First thoughts: Public option or bust, From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Domenico Montanaro, and Ali Weinberg
For the past several weeks, we've wondered whether progressives were crazy for turning the public option into the Holy Grail of the health-care debate. After all, neither Obama nor the other Democrats running for president ever made it a central part of their health-care pitches during the campaign.
The Obama plan also addresses the large gaps in coverage that leave 47 million Americans uninsured. Specifically, the Obama plan will: (1) establish a new public insurance program, available to Americans who neither qualify for Medicaid or SCHIP nor have access to insurance through their employers,
...(1) OBAMA'S PLAN TO COVER THE UNINSURED. Obama will make available a new national health care plan which will give individuals the choice to buy affordable health coverage that is similar to the plan available to federal employees. The new public plan will be open to individuals without access to group coverage through their workplace or current public programs. It will also be available to people who are self-employed and small businesses that want to offer insurance to their employees.
For individuals and families who are not covered by employers or whose employer-based coverage is inadequate, Clinton would offer expanded versions of two existing government programs: Medicare, and the health insurance plan currently offered to federal employees. Consumers could choose between either government-run program, but aides stress that no new federal bureaucracy would be created under the Clinton plan.
If you like your current health care plan, you can keep that coverage. Individuals, families and small businesses can choose to purchase the same coverage that members of Congress enjoy.
My plan creates a health insurance marketplace based on, and parallel to, the Federal Employees Health Benefit Plan (FEHB) so that every American has access to the same health insurance as their Congressperson. Every employer and individual will be given the chance to go to the marketplace to purchase high quality health care or if they wish, keep their existing insurance.
And then there's Kucinich and Gravel, who ran on single payer.
