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Public Option Polling is a Sham
  • Jay Cost at Real Clear Politics has a terrific analysis of polling on the public option. He finds that the response pollsters get depends heavily on the wording of the questions being asked. This is suggestive of a public that is operating on generalities. Here’s the key portion but I encourage you to look at the whole thing: Let’s take a look at Rasmussen. He has offered a series of [...]
    • Lieberman Refuses to Cave on Public Option
  • From the sound of this Politico story, the public option as we know it is dead: Senate Democrats in search of a health reform compromise Sunday zeroed in on a new alternative to a government-run insurance plan — signaling that the chances a final bill will include a pure public option are diminishing. The new idea — for the government to create a national health insurance plan similar to the Federal [...]
    • Public Option to be Replaced by Medicare Buy-In?
  • That’s what Politico is saying. They want to have the deal done by Tuesday afternoon: Under the compromise, the public option would be removed from the bill and replaced with a new government-administered national insurance plan similar to the Federal Employee Health Benefits Plan, which serves members of Congress and federal workers. To sweeten the deal for liberals, people 55 and older would be able to “buy-in” to Medicare and purchase [...]
    • The Public Option Fight Continues
  • From the Chicago Tribune: President Barack Obama has long advocated a so-called public option, while at the same time repeatedly expressing openness to other ways to offer consumers a potentially more affordable alternative to health plans sold by private insurers. But now, senior administration officials are holding private meetings almost daily at the Capitol with senior Democratic staff to discuss ways to include a version of the public plan in [...]
    • What to Expect if ObamaCare Goes All the Way
  • It passed the House tonight. Still lots of hurdles ahead. Anyway, this Martin Feldstein piece from the Washington Post is a couple days old but still timely: Obamacare could have the unintended consequence of raising health insurance premiums and causing a decline in the number of people with insurance. Here’s why: A key feature of the House and Senate health bills would prevent insurance companies from denying coverage to anyone [...]
    • Thoughts on Health Exchanges and Pre-Existing Conditions
  • Now that the bill is on the verge of passage, Ezra Klein is finally having some doubts about the perverse incentives the exchanges might create: I’m a longtime proponent of the exchanges, but key to their functioning is their ability to serve a population that’s not entirely low-income…[I]t’s not clear that they’ll be particularly competitive if they’re primarily serving a subsidized population. Megan McArdle has some reactions to his post. [...]
    • Lieberman Says No to Public Option Path to Single-Payer
  • Saw this on Hot Air headlines this morning. It’s interesting because it reinforces the audio clip I posted a few weeks ago. But it’s also interesting because it offers some private insight into the Democrats reasoning for the public option: When Mr. Lieberman says no public option, he means no public option—not an “opt-in” or an “opt out” or a “trigger” (a public option only comes into effect if private [...]
    • Public Option Marketing by Dems Finally Jumps the Shark
  • shark01This is on Drudge, but I couldn’t let it go without comment: A government-sponsored “public option” for health care lives, though it may be more attractive to skeptics if it goes by a different moniker, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday. In an appearance at a Florida senior center, the Democratic leader referred to the so-called public option as “the consumer option.” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., appeared by Pelosi’s [...]
    • Laffer on ObamaCare
  • I recommend reading the whole thing, but here’s a sample: [W]hen the government spends money on health care, the patient does not. The patient is then separated from the transaction in the sense that costs are no longer his concern. And when the patient doesn’t care about costs, only those who want higher costs—like doctors and drug companies—care. Thus, health-care reform should be based on policies that diminish the health-care [...]

    • The Four-Tiered Public Option

    John on October 29, 2009 at 11:06 am

    Just looking through the 1900 page bill now. What fun! Won’t you join me?

    Page 211 is where discussion of the public option begins. It looks like the public option is not actually one option but four tiers:

    PROVISION OF BENEFIT LEVELS.—The public health insurance option—
    (A) shall offer basic, enhanced, and premium plans; and
    (B) may offer premium-plus plans.

    So three levels, basic through premium are mandated. Premium-plus is discretionary.

    I thought the idea of the public option was to be a catch-all for those unable to get insurance in any other way. Why are we offering premium and, potentially, premium plus plans via the government?

    Category: Health & Education |

    1 Comment

    1. Tweets that mention The Four-Tiered Public Option | Verum Serum -- Topsy.com

      [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Verum Serum, ActionAlert. ActionAlert said: The public plan is actually 4 plans: http://ow.ly/xnHV — #tcot #obamacare [...]

      October 29, 2009 @ 11:51 am

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