Public Option Alternatives
The public option has had a difficult time making its way through Senate Finance Committee mark-up sessions. In the past week, two separate proposals for including a public option in health care reform were nixed. Rejection of the plans, one proposed by Senator Charles Schumer of New York and the other by Senator John Rockefeller of West Virginia, is said to be indicative of a further adoption of the middle-of-the-road approach. Still, some are optimistic that because Obama has the de facto final say on health reform legislation, he will work hard to include a public option; others debate whether the President is willing to compromise the public option for overall reform.
Instead of approving of Schumer’s or Rockefeller’s proposals, the Senate Finance Committee voted to include a proposal by Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington. Cantwell’s amendment is said to be a compromise between Democrats and Republicans on the public option. The plan, which would be federally-funded, would be available to those individuals who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but are below 200% of the federal poverty level. At present, an implementation cost analysis for the plan is still unavailable, but Cantwell says that the plan, which also give states the power to negotiate down the price of insurance, would be able to cover 75% of the uninsured population. The plan would mirror the current health care system of Washington State.
Though many important Committee members like Sen. Baucus have approved of such an amendment, others like Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine have voted against it. Keep in mind, Snowe has been labeled “the key to health reform.” For Snowe, a public option would only be provided in states in which 95% of the population is deemed to not have access to “affordable” insurance through an Insurance Exchange. Senator Tom Carper of Delaware has proposed a similar plan; however, his version leaves it up to the states to decide what it deems best for its constituents. Under Carper’s version, states would get to choose between opening up state-funded health care plans for government employees to all residents, or creating a health insurance provider or a co-op to compete with private insurance companies.
The proposals of Carper, Cantwell & Snowe have their respective positives and negatives and are subject to, and seemingly born of, the political process. They smack of compromise.
What will it take to get any one of these proposed bills passed during the full Senate vote? The ongoing divide between liberals and conservatives on the issue of providing a public competitor to private insurance companies has created a fissure which has echoed through the common landscape now for months. But we are getting close– as the NY Times put it– “tantalizingly close,” to sweeping Health Reform. Floor debate will ensue shortly. Predictions abound. But in the words of Lamar Alexander, the number 3 Republican in the Senate, “There is nothing predictable about the Senate floor.”
Compromise. President Lyndon B. Johnson, key to passage of both Medicare and the Civil Rights Act famously declared: “I’m a compromiser and a maneuverer. I try to get ’something.’ That’s the way our system works.” As evidenced by the two aformentioned Johnson successes, however, Johnson also knew when to expend enough political capital to make that ’something’ meaningful. I would suggest we stand at the precipice of one of those times.
The doctors got paid even when the job is not done. From my experience : i have problem with low back , the treatment which i got in a spine clinic (hormone injection) gave no results.ut still doctor got paid .This situation repeated itself very often. Let doctors got paid when job is done!!!!!