they would be paying for their health care as well.
I think Obama is displaying a great deal of political naivety by waffling on the public option.
The good news for us is that it ensures Democrats will remain divided, as progressives continue to fight for the public option, stalling any efforts to get the equally-bad “incurance mandate” option through the House.
If Obama actually did throw the public option under the bus and got behind the “co-op” concept, he would probably have a bill in a month or two. This way, I don’t see any of the plans gaining enough traction to pass. Fatigue will set in in mid-noctober, and the whole “back-to-the-drawing board” idea will gain momentum.
Nobody wants the insurance mandate, that thing is going to be political poison. The public option can’t pass the senate. And the co-op option won’t gain any traction as long as it is on the table.