The Public Option Did Not Die

[ProSense]

The Public Option Did Not Die

By Sarah Varney, KQED

In a cavernous room just east of San Francisco, an army of phone operators fields calls from their customers. A large computer screen blinks the number of people on hold: two, and the average wait time: one minute, 12 seconds.

These phone operators working in a non-descript office park in Alameda are employed by a large health insurance plan, and they're willing to go the extra mile for their customers. They'll schedule a doctor to come to your home, a pharmacist to drop off a prescription, and they'll even help you fill out an application for food stamps.

<...>

Looking Ahead To 2014

The Alameda Alliance for Health has a network of doctors and hospitals just like a private health insurance company, and it covers 200,000 people in Oakland and neighboring cities. Just like private health insurance companies, the alliance also administers a managed care plan for Medicaid beneficiaries and additional plans for county workers.

The alliance's CEO Lamirault doesn't plan on stopping there.

In 2014, under the federal health overhaul law, millions of Americans will be able to buy coverage through state-based insurance exchanges. In California, government-run public plans, like the Alameda Alliance for Health, will go head-to-head with private insurance companies to compete for all those new customers, and those who run the county plans believe they can offer a robust network of doctors and hospitals to bargain shoppers looking for low-cost coverage.

- more -

http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/stories/2012/january/13/public-option-health-insurance.aspx

Of course, Vermont goes even further.

Vt. gets $18M for health exchange
http://www.pnhp.org/news/2011/december/vt-gets-18m-for-health-exchanges

[Edweird]

1. I see. Leave it up to the states.

[Vanje]

8. like gay marriage,

but not, NOT medical pot smoking.

[TheWraith]

15. That's how Canada got universal single payer, actually.

It started with just Saskatchewan doing it, and spread to all the other provinces.

[ProSense]

26. True. n/t

[quinnox]

2. Another cut and paste?

And no opinions offered on the material either?

Sorry, just parodying some ridiculous complaints I saw in another thread, seems to be double standards of hypocrisy.

[bigtree]

3. true

I think the one issue I'd raise is the fact that these exchanges and the ultimate single-payer plans these states have envisioned will have to compete with several other options, making their cost-savings less effective; lessening their cost-reducing impact.

[RickFromMN]

4. Conjecture: Will small businesses drop health insurance for employees?

Please do a google search: small businesses dropping insurance

There is a real concern, in 2014, small businesses will start dropping health insurance.

Howard Dean speculated as much:
http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/dean-employers-will-drop-coverage-under-obamacare

I believe, first a trickle of small businesses will drop health insurance for employees.
Then the trickle will become a flood.

Then the public option will become real important.

Then I hope we will finally get a single payer national health system.
I will I could predict when we will get a single payer national health system.
I wish it were sooner rather than later.

[xchrom]

5. if so -- that's a lot of suffering between here and there.

there will be x # of those people who will get sick.

[ProSense]

6. The

Examiner is a RW source. The clip doesn't even support the claim made.

Dean agreed with a study that Democrats said was flawed, but his overall point was that law would be a "huge boost" to small businesses.

[TheWraith]

16. The Washington Examiner is a right-wing rag, akin to Newsmax.

It's worse than Fox News or the Washington Times.

[FarLeftFist]

7. IMHO a Public Option will eventually become reality due to the demand from people and small business

As HC costs keep rising people will demand a public option and eventually single-payer.

[AtomicKitten]

9. I recall Bernie Sanders thrilled at the opportunity for single-payer in his state

made possible by the Affordable Care Act. With his state as a template, in time other states will see the absolute insanity of not having single-payer.

k&r

[Warren Stupidity]

10. This is sort of a dishonest post.

The public option, as it was understood four years ago, was a federal government run non-profit health insurance program offered to all not covered by employer based insurance. Your examples are not that. They aren't even close.

I think it is a good thing indeed that tiny Vermont is trying to do on its own what we should have done in 2009, and at least they are allowed to try to make a go of it under the health reform legislation, but it is not "the public option".

[Edweird]

11. A dishonest post? How dare you!

[ProSense]

12. There

"This is sort of a dishonest post."

...is nothing "dishonest" about the post. It's talking about the government-run health care plans facilitated by the health care law.

"I think it is a good thing indeed that tiny Vermont is trying to do on its own what we should have done in 2009, and at least they are allowed to try to make a go of it under the health reform legislation, but it is not 'the public option'."

You're right, Vermont's plan is not "the public option." It's single-payer funded by the health care law.

[banned from Kos]

13. Even a public option would have PRIVATE providers.

And may be subcontracted to private insurers for billing.

Purity tests are counter-productive.

[JackRiddler]

14. So? Does this justify the Democrats' decision to exclude the public option...

from the health insurance bill?

No, obviously.

I've got an idea for your next thread: Court trials for criminal charges in which defendants have counsel and see the evidence against them and are judged by a jury of their peers are also not dead! Many of these happen every year! So what's all this whinin' and complainin' about indefinite detention and the NDAA suspension of due process, habeas corpus, right to defense and all that other stuff that stops good guys from nabbin' bad guys? (It can only be due to pro-Republican plots by Paulbots motivated by sheer hatred of Obama to pose as liberals criticizing him from "the left"!!!)

[ProSense]

17. The

So? Does this justify the Democrats' decision to exclude the public option...

from the health insurance bill?

No, obviously.

I've got an idea for your next thread: Court trials for criminal charges in which defendants have counsel and see the evidence against them and are judged by a jury of their peers are also not dead! Many of these happen every year! So what's all this whinin' and complainin' about indefinite detention and the NDAA suspension of due process, habeas corpus, right to defense and all that other stuff that stops good guys from nabbin' bad guys? (It can only be due to pro-Republican plots by Paulbots motivated by sheer hatred of Obama to pose as liberals criticizing him from "the left"!!!)

...criticism of Paul has taken a toll on you, huh?

[JackRiddler]

18. So? Does your OP somehow mitigate the Democrats' decision to exclude the public option...

from the health insurance reform, as your title line implies? (That would be the title you stuck on an otherwise informative cut-and-paste OP that doesn't actually speak to the point your title implies.)

CORRECTION: The misfit title to the piece came with the piece in the first place. Apologies.

[ProSense]

19. The

So? Does your OP somehow mitigate the Democrats' decision to exclude the public option...

from the health insurance reform, as your title line implies? (The one you stuck on an otherwise informative OP.)

...OP implies nothing of the sort, but you appear to be going through something. Also, the OP is the title of the article, which was not written by me. In fact, I didn't take the OP to imply what you're implying.

Seriously, try to read it and comment on it. That's a much healthier approach than the current one.

[JackRiddler]

21. The OP has little to do with the title of the piece.

While the OP is about good non-profit insurance programs in Vermont and elsewhere, the title implies that the exclusion of a public option from national health insurance reform is not a big deal.

And if someone (not me) came here to applaud the title as an apology for the exclusion of the public option from the health insurance reform, you would welcome that reading.

[ProSense]

22. Yikes!

[JackRiddler]

23. Biggest ROFL smiley wins! Always! Congratulations.

[ProSense]

24. Hey

I like the edit! When did it sink in?

[JackRiddler]

25. It's all in the timecode.

[FarLeftFist]

20. That really is the title of the article.