Inside Baseball: Why is Health Care Reform with a Public Option in Doubt?
First on Robert Reich’s list of essentials for health care reform is: “A true public option (better yet, one that allows anyone now holding private insurance to opt into …).”
This link is via Kevin Drum, who comments (about the deal-making with various powerful interests – pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies, the AMA – that Reich laments), “Think that’s bad? Consider this: even with all these giveaways in place, healthcare reform still might not pass. And if it does, it will pass only barely.”
Well, why is passage in question? And why is inclusion of a public option in question? “There are 52 solid Democrats for the public option,” said Senator Tom Harkin, the Iowa Democrat who is chairman of the health committee. “Only about five Democrats oppose it. Should the 52 give in to the five? Or should the five go along with the vast majority of the Democratic caucus?” (The quotation is from the New York Times via TPMDC.)
It is fascinating to watch this legislative drama play out day to day. And hard to believe that if the White House and the leadership of the majority party in Congress were in sync there could be any question about passing health care reform with a strong public option.
Update: From the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll released today, the public option garners majority support:
“On the issue that has been a flash point in the national debate, 57 percent of all Americans now favor a public insurance option, while 40 percent are opposed. Support has risen since mid-August, when a bare majority, 52 percent, said they favored it. (In a June Post-ABC poll, support had been at 62 percent.)
If run by the states and available only to those who lack affordable private options, support for a public plan jumps to 76 percent. Under those circumstances, even a majority of Republicans, 56 percent, would be supportive, about double their level of support without such a limitation.”
