The Opt-Out Public Option Proposal

.

This sounds promising…

A health care compromise that would establish a national public option for insurance coverage that individual states could opt out of, is being “very seriously considered” by Senate Democrats, a key Democratic lawmakers said on Thursday.

The proposal is designed to get the support of progressive members of the Democratic Caucus — who are committed to a government-run insurance option — and conservative Democrats who are worried about what a public plan would have on the private markets in their states.

This is a major improvement over the opt-in proposal which was being bandied about where individual states would be able to set up their own public option. Under the opt-out proposal, individual states would be free to opt out of a nationally run health care insurance program.

What I like about this proposal is that (a) there’s an actual chance of it getting the required votes and (b) it’s easy enough to envision states which initially opt out being forced to eventually opt in as its citizens see the success of the program in other states and clamor for equal access.

Certainly, a full public option with equal access across the country would be preferable but I can see the opt-out option eventually leading to a full 50 state program and, as a bonus, it would be because of the little people and not politicians.

___

To receive email notifications of new posts from MarioPiperniDotCom, click on Subscribe.
.