Sebelius: Public Option Would Ensure Healthcare for All Americans

Other opponents of reform claim that competition in the exchange and a public health insurance option will lead to the demise of private health insurance as we know it. Ironically, this argument comes from the same defenders of the status quo who believe government can do no right. If the government plan does not offer a good product, people won't choose it.

This line of reasoning simply does not make sense, and it rings hollow because public health insurance options have been offered before, with great success. In several states, state employees can choose between a public health insurance option and private insurance companies. These public health insurance options negotiate their own provider networks and determine their own premiums. The side-by-side competition has not destroyed the private market, nor has it led to a single-payer system.

A health insurance exchange with a public option will use market strategies—competition rather than regulation—to cut costs, give more Americans more choices, and improve the quality of care we all receive. It's an important component that will help deliver the reforms we need.

We cannot afford to wait. The American people have struggled under the weight of high healthcare costs for too long. It is time for all of us—Democrats and Republicans, business and labor, doctors and patients—to work together to make reform a reality.

• What do you think? Is a public option a good idea for healthcare reform?
• Read the case against a public option, from Wyoming Sen. Mike Enzi, the ranking Repulbican on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

• Check out our political cartoons.
• Become a political insider: Subscribe to U.S. News Weekly, our new digital magazine.