The Truth about the Public Option (Robert Reich)

We need reform for our health care system. Not a government run health care program. The military is already stuck with Tricare, which is not a very good health care system.
SM.
 

SM:

I think it is misleading to call either a public option or a single-payer system "government run." Both of these options just mean that the system is government *financed*, which is already much more the case than people usually think (see this article for an explanation). Profit-making insurance companies are not the only drain on our health care system, but they are a big part of the problem.

—CS
 

Except that this isn't the "truth about the public option."

As proposed by HR 3200, you can't choose the public option if your employer offers you a plan. So, if your employer offers you crap plan, you have to keep it.

Also, Reich leaves out that the "public" plan won't have bargaining power with pharmaceutical companies. Meaning your prescriptions aren't going to cost you any less.

Not to mention that the "public" option won't cover dental, vision, or long term care.

Because only about 5% of the population will be eligible for the public plan, it won't be able to achieve the kind of savings Reich claims it would. It's a failed plan.
 

Hi Jeff,

Thanks for your recent comments. I tend to agree with what you're saying about single-payer vs. the "public option." But have you seen this piece by Joshua Holland over at Alternet?: http://www.alternet.org/story/141238/we_need_clear_thinking%3A_there_should_be_no_clash_between_public_option_and_single_payer/

Curious what you think of it.

--CS
 

PS Not sure whether that link was accessible in my last post; try clicking here.
 

I am a fan of Robert Reich, but I am confused that as a supporter of the working and middle class that he would be openly supporting Public Option. To be frank, Public Option is a Band-Aid. America has over four decades of success with Medicare and I do not know of anyone who wants "theirs" taken away. It is quite simple. John Conyers' bill HR 676 creates a Medicare for All system. It removes the profit hungry insurance corporations from the equation, allows for bulk drug purchasing, and puts the doctor and other healthcare professionals directly in dialogue with the patient. No more corporate bureaucrats determining medical treatment and no more co-pays, premiums, preexisting conditions, caps, or prescription costs. We will still have to pay for it but it will be an equitable tax for all with equal and expanded coverage for all that will include eyecare and dental care and mental care. Though a plain and simple tax will replace all other previous costs, it will lower 95% of the populations payment into the system. People will replace Profit as the guiding principle of America's healthcare.

The government will be the financial administer and the medical care will be entirely provided by the private healthcare professionals. This is not socialist medicine, this is smart medicine.

Call and write Congress today. This is about all of us, our families, our children, our sisters, brothers, grandchildren and future generations. It is time to do the right thing because the Democratic Party leadership has failed us and the private healthcare industry have failed us.

This is our opportunity to experience democracy. Let's show ourselves and the world that we can do it.
 

I'm all for HR 676, if the current Medicare system works already, lets just make it work for all of us. What the hell are we waiting for? Are we all that blind? The tracks are already laid. We just need to put ALL the trains on the RIGHT tracks, and get on board. Then, maybe we can stop spending billions on pie in the sky, insurance co.-feeding programs, and fund the one real program that had been proven to work: Medicare. Is it me?