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A Public Plan for Health Insurance?
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Issue
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| Contributor | ArmyDem |
| Last Edited | ArmyDem Apr 07, 2009 03:07pm |
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| Category | Editorial |
| Media | Newspaper - New York Times |
| News Date | Monday, April 6, 2009 09:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | Published: April 6, 2009
President Obama has rightly called for sweeping health care reform and charged Congress with coming up with a program. Expect a tough political fight.
Already one of the most contentious issues is whether to include a new public plan option to compete with private insurance plans. Many Republicans deride it as “government-run health care” and a step toward “socialized medicine.” Democrats find the notion appealing — even of vital importance.
A new public plan — to offer consumers greater choice, keep the private plans honest and, one can hope, restrain the relentless growth in health care premiums and underlying medical costs — seems worth trying.
Any new public plan would constitute only part of a much broader effort to provide coverage for 46 million Americans who currently are uninsured and many more who may soon join their ranks. Other major parts under discussion include strengthening employer-provided coverage, expanding existing public programs such as Medicaid and creating a national health insurance exchange where individuals without employer coverage, small businesses and possibly others could buy policies at inexpensive group rates from qualified private plans and, we hope, from a new public plan as well.
Many reformers suggest that a public plan be modeled on Medicare. If crafted correctly, it would provide a valuable option for people who don’t trust private insurers to have a patient’s interest at heart and would offer a safe haven should private plans abandon a market, leaving their subscribers stranded. It would also serve as a competitive yardstick for measuring the performance of private plans. |
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