So whether or not there will be a public option in the end will likely come down to Baucus, one of the biggest whores for insurance-company money in the history of the United States. The early indications are, not surprisingly, that there is no public option in the Baucus version; the chairman hinted he favors the creation of nonprofit insurance cooperatives, a lame-ass alternative that even a total hack like Sen. Chuck Schumer has called a "fig leaf." (A more accurate term would be ??sham. ? )
This setup senselessly submarines the committee's Democratic majority, effectively preventing members who advocate a public option, like Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia and Robert Menendez of New Jersey, from seriously influencing the bill. Getting movement on a public option ?? or any other meaningful reform ?? will now require the support of one of the three Republicans in the group: Grassley (who has received $2,034,000 from the health sector), Snowe ($756,000) or Enzi ($627,000).
STEP ONE: AIM LOW
Heading into the health care debate, there was only ever one genuinely ??dangerous' idea out there, and that was a single-payer system. Used by every single developed country outside the United States (with the partial exceptions of Holland and Switzerland, which offer limited and highly regulated private-insurance options), single-payer allows doctors and hospitals to bill and be reimbursed by a single government entity. In America, the system would eliminate private insurance, while allowing doctors to continue operating privately.
In the real world, nothing except a single-payer system makes any sense. There are currently more than 1,300 private insurers in this country, forcing doctors to fill out different forms and follow different reimbursement procedures for each and every one. This drowns medical facilities in idiotic paperwork and jacks up prices: Nearly a third of all health care costs in America are associated with wasteful administration. Fully $350 billion a year could be saved on paperwork alone if the U.S. went to a single-payer system ?? more than enough to pay for the whole thing, if anyone had the courage to stand up and say so.
Even that corporate whore, Max Baucus once conceded the logic of single-payer, but wrote it off by saying that it is not feasible politically. (Translation: ??I've received way too much money from the health care industry to let single-payer be considered. ? ) "There may come a time when we can push for single-payer," he said in February. "At this time, it's not going to get to first base in Congress."
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