The Sun-Times has a solid editorial today on the health care battle in D.C. in which they vocally support the inclusion of a public option in any reform package:
It should be clear why we need radical reform, but in case it isn't, here's a quick rundown.
In Illinois alone, average health insurance premiums for families have shot up nearly 90 percent since 2000. Last year, more than 1.5 million Illinois residents had no health insurance.
And the largest health insurer in the state -- BlueCross BlueShield of Illinois -- holds more than 50 percent of the market, hardly the best competitive situation.
Far from being anti-business, we think the public option is good for business, small ones in particular.
The Sun-Times goes on to dismiss the idea of creating a "trigger" for the public option, which would essentially delay the implementation of the program in order to give the insurance industry a chance to make coverage more affordable. The editorial board also provides a concise rejection of alternative proposals to create regional health care cooperatives. Read the whole thing here.
Comments
Mike (not verified) on Fri, 09/18/2009 - 11:12
This idea that we can afford trillion dollar health insurance packages is ludicrous and is contrary to economic sense. When you see politicos bullying the corporations into questionable activities you know it is purely motivated by politics and not based upon the business case. The US has an 8.3 Trillion dollar debt, for it's funded liabilities. With the unfunded liabilities figured in, that number rises to over 50 Trillion dollars. Hello doesn't anyone do math anymore? Employers are not hiring because to do so is financially suicidal given the added cost of labor that will seek to jump on this dead horse economy. The reason the economy has to be bullied by politicians is because they aren't making the business case. The only motivation is the political case. Congress will do the wrong thing again, by pumping valueless sheets of paper called money into the pool. Wise people need to get out of the pool now while they still can swim.
sharon (not verified) on Sun, 11/15/2009 - 22:53
The big insurance companies are raping us and you don't think it needs to be reformed!!!? If the government get the public option ( I sure as hell hope they do!) BIG insurers will have no choice but to come down on prices and they shouldn't need to cut benefits because they are all making outrageous profits as it is! That's how Pres. Obama is going to pay for part of the debt created by healthcare reform! The rest will come from taking away "tax shelters" of the wealthy that they have enjoyed for so long, thanks to the Republicans!! He is going to impose a 5% tax on wealthy people, which equal 12% of the nation. The public option won't be entirely free either. We already have medicaid for people who have no income to buy insurance. The public option will just give you a cheaper plan and is meant for people who have an income but are below poverty level, which is estimated to be 6% of the population of the U.S. If you want to get out of the pool, move to Canada!
They have socialist, totally government run healthcare that seems to work!! And we buy cheaper pharmacutical drugs from them thru the mail because ours are so high priced!! Greed is rampant in this country and it's about time somebody sat on these greedy insurance companies, pharmacutical companies and doctors! I can't think of a better person to do that than President Obama!!
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