Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Getting Closer

Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid announced yesterday that he is putting a government-run health insurance program (the so-called public option) in the Senate bill that will go to the floor for a full vote in the coming weeks. This is important because by putting the public option in the bill that goes to the floor (as opposed to making Senators add it in with an amendment to the bill) makes it much harder to remove later on in the process.

If the bill passes through Congress and President Obama signs it (which he most certainly will), everyone will benefit. Of course, people who do not have health insurance would have an affordable option (even if they have a preexisting medical condition). In addition, people with private health insurance would benefit indirectly because health insurance companies would be forced to reduce premiums to compete with the public option (which would not look to make a profit and would be large enough to negotiate lower prices on pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, and other medical supplies and devices, further reducing the costs of delivering medical care).

As a compromise to "conservative" Dems, individual states would be allowed to "opt out" of this plan after one year. Of course, that means that if the public likes the new program, it would likely be political suicide for a state politician to endorse an opt out. For example, Medicaid has an opt out provision, but not one state has opted out. Public health insurance, in other words, is too popular for states to opt out.

Rachel explains:


Although we are not there yet, we've passed a big milestone. We have a bill going to the Senate floor with a public health insurance option, something the pundits in Washington predicted would never happen.
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