Where's the Outrage?

Yay, there is much rejoicing. Unfortunately I’m not really sure what I’m rejoicing about. We’ve had all this nebulous terminology that is been bouncing around the airwaves. I don’t know what a public option is? I guess, more precisely, I don’t know what they mean by public option.

Let’s back up a little bit. Let’s look at one of the goals that I set out for healthcare reform (portability, cost-effective, efficient). In order to deliver cost-effective health care, we need to do something to control costs. One way to control costs eliminate health insurance altogether. This will save Americans billions of dollars which currently go to a 30% overhead that we see with private insurance. This would be the most progressive option. Democrats took this off the table before the discussion began. Therefore, as a fallback measure, the government would provide a plan that would compete with private plans for people who are not already covered. In my mind, this would include employees of small businesses who cannot currently afford health insurance. This is kind of a sticky point. Republicans don’t want small business to flock to the public option. Personally, I think that this would be great for small business. It would help lower their operating costs and allow them to spend more money investing in their employees and their business. The other thing, that many people on Capitol Hill are not talking about, is whether the public option will be able to negotiate pharmaceutical prices and prices for medical devices. Again, this is a sticking point for Republicans and blue dog Democrats. As far as I can tell, none of this is been clarified for Senator Harry Reid’s announcement.

A public option that is not allowed to negotiate drug prices in the prices for medical devices, will be a sinkhole for our taxpayer dollars. We might as well just give these companies money.

From DK:
Robert Gibbs provided the following statement on behalf of the White House in response to Reid’s announcement:

“The President congratulates Senator Reid and Chairmen Baucus and Dodd for their hard work on health insurance reform. Thanks to their efforts, we’re closer than we’ve ever been to solving this decades-old problem. And  while much work remains, the President is pleased that at the progress that Congress has made. He’s also pleased that the Senate has decided to include a public option for health coverage, in this case with an allowance for states to opt out. As he said to Congress and the nation in September, he supports the public option because it has the potential to play an essential role in holding insurance companies accountable through choice and competition.”

Meanwhile, Greg Sargent highlights this statement from Reid’s presser.

“As we’ve gone through this process, I’ve concluded, with the support of the White House and Senators Baucus and Dodd, that the best way forward is to include a public option with an opt-out provision for states.”

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