The absence of a "public option" marks perhaps the most significant omission. Obama and many Democrats had sought a public option to ensure affordable, universal coverage, but as many as 10 Senate Democrats have protested the idea as unfair to private insurers. In its place, the draft circulated yesterday outlines a co-op approach modeled after rural electricity and telecom providers, subject to government oversight and funded with federal seed money.
It's unfair that I can't code and thus build the Contagion Health platform all by my lonesome.
It's unfair that people who are uninsured pay a "no HMO" tax when they get billed by our hospitals for treatment.
What is certainly NOT unfair?
A 'public option' for health insurance coverage. Let me pause here as I weep for our nation's private insurers, who are victims, surely, of all this rampant unfairness.
But honestly, what's unfair...
The ridiculous assertion by 10 Senators - SENATORS people - that having a public anything is 'unfair' to a class of private businesses.
This isn't about fair. It's about operating a business. If private insurers can't stay afloat because a private option is 'unfair':
1. Someone needs to dust off the Sherman Antitrust Laws.
2. Those people aren't running businesses. They're running cartels, and they are the healthcare equivalent of the school bully who gets caught beating up the nerd for her Pop Tart and wails 'it's not fair!' as he's told to sit at his desk during recess.
3. Senators need a 2 page brief (yep, that'd do it) on Business 101.
But I forget....this coming from a Senate who is listening as the auto industries who can't compete also wail 'it's not fair' with hands outstretched.
Senators of the United States Government, your ignorance is unfair to private citizens who elect you and entrust the dubious future of healthcare reform into your keeping.
How's that for a public option?
1 comment:
I appreciate your candor. I am trying to be optimistic, but watching what is happening in the financial, insurance and auto industries does not give me warm fuzzies for healthcare reform.
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