General Discussion
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The answer is: Government Option
Moostache
(9,897 posts)Remove the profit motive from health care, period.
It is a RIGHT, not a privilege....
louis c
(8,652 posts)but a public option may be doable. After all, it fits the Republican narrative and suits our purpose.
And it moves us one step closer to "Medicare for All".
Moostache
(9,897 posts)The ACA was SUPPOSED to be the move that got us one step closer to Single Payer...and now? We are about to see millions sentenced to death next week and there is literally nothing that can stop it from our side. The only hope for this country for the next 30 years is in retaking the House and Governor's races in 2018 and the Senate and executive branch in 2020.
Without a valid and successful census and redistricting effort, the Democratic Party is going to be irrelevant for the remainder of most of our lives. Look around at the destruction and wanton cruelty of their legislation and state level actions. With a gerrymandered map, the SCOTUS for a generation plus and the entire government in the hands of those who will only do the bidding of their paymasters, this country will not be worth staying in if the 2018 and 2020 elections are as big a disaster as 2016.
The concept of compromise is not in the GOP lexicon...there can't be any more half-measures and a public option would simply get knee-capped by the right the exact same way they hijacked ACA and started starving it before this current abomination. Getting only as far as ACA and then to see it actually go BACKWARDS so soon is depressing.
PSPS
(13,603 posts)It's not "more competition and lower premiums," it's "no competition and lower premiums for sham policies." You proposal is just a "race to the bottom," taking locally-elected state insurance regulators out of the picture and leaving people with no reasonable avenue of recourse.
Look at credit card companies who have all gone to Delaware where there are no or lax regulations.
AJT
(5,240 posts)in the state the company has its headquarters, any state regulations won't apply.......so, many long expensive years in litigation. The company can go out of business or just keep suits in the court system for 20 years. Good luck.
Vinca
(50,279 posts)A few states allow it and they're in the same boat with the others. Insurance companies need to vet the doctors, hospitals and other providers and negotiate with each and every one of them. The GOP dream that this would lower the cost of insurance is pure fantasy. There is one way to solve the problem right now: open up a public option for Obamacare.
louis c
(8,652 posts)A government option would work like a Medicare proposal. It would compete with the insurers from a central point and the insurance would be the same in each state, because it is uniform.
Private Insurers would be unable to successfully compete with a subsidized, uniform, non-profit public option.
That would be the beginning of the end of private insurers and would pave the way to a single payer, Medicare for all plan.