Harry Reid Pleasantly Surprises: Includes Public Option In Senate Bill
Angering Republicans who are ironically calling Reid a “partisan bully,” and standing up to both the White House and Olympia Snowe, the Senate Majority Leader included the public option in the senate bill. What can make this work is the opt-out compromise, which will put the onus on red state Republicans to decide they don’t want this coverage, as Josh Marshall explains:
First is the issue of scale. The whole logic of the public option is that you have a big enough pool of people that you have the efficiencies and bargaining power that can hold down prices. This is why reformers have never had much patience with state-based programs or coops. If it’s forty or fifty mini-public options, it pretty much defeats the whole purpose because you don’t have any of the market power that allows you to negotiate favorable pricing. It’s not let a hundred flowers bloom, or fifty as the case may be. You really need one big flower.
It’s certainly a problem that a substantial number of Americans — probably in red states — would lack the public option. But by making it an opt-out rather than an opt-in, you start with a truly national program. That’s the key. The default is everyone is in. Even if you had 1/3 or even, conceivably half the states (or half the total national population in however many states) opt out, you’d still have enough heft to make it have the desired effect. And presumably you’d have by far most of the population in the program.
So that’s the starting point. While it’s not ideal, an opt-out gives you the reality of a public option whereas the other compromises give you things that superficially sound similar but actually don’t accomplish the same purpose.
“Harry Reid Pleasantly Surprises: Includes Public Option In Senate Bill”
I’ve got to hand it to Alan; he certainly knows how to phrase a situation more diplomatically than I do.
I’d have been too tempted to title this, “Harry Reid Finally Grows A Pair: May Have To Learn How To Walk Again, Film At Eleven”.
October 26th, 2009 at 8:16 pm
How can the GOP claim it’s partisan.
They offered NOTHING!
Well, nothing except fear, lies, and a total lack of clarity of ANYTHING resembling the reality around them.
Let the red states opt out and get voted out.
Wait a minute…red states? They’re commies! Call Glenn Beck!
October 26th, 2009 at 8:24 pm
A partisan bully?
Must be a lot of wilting pussy-willows in that bad ole republikkkan party. Better go back and sit down with Liza Minnelli and watch some musicals on DVD.
October 26th, 2009 at 9:41 pm
the Senate Majority Leader included the public option in the senate bill.
I was surprised to learn that the bill will cost more than $1 trillion though. Wowza!
TDro319 Reply:
October 27th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
$1 trillion?!? Why, that’s almost as much as the unnecessary war in Iraq cost! Luck for us, THIS trillion spent on healthcare will be going to help Americans (for a change).
October 26th, 2009 at 10:07 pm
Rocky. The stammering of the GOP today was great!
Now they’ll have to convince voters to vote cancelling their fellow citizens’ health care. There’s not that many Teabaggers! We can tell by the size of their events. And the size of their teabags.
pierre Reply:
October 26th, 2009 at 10:25 pm
TEABAGGERS + No NEWS FOX = GOP MOUTH PIECE.
Outfoxed
Foxout
Rocky the Liberal Rottweiler Reply:
October 27th, 2009 at 9:07 am
There’s a clear majority that wants public option because we’re all fed up with these thieves and killers of the insurance giants screwing everybody worse and worse every year.
The teabaggers should all move to Texas and secede from the union. They’re not Americans anyway. They never were.
atomaino Reply:
October 27th, 2009 at 10:46 am
“The teabaggers should all move to Texas and secede from the union. They’re not Americans anyway. They never were.”
What a jerk…..
OldLefty Reply:
October 27th, 2009 at 11:35 am
I don’t think “The teabaggers should all move to Texas and secede from the union. “,…..I think they should ask to be paid by the corporate lobbyists they worked so hard for.
libpatriot Reply:
October 27th, 2009 at 8:17 pm
:-)
October 26th, 2009 at 10:17 pm