Let Me Be CLEAR On Why The Public Option Is Non-Negiotable!

Let Me Be CLEAR On Why The Public Option Is Non-Negiotable!

by slinkerwink

I've been reading reports of people here on Dailykos who say, "Well, maybe a regional co-op would be okay. Maybe we might have the votes for a national co-operative." They are dead wrong on already giving up before the fight is over! Hell, this is the middle of August, and members of Congress haven't even returned back from recess yet!

Jane Hamsher, nyceve, and I over at FDL have been working out the details of what to do next with our allies in this fight at Netroots Nation. We're going to make sure that the Congressional Progressive Caucus STAND UP for the public option by refusing to vote for a bill that does not include it, and we're going to need you guys to keep fighting with us!

And yes, the White House administration is telegraphing that without a vigorous pushback from us, that they'd accept regional co-operatives in order to have a bipartisan vote on health insurance reform. I am using that phrase because without the public option, it's not real health care reform, just insurance reform.

The only way that the White House can shift its strategy is with a huge outcry from us, and our going to townhalls this week to DEMAND that our Democratic lawmakers answer how the costs of private insurance can be lowered without essential cost containments such as Medicare drug price negotiation and the public option.

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Because without these two elements as checks on private insurance companies, monthly premiums are going to rise unabated, and there wouldn't be real competition among these insurance companies in the national insurance exchange. You know that might happen in the national insurance exchange without the public option? Right now, we have about six major insurance companies that dominate much of the country's health insurance market in most states. What's going to happen to these six major insurance companies in the national insurance exchange?

Will they really compete with each other? Or instead, buy each small insurance company up to the point that there are now six major insurance companies offering hundreds of different insurance plans within the national insurance exchange?

That's not real competition. That won't bring down prices of your monthly premiums. What it is is nothing more than a mandated bailout of the murder-by-spreadsheet industry with 45 million new captive customers. When Americans don't see the cost of their monthly premiums being lowered, you know who they'll blame for not making health care reform affordable for them? The Democratic Party.

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