Lonesome Tree in Sandhills

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Health Reform: Progressives on Public Option

65 members of the House drew a line in the sand: no public option, no health care bill.

The public option gives our country freedom from being locked into private insurance. Individuals and small employers would not be held hostage by private insurance with their high administrative costs driven by high executive salaries, bonuses and profits. The public option would expand Medicare to everyone who applies at far cheaper premiums with 1/10th the administrative cost (30% vs 3%). 

Medicare Advantage (Part C) has provided free insurance to those with limited incomes, but the government's 12% subsidy has overpaid private insurance companies since it began in 2002.  The high subsidy must stop and people on Part C must begin paying a premium. Medicare Part A and B cost $96 per month, but has not increased in well over a decade. Many if not most people on Part A and B can afford to pay $15 to $25 more per month to keep the program going, which would also pay for training more new physicians.

There is NO free lunch - consumers pay one way or the other, but PLEASE, we must stop bailing out private insurance executives, too.  Freedom to buy medical care without padding executive salaries and investor pockets is the bottom line!

If you haven't understood the reasons why a public option is necessary, then you haven't read my posts about the high cost of private insurance... or listened to Wendell Potter or the doctors in the videos here.

If you want to tell Congress the public option is that important to our country, click here and sign the petition.

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