Could the insurance industry's approval of Sen. Max Baucus' (D-MT) watered-down health care bill help galvanize support for a public option? Illinois' own Rep. Jan Schakowsky thinks so. Appearing on Fox Chicago Sunday this past weekend, she told host Jack Conaty that the rally on health insurance stocks last week -- following the introduction of Baucus' bill, which does not include a public plan -- perfectly illustrates who stands to benefit from that proposal. And Schakowsky says that only strengthens progressives' argument in favor of more robust reform. Watch it (relevant portion begins at the 2:40 mark):
CONATY: Is the public option in health care reform still alive in Washington?
SCHAKOWSKY: I think it's more alive now. After Sen. Baucus introduced his bill, if you look at the stock market, the value of insurance companies soared. It spiked right up because they see this is a perfect deal. How about it? You mandate that everyone get insurance. And then you don't have any competition for the private insurance companies. That's nirvana for them and for the stockholders as well.
So we absolutely need to have some real competition in these uncompetitive markets. And I think a public option certainly is the way to go.
Think Progress' Igor Volsky took note of the insurance industry's enthusiasm for Baucus' proposal last week and added some additional context. "[S]ince the President signaled that he is backing away from the public option," he wrote, "health insurance stocks have been on the rise."
Progressives should do all they can to highlight the correlation between watered-down reforms and insurance industry enthusiasm.
As Schakowsky points out, there's plenty of room for optimism because Baucus' bill isn't the only proposal being entertained in the Senate. Back in July, the upper chamber's Health, Education, Labor and Pension (HELP) Committee's passed its own proposal. Now, both Senate proposals will have to be merged. Encouragingly, HELP committee chair Sen. Tom Harkin (D- IA) has declared that the final bill "is going to have a strong public option." Members of the House (including Schakowsky) are taking a similar stand on their so-called "tri-committee" bill. "Now we have to reconcile the differences," Schakowsky said of the looming compromise process, "and I think we will have a public option."
Comments
Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 09/21/2009 - 16:40
The Senate Finance Committee's health care reform bill is a train wreck. We should just expand Medicare to cover everyone, and be done with it. A single payer system is the only real solution, short of a British-style National Health Service for the US, and by expanding Medicare to cover everyone we can have a functional single payer system in place and working by sometime in 2010.
rxgary (not verified) on Mon, 09/21/2009 - 22:06
exactly right . single payer is the right option. it works the system is alrezady in place. medicare for everyone .
the constiitution requires taxes to be apportioned that means everyone shares equally . meaning veterans and seniors receive medicare then everyone should.
Paradigm (not verified) on Tue, 09/22/2009 - 07:44
..and where do you think the money is going to come from? Medicare is already broke. The last thing that worthless program needs is more people with their hands out.
None of the bills currently stinking up capitol hill include tort reform. Until the democrats introduce that, smart people will not take the democrats' proposals seriously.
Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 09/22/2009 - 14:01
Single payer is cheaper than the current (non) system. You pay for single payer by collecting, as taxes, two thirds of the money presently being paid for health insurance.
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