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Health Insurance Coop
Moderate Democrats, perhaps cowed by Limbaugh's "socialized medicine" trope seem to be backing away from the public plan option. Their substitute is a non profit insurance cooperative.
"I am inclined, and I think the committee is inclined, toward a co-op," Mr. Baucus said. "It's not going to be public, we won't call it public, but it will be tough enough to keep insurance companies' feet to the fire."
This is a really dumb idea. You are going to start from scratch a whole new bureaucracy to handle potentially millions of customers, instead of letting the government which already has the systems in place (thanks to Medicare) service these customers? A start up coop is doomed to fail, which is probably the point.
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And, despite what Baucus says, they WILL call it a "public" option and when it fails we will be denied another bite at the apple for at least a generation.
June 12, 2009 1:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yep...I agree with destor. It is being set up to fail and of course the tag "public" will be attached to it, and endlessly repeated and reported as such on the TV news, seeing that is what the goal is.
Then we will get to hear "See we told you it wouldn't work, leave private enterprise alone!!!"
June 12, 2009 1:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't want a synonym for a public health care option. I want a public health care option.
June 12, 2009 4:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
I guess that's what you get when you elect Rush Limbaugh President and leader of the Democratic Party. We did do that didn't we? I mean why else would he be dictating policy to Boss Baucus?
June 12, 2009 5:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
If I understand correctly, these co-ops are just purchasing organizations. You'd still be buying your insurance from an insurance company. The co-ops would give you access to group rates and would give small businesses and individuals some of the same bargaining power that large companies now have. But other than that, I'm not sure I see the advantage. Also, one suspects the co-ops would have a higher number of very sick people in them than employer-sponsored plans typically do, which means insurance companies will not be willing to reduce the rates they charge to these co-ops all that much.
June 13, 2009 10:13 AM | Reply | Permalink
Re: the government ... already has the systems in place (thanks to Medicare)
The public plan would not simply be Medicare for younger people, so the government would have to set up another system (and hire a lot of people) to put one into effect. It would need its own software, and pretty much everything else built from the bottom up too. This is not an argument in favor of coops (which would also need their own build up) but it is a correction to the idea that a public plan would simply be "Medicare for all".
June 13, 2009 5:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Republicans don’t trust Americans.
Republicans don’t trust us Americans to make the right decision if we are given the option to choose to spend our money on a public health insurance option Vs private insurance. They claim that if given the choice the American people will choose the public option and this will lead to all sorts of evil such as rationing of health care and bureaucrats making life and death decisions.
This from the party who in regards to corporate & financial regulation and taxes on the rich and powerful, has said, “We trust the American people” to make the best decisions of what to do with their money. I suppose, in reality, the Republicans only trust the corporations, rich and powerful to make good decisions (such as tanking our economy). But when it comes to individual choice the Republicans just don’t trust us Americans.
To all the Republicans out there who don’t trust American individuals to make the right decision if given the public insurance option I ask that you trust us to make good decisions. What’s the worst that could happen? We choose public insurance and it doesn’t work out, then we have to change our minds and buy back into private insurance. What’s the best that could happen? We each save thousands a year on our health insurance.
June 16, 2009 12:31 PM | Reply | Permalink