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public option health plan

Despite Resistance, We Are Getting Closer to a Public Option Health Plan


Politicians at all levels are too afraid to upend a health care system that does not work for all because of the impact that change will have on some. The fact that that "some" consists of about 16 million health care related jobs and 18% of the U.S. economy is reason to think before we act. But with nearly a century to think about and work out a better health care policy, it’s clear that there’s never been a real strategy for revolutionary change. Instead, politicians focus on incremental health care policy changes, like the President’s latest proposal for a limited public health plan option.

On Monday, July 11, 2016, President Obama became the first sitting U.S. President to write an article for publication in a scholarly or academic journal. Published by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA),
the article titled, "United States Health Care Reform: Progress to Date and Next Steps," recounts the process of health care reform from 2008 to the present. The article outlines the many legislative actions the President and his administration took to:

  • expand health insurance coverage
  • provide financial support to health insurance buyers
  • improve health care technology and research and
  • reform health care payment models
The President makes a case for the need for more incremental health care reform, including a public option in geographical areas that have little or not health insurer competition. But some Democratic politicians fear even this modest proposal. According to an article in thehill.com, Democratic Senator Heidi Heitkamp said this in response to a limited public option: “I think it's critically important that we stop trying to complicate healthcare and we start taking a look at what needs to be fixed in ObamaCare.” Besides being one of the dumbest statements ever made about the already impossible to understand U.S. health care system, it shows a real fear of the inevitable.

If health insurers merge as planned or drop out of the exchanges leaving little or no health plan options to choose from, something has to fill the gap. The only thing that can is a public option. Those who think that reducing the number of health plan options on the exchanges is a way to undo Obamacare are being naïve. People still want and need health insurance, not to mention that they are required to have it. I don’t see any other option but to offer a public health plan where few or no health plan options exist.
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