Well, it seems like the public option, a long coveted provision by liberal Democrats on health care is making a comeback. President Obama announced that he would like to see a government-run option to compete with private insurance, which represents another step towards socialized medicine (via The Hill):
“Public programs like Medicare often deliver care more cost-effectively by curtailing administrative overhead and securing better prices from providers,” Obama writes in the Journal of the American Medical Association.“The public plan did not make it into the final legislation. Now, based on experience with the ACA, I think Congress should revisit a public plan to compete alongside private insurers in areas of the country where competition is limited,” writes the president.
The new embrace from the president also comes amid what appears to be a concerted push by the Democratic Party to rally around the public option.
It’s a shift that reflects how the party has tilted leftward during the Obama years.
The public option was included in the original Obamacare package when the legislation was being debated in 2009-10. The proposal met some opposition with Democrats, like then-Sen. Max Baucus, who killed the provision in the Senate bill. At the time, Baucus voiced his concern that the provision would be an obstacle to mustering 60 votes in the Senate for passage, and that it would block more reform on health care down the road.
So far, the Obamacare exchanges have wasted billions in taxpayer dollars, with the co-ops also being a total disaster. Some of the largest health care providers are pulling out of individual markets due to accruing enormous losses, premiums are expected to spike by double-digits. Premiums for low-cost Obamacare plans are expected to spike next year as well. It was pitched to us based on lies, which is probably why the president’s former speechwriters can share a laugh about the “you can keep it” broken promise. In all, the enrollment projections for 2016 were off…by 24 million. The law is a nightmare, but it gives Democrats a foundation to expand government power regarding health care policy. The silver lining is that this isn’t going anywhere as long as Republicans control Congress.