Posted by: Liberty
Category: Health Care
Tags: Health Care, Incrementalism, Public Option, Senate, Socialized Medicine
The Non-public Public Option
Senate Majority leader Reid (D- Nevada) announced that a deal had been reached between liberal and “conservative” Democrats in regards to the public option in the senate version of the health care bill. Details are sketchy, but the plan will supposedly replace the government run public insurance option with a non-profit plane that will be overseen by the government. According to the LA Times,
Under the compromise developed by a group of conservative and liberal Democrats, the Senate legislation would no longer include a new government-run insurance program, or “public option,” for Americans who do not get coverage through their employers.
Instead, the government would essentially contract with a nonprofit insurer to provide a nationwide plan that would serve as the public option, according to officials briefed on the discussions.
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The government would oversee the nonprofit plan, ensuring that it met basic standards for quality and affordability. That provision was designed to satisfy demands from many on the left that the government provide consumers with an alternative to coverage offered by for-profit insurers.
The compromise would also create a mechanism for triggering the creation of a more traditional government-run plan like the one now in the bill, if the nonprofit option does not materialize.
Doesn’t this sound like Sallie Mae and Freddie Mac all over again? Let’s see, a non-profit entity set up by
