Why The Public Option Isn't Dead

If you want to know, go read Steve's and Greg's take on this NYTimes piece.

Good stuff!!!

Fired Up, Ready To Go!

Say what you want about President Obama, the man can definitely deliver a speech.



I am definitely fired up and ready to go on the public option after that story!

Let's get er done.

Whip It Whip It Real Hard

It would appear that progressives in the House are not going to go silently off into that good night.

Per Greg Sargent:

House Liberals Write Directly To Obama: No Public Option, No Support

In a letter delivered to the White House moments ago, the two leaders of the bloc of House progressives bluntly told President Obama that they will not support any health care plan without a public option in it — and demanded a meeting to inform him face to face.

The not-yet-released letter — the first joint statement from progressives since news emerged that Obama might not address the public option in next week’s speech — is their sharpest challenge yet to the president, given the extraordinary sensitivity of this political moment. The letter urges him to mention the public option in his speech.

“Any bill that does not provide, at a minimum, a public option built on the Medicare provider system and with reimbursement based on Mediare rates — not negotiated rates — is unacceptable,” reads the letter, which was sent over by a source. It was signed by Reps. Lynn Woolsey and Raul Grijalva, the two leaders of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

“A health reform bill without a robust public option will not achieve the health reform this country so desperately needs,” the letter continues. “We cannot vote for anything less.”

“We look forward to meeting with you regarding a robust public option in any final health reform bill and request that that meeting take place as soon as possible,” the letter says.

Just to reiterate again, President Obama campaigned on a public option, the American people support a public option, and the overwhelming majority of Democrats in Congress support a public option. Its time to deliver.

One Bite At The Apple On Healh Care Reform

I keep hearing stupid ass pundits say that liberals and progressives should just settle for an incremental approach to health care and not fight for a public option. But history has shown that if a health care reform bill gets passed this year that will pretty much be it for the Democrats. Our party will either sink or swim with the bill that gets signed this year and we won't get another shot at anything comprehensive. Basically there will be two ways that things will go in the after math. Either health care reform works in terms of covering more people and costs are moderately lowered or without the public option we still don't come close to universal coverage and the cost curve continues to go up.

Now you might be saying that in the first instance everybody wins but the truth is all it will do is put off the inevitable for another day. We will not bend the cost curve with out a public option and all though the rate of it going up may slow down eventually those people who are having problems affording health care today will continue to have problems affording it in the future. That will end up causing everyone else to continue to subsidize emergency room care for people with no insurance. But the problem is the part that works will work just good enough that you will NEVER be able to convince a majority of people that reform is needed. if you think people are selfish now, just waiting until we spend close to a trillion dollars for health care reform and then come back asking for more.

On the other hand if the bill doesn't work then people are going to have amnesia. Nobody is going to remember that we were pushing for a public option and that if it had been included the outcomes would have been better. No, people will judge this health care reform bill as if it was the best we could have possibly put forth and its failure will "prove" to them that they never should have let Democrats reform health care in the first place. There won't be any opportunity to go back and try to change it. If you don't believe me just look at how the Republicans are now trying to call the stimulus bill a failure when they are the ones who negotiated the amount in the bill down in the first place. Same thing with Cash 4 Clunkers which was wildly successful but which FoxNews has labled a failure.

So for those who believe half a loaf is better than none, just understand that we will never see the other half of that loaf in our life time.