Public health care option is akin to the US postal service... you can either sign up for the public option for your healthcare or go with a private insurer - you can use the public option to send a letter or you can pay more and send it via Fed Ex etc. It's not perfect (what is?) but it's there and it's often the only thing a lot of folks can afford. And I'm guessing if you look at the books, it's a lot like Medicare when it comes to low overhead and administrative costs. Fed Ex can't say that - can they?
Going Postal: Reid's New Defense of Public Health Care
"I'm confident both private companies and the option of public plan can live in harmony," Reid said on the Senate floor this morning. "When you send a birthday present to a relative to -- say I want to send something to one of my children in Nevada, the products that I choose can be sent by FedEx, UPS, DHL, or the United States Postal Service. "
"The Postal Service may not be perfect, but the public option is there, and the private companies, FedEx, UPS, know they cannot rip you off or [be] slacking on their service," Reid said. "Just like our proposal for the health care system, you don't have to choose Postal Service. But it's good to know it's there and for some it is all they can afford. I hear from Nevadans asking for help people turned down for health coverage by insurance providers who -- health coverage by insurance providers who care more of profits."
As expected, the Republicans are pointing to Canada as a boogeyman and shout about wait-times etc. However, as Dennis Kucinich pointed out during yesterday's hearing, the average wait-time for elective surgery is 4 weeks, no one goes bankrupt due to medical bills, and nearly everyone's covered in Canada.
We should be so lucky here in the States.
The public option would create stiff competition for the insurance industry - an industry where they call the shots and decide what care is covered. They're playing God in deciding who lives and who dies based on profits and they've bought some of our senators with the profits they're making.
Those senators opposing a public option ought to be ashamed of themselves. The money in their campaign war chests was made by insurance companies who withheld treatment from people who needed care. There's no getting around it - that money has blood on it and anyone who takes it and then stands in the way of this reform effort needs to be called out for what they are. |
