Support for the Public Option Keeps Getting Stronger

“New Life for the Public Option” is the headline of Dan Balz’s excellent article in Sunday’s Washington Post.  It’s not an accident that this powerful idea has made yet another comeback.  And it is not surprising that public and Congressional support, always strong, has surged again, just as the insurance industry has ham-handedly tried to manipulate the choices of key decision-makers in the US Senate.  In the crucial next few days – and in the weeks to come – advocates of the public option will be arguing that the principle of majority-rule democracy should be allowed to work.  And the insurance and drug industries (and Republicans) will be basing their strategy for stopping the public plan on an undemocratic procedure called the filibuster.

The public option has been part of the national health care debate since January 2007, when the Economic Policy Institute published Jacob Hacker’s Health Care for America plan.  From that moment to this, many in the media and the pundit class have periodically dismissed its chances.  But that was also the moment that Hacker, Diane Archer and I started having discussions with three essential audiences:  leaders of activist citizen organizations, Congressional leaders, and presidential candidates.  (For a record of that early organizing, click here.)  Our message:  a public insurance option is crucial to the success of real reform in America’s mixed system of private and public health insurance – especially if our government agrees to the demand of insurance companies that all Americans must be forced to buy insurance.

Those early conversations and the primary election campaign debates produced a consensus in favor of a public option, as first candidate John Edwards (in February 2007), then Barack Obama (in May), and (in September) Hillary Clinton all came forward with health reform plans based primarily on preserving employment-based health insurance for those who have it and reforming and expanding private health insurance for those who don’t.  And all three Democratic presidential candidates called for a public insurance plan, like Medicare, that would give Americans choices – and give the private insurance companies real competition that could control health care premiums.

 Even though some progressives were committed to a pure single-payer plan, leaders of many of the major organizations representing millions of Americans – unions, community networks, civil rights groups and health advocates – realized that private insurance companies would not soon be put out of business. Drawing on Hacker’s work, these groups came together around a plan for reforming the worst practices of the insurance companies, requiring all but the smallest firms to cover their employees, guaranteeing affordable coverage to everyone through an insurance exchange, and offering a public insurance option as one of many choices in the exchange.  The Health Care for America Now! coalition, now representing 1,000 citizen organizations and millions of people, was built around these principles – and HCAN has consistently insisted that if you take away one part of the plan – whether it is affordable coverage, insurance reform, or the public option – and the whole enterprise of building reform on a mixed system might just collapse and end up throwing money at the insurance and drug companies without achieving real reform or universal coverage. 

HCAN also formalized outreach to Members of Congress and candidates for House and Senate in the buildup to the 2008 elections – though thousands of town meetings and local accountability sessions.  By the time of the election, over half of the new Congress had publicly embraced the HCAN health reform principles.  And two candidates for executive office, Obama and Biden had also signed on to those principles.  The growing support for the public option in Congress reflects HCAN’s steady and creative organizing – writing the new textbook for a citizen majority overcoming some of the most powerful special interests in America. 

Support for the public option in the Congress has grown steadily as Members focused on the healthcare debate, and many single-payer liberals realized the public plan is the closest they can conceivably come in today’s Congress.  But the latest surge of support has come from moderate Democrats and even Blue Dogs, who have come to the realization that if they are going to vote to force their constituents to purchase health insurance, they had better make sure they have a lot of choices – including an affordable public option.  And they are realizing that if a public option can keep insurance premiums down, then the Federal government can afford to free up more subsidy funds to keep premiums reasonable for middle-class constituents, while keeping the overall cost of the health reform bill under a trillion dollars in the first 10 years.

As he overcame his conservative hesitations (and a lifetime of caution) and prepared to cast his vote for the historic 1964 Civil Rights Act, Republican Senator Everett McKinley Dirksen quoted Victor Hugo: “Nothing can stop an idea whose time has come.”  And that helped get enough “moderate” votes to overcome a filibuster by Southern Democrats and conservative Republicans.  Today Republicans are marching almost completely united in the opposite direction as historic reform.  But, as the growing support for the public insurance option demonstrates, Democrats will find a way to unite in the Senate in support of the rule of democracy against the filibuster, and a strong and progressive health reform bill will pass the Senate with considerably more than a majority.

Once again, it is time to make history. 

 

 

Follow Roger Hickey on Twitter: www.twitter.com/rogerhickey

Comments

[sej100]

Throw out this very WEAK public option and MAJORLY REWRITE A STRONG PUBLIC OPTION that allows taxpayers to actually have an Option when the insurance industry fails them.

When premiums become outlandish, when claims are rejected from responsible treatments it is time a citizen could move on from the private insurance industry which has overtaken responsible practices for the almighty profit at the expense of good care to the people.

People deserve better.

It is also long overdue to delete the Congressional and Senate health plans and force our politicians to accept the very insurance that the people they are sworn to represent are offered. No greater benefits should accrue for this is why our government remains far too out of touch with the people and in effect becomes a product of greed.

[daddysboy]

Since the recent attempts to sabotage any progress on health-care reform have been so transparent and unabashed, what makes you think that any legislation that is passed regardless of whether it says 'public option' somewhere in it won't be completely worthless? When it began to look like congress might in fact eek out some mild version of a 'public option' , the industry moved onto the strategy of arguing for 'triggers'. There are ENDLESS tactics that can be used to prevent people from getting health-care without paying everything they have for it. Every one of these will be used now and in the future regardless of what congress passes. Even if something tangible actually does get written, what makes you think the industry won't immediately go to work minimizing it's effect well before it is even implemented? There have already been massive changes made this year to the policies of people that are fortunate to actually have a ticket to hospital rooms other than the emergency one in anticipation of new laws being passed. I want to see a public option and real health-care reform, I just think that if we were really going to get that anytime soon, that would already have been made clear to the American public by our president. So far, we are continuing to be told that this is a "debate".

[Nelson Montana - Huffpost Blogger]

The game is rigged. If we get the public option everyone will cheer it as a victory, when in fact, it's another version of a failed program. The insurance companies will own the system and dictate terms. The services will be sub par and we'll have to pay top dollar for them. The Republicans will blame the administration for what they essentially demanded. And so it goes.

Don't get sick.

[seawolf77]

Well of course it's the only course that makes sense so of course the republicans oppose it on of course principles, which is really slang for 8 meal course of horse caca.

[Promote]

Public Option , Public Option Is My Point ! Peace & Blessings , Power To The People !

[DuncanONeil]

How can anyone continue to insist that support for a "Public Option" is continuing to increase when a Rasmussen within the past three days shows that opposition to the "Public Option" exceeds support by a measure of two to one.
And as the voice of the Rasmussen group reported the level of support has only improved in the immediate vicinity of a Presidential speech on the issue. He also reported that support has never been the majority position.

So again how can you claim that support in increasing? The American people can not be that foolish!

Add to that even without the "Public Option" the "Exchange Program" is in fact centralized governmental control of the entire health insurance industry.

[ched]

Because it's Rasmussen, which is always an outlier, and always supports republican positions.

[gabemill]

I assume you will accept the ultra conservative Wall St Journal as a source?
Their latest poll shows that 48% of Americans favor the public option, while 42% oppose.

[daddysboy]

What the public is nearly 100% in support of is staying alive and having access to health-care when they need it. Keeping the current system in place and doing nothing to improve it leading to pain, loss, and death that could be avoided or at least mitigated is not what the majority wants (I don't even have to conduct a poll to know that). If the answers the pollsters are getting aren't clear, perhaps the polled participants are not being asked clear questions. Since at least 5 percent of America is known to believe that the sun revolves around the Earth, it is safe to conclude that a far greater number have absolutely no idea what socialism is. The only question is whether you want people that at least profess to care about you making sure that you at least have a path to obtaining health-care, or people that would never even think about caring about you finding ways to get at even more of your hard-earned money. Government is IN PLACE to secure the basic rights of individuals, not to support oppression of individuals by large, private industries. Imagine telling the public that they have to individually obtain and pay for their own security because policing is a profitable business that we wouldn't want to hamper with total government control. That would go over great and work well ...

[logic rulz]

You present the issue of mandated insurance as if this is not a problem NO ONE should ever be forced to purchase anything, least of all insurance. Insurance is not health care. Car insurance which is mandatory does nothing to improve vehicles, their safety, gas mileage , the state of our roads. It is forced upon us and many people never collect. Health insurance is exactly the same. This is a win win for the insurance companies, millions of new victims from whom money can be fleeced. This will not reform our health care system and is laughable.

If you agree contact your senators and reps about the following amendments.

The Weiner amendment--Medicare for all.

The Kucinich amendment which allows states to more easily implement single payer plans is already within the bill and must be retained.

Sen Sanders is sponsoring a Medicare for all bill in the senate, S.703 Ask your senators to support it.

[DuncanONeil]

"You present the issue of mandated insurance as if this is not a problem NO ONE should ever be forced to purchase anything, least of all insurance. Insurance is not health care. Car insurance which is mandatory does nothing to improve vehicles, their safety, gas mileage , the state of our roads. It is forced upon us and many people never collect. Health insurance is exactly the same."

Very well put! Although auto insurance is treated different that health insurance. Now auto insurance, at least in my area, is now amping up the rates to deal with uninsured drivers. This in spite of the fact that the sate requires auto insurance.

[freedomthrutruth]

The insurance companies in your area are increasing auto insurance rates to make a profit, not necessarily to respond to uninsured motorists, who in this case, probably constitute the convenient, proverbial scapegoat.

Also, why should any American protected by the Constitution be literally coerced to buy that which he/she doesn't want or can't afford, whether it's car insurance or health insurance?

[truthtellingman]

Medicare for all? You apparently have never had the displeasure of seeing medicare in action. I watched my mother be kicked out of the hospital 5 times by medicare before she died. God help us all if we have to rely on medicare.

[igorvitch]

I don't believe this for a moment.

[gabemill]

I have VA health care (full blown government run program) and find it superior to anything I received in the private sector, and at a very small fraction of the cost. England has a similar program that includes the entire population....as the Weiner and Kucinich proposals would do. Health care for profit is a moral atrocity! Isn't it time we join the civilized world by providing affordable health care to all our citizens?

[daddysboy]

Comparing auto insurance with health insurance really is comparing apples and oranges in this case. You seem very well-informed which is great, but please consider why auto insurance is already mandated in most states while health insurance is not as of yet. You can die and many people won't care if you were insured in the least, but if you hit them with your car, they will absolutely care whether you are insured. This is why in most states, the only part of auto insurance that is mandated is liability.

[Promote]

PSALM 72:13 . He Will Have Compassion On The Poor and Needy , And The Lives Of The Needy He Will Save . Peace & Blessings !

[DuncanONeil]

Your point????

Understand I know what you are saying but what is your point???

[Promote]

PSALM 72:12 . For He Will Deliver The Needy When He Cries For Help , The Afflicted Also , and Him Who Has No Helper . Peace & Blessings !

[Jimtoday]

I wonder if the seemingly rising tide of sanity, popularity, and respect for the wishes of their desperate constituents will unglue all or most of the Blue Dogs from their "nay votes"? Perhaps even a few "I want to be on the right side of history" Republicans will make a stunning turnaround in the next few weeks? I am hopeful.

[TeeLolly]

Republicans rewrite their own history, so what they actually do doesn't count ...

[DuncanONeil]

No that is the province of the Democrats. Even when Kennedy wanted to clear up some of the Kopechne issue the family still hides it.

[Publius99]

I agree that what we're about to experience is the renewal of hope. The task of fixing the broken healthcare system can never be accomplished by our Nobel winning President, his Vice-President nor the Democrats alone. It is going to take millions of us working together to get behind incorporating a strong public option in the law in order for it to pass.

Then the real work will begin: how do we become better citizens and work together after a decade of division and spitefulness? (We have all fanned the flames with our windy selves now, haven't we?) How can we re-dedicate ourselves to our own principles, find our integrity and embrace lives of mutual respect? The answer lies in doing it. Thoughtfully and with clear intention and a great deal of presence. We're going to continue making mistakes, for sure. Well, we're all of us mistake-making humans, are we not? That's how we learn: finding ways that work by trying ways that don't.

Let us also keep in mind that a real party, not merely a political party, but that a grand party in celebration of accomplishing the changing of our own futures and that of our children is in the offing. So keep that Party in mind, remember to laugh at yourself when the going gets grim, because once our work achieves the fullness of our goals, we're really going to have something to celebrate. Yep, WE CAN! For sure!

[daybranch]

I pray you are right and most of the American people agree with you. Yet it is not time to celebrate, it is time to realize we are making progress on health care and then push even harder to make sure it works. I understand the current public option envisioned will be available to only those 10 million eligible. I fear that the limited eligibility coupled with the cherrypicking by the large insurance companies could make the public option unattractive and destroy its ability to hold down health care costs. Lets write our Congressmen and women now and tell them we need a larger base of eligible subscribers for the public option. We have fought for this and we must make sure it works.

[DuncanONeil]

First the health system is not broken.
Second the reform is not directed at reforming health care.
Third it is a reform of health insurance.

After all of that there is nothing in here that really provides for a real reform. All it is is a series of rules on insurance companies, addition of a new Government bureaucracy, that has few doctors on board, with the people appointed by the sitting administration.
then there is the issue of the plans forcing specific life decisions on the people of the land.

[riceroni]

I know many here and myself have went to Mary Landrieu's office and written her many emails lighting a fire under her blue dog butt.

[PoliticalOutlaw]

Well hip-hip-hoorah for our side - perhaps those clowns in Washington D.C. have finally remembered for whom they work, who picks up the tab, including their paychecks and who hands out the pink slips. I'm planning on handing pink slips to all my representatives (except 1) next time around regardless of what happens with Health Care. I've had enough of their incumbent incompetent nonsense to last me a lifetime.

[wrabbitt]

That makes two, Here in New York state I am voting against every state representatives too I have no political party I am just an angry American, time to get rid of the lobbyist puppets, and, our crooks in Albany.

[DuncanONeil]

Don't the lobby puppets work for the lobby companies?
Those you are angry at are greedy people that spend very little time doing the job for which they were hired and significantly more stockpiling the money to ensure that the cush job remains theirs!
Like the idea of term limit? Easy every election vote for the candidate that is not incumbent!!!

[SeaShell226]

.
Yea!!!
.

[cwcarman]

Conservatism is, again, trying to keep Americans from decent health care because it threatens the profits of a parasitic industry. Insurance companies make money betting that those they cover will not need coverage. They exclude those who do. As a result more than 15% of our people are uninsured or under-insured. At the same time, we spend nearly twice what other countries do for full coverage. So, we might have to retrain some insurance company employees as a means to save billions of dollars and make life more bearable and secure for 50M Americans.

[DuncanONeil]

"Conservatism is, again, trying to keep Americans from decent health care because it threatens the profits of a parasitic industry."

That is a knee jerk response. Why is there not the same outrage for the auto insurance industry? They operate under similar principles. Although people treat the use of that insurance differently. As example, My car was parked in a restaurant lot. When I came out I found that somehow someone had put a dent in by bumper cover. On checking it is about $100 to get it fixed.

Am I going to use my insurance to fix it? Let's see. Number of claims can increase my rates! Oh yes there is the matter of the deductible which in my case is $500.

I know we should reform auto repair so that everyone is covered, millions do not have auto insurance, or are underinsured, the costs of auto repair must be controlled, they are increasing at a rate higher than inflation. The insurance industry is making huge sums of money on the backs of the people.

[igorvitch]

What's your point? That two wrongs make some sort of right? The largest difference between auto and health insurance is that one is not a monopoly and, therefore, has to compete with many other companies for our dollars (auto insurance); the other is a monopoly and in many states people are forced to purchase usurious health insurance from one or two companies: in North Dakota it's just ONE company. Why health insurance companies are exempt for anti-monopoly laws is beyond rational comprehension.

[wrabbitt]

Time to watch and see if congress can actually vote the will of the people, they know their jobs are on the line.

[DuncanONeil]

The people do not want a public option!
"Thirty-five percent (35%) of American voters say passage of the bill currently (in)Congress would be better than not passing any health care reform legislation this year. ... most voters (54%) say no health care reform passed this year would be the better option ... (this) does highlight the concern about the specific proposals that Democrats have approved ... Sixty percent (60%) of Democrats say passing the legislation would be the best course of action. 80% of Republicans take the opposite view. Among those not affiliated 23% would like the reform to pass while 66% would rather legislators take no action. Earn less than $20,000 a year are evenly divided but a majority of all others would prefer no action. Middle income voters, ($40,000 to $75,000 a year), are most strongly in favor of taking no action. A plurality of voters under 30 say passage of the Congressional legislation is better. ... As the public has become more engaged in the debate over health care reform, support for the Congressional reform plans has fallen to new lows. Just 42% of U.S. voters now favor the plan while 53% are opposed. Those who oppose the effort feel more strongly about it. ... By a two-to-one margin, voters believe that no matter how bad things are Congress could always make it worse. Democrats consider health care reform the top priority, Republicans and unaffiliated voters see deficit reduction as more important. " (Rasmussen Reports Aug 15

[wrabbitt]

Why would anyone want the watered down version worked out between lobbyists and congress, do you think anything will change? Obviously a revolution at the ballot box ain't going to work......­..........­.........

[igorvitch]

Again survey company does NOT take unbiased surveys but surveys like Faux that always come from a sampling that favors not just conservative views, but highly conservative (regressive, status quo) views.