On the Public Option, Consider the "Trigger" Pulled

On the Public Option, Consider the "Trigger" Pulled

Posted by Allison Kilkenny, True/Slant at 3:33 PM on September 8, 2009.

Serious reform doesn’t mean capitulating to the private healthcare industry, and then Obama calling it “the public option.”

Compromising on “triggers,” a poor euphemism meaning no public option, will certainly result in as Pascrell states, “a bill.” But isn’t it still important to ask what quality of bill we’re talking about here?

Politicians have danced around the issue of the public option for so long that many Americans are confused about what it means. A public option, according to Howard Dean, is a system that expands Medicare benefits to individuals under 65 years of age. Quite simply: It’s an expansion of an enormously popular program. That proposal — the public option — is what Progressives want.

In advance of his address to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday, President Barack Obama called the leading House liberals, according to Roll Call. Leaders of the Progressive Caucus, the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus all reiterated their support for a strong public insurance option, said Progressive Caucus Co-Chairwoman Lynn Woolsey.

“It sounded like he was trying to figure out how he could get something he could call a public option, regardless of what it is,” one staffer familiar with the call said.

Therein lies the problem. Serious reform doesn’t mean capitulating to the private healthcare industry, mandating private coverage, failing to control costs, the government subsidizing private insurance industry, and then Obama calling it “the public option.” A real public option controls costs, expands coverage, and regulates the insurance industry.

Tagged as: health, obama, health reform, public option, trigger, triggers

Allison Kilkenny co-hosts Citizen Radio, the alternative political radio show. G. Gordon Liddy once told her her writing makes him want to vomit, which is the greatest compliment she's ever been paid, ever.