Is the Public Option the Key to Healthcare Reform?

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Sen. Mike Enzi debate healthcare reform in the latest U.S. News Weekly

By U.S. News Staff

July 2, 2009 RSS Feed Print

Backers of a public option for health insurance say it would help control costs and guarantee coverage for all. Opponents insist that a government-run plan would put private insurers out of business, leaving Americans with only one choice: socialized care. Can the public option work? What would work better? Post your thoughts, and don't forget to check out the debate in the latest U.S. News Weekly.

Previously: Is McCain Guilty Over Picking Palin?

Take our poll: Is the public option the key to healthcare reform?

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Mike Enzi,
Kathleen Sebelius

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If we had an alternative option of health care cooperatives that operated more like credit unions (i.e., for the benefit of the subscribers and not for the benefit of investors), that would help minimize the costs. If subscribers all voted on rule changes and rate changes, it would provide transparency and a sense of empowerment and personal responsibility to the subscribers. It might be possible for the government to offer subsidy packages to enable people with low incomes to subscribe. The transparency and responsibility involved in such a system would give everyone an appreciation for what health care really costs and it would make it obvious that we can't have everything we want. The subscribers would have to choose how much to charge themselves and what they were willing to cover. That would make everyone highly motivated to invest in prevention and it would make everyone eager to drive down the overhead. Without transparency and responsibility, we have a system where people think that they can demand more and more, pay less, and not make much effort to take better care of themselves.

Jay Turner of CA 7:57PM July 15, 2009

I don't want anything for "free", just something affordable. I lost my insurance several years ago ( my individual plan was cancelled after i used it) and have been in a nightmare ever since. The cheapest insurance I can get comes in over $800 a month. I am 59, in generally good health, working two jobs, and still can't afford to pay that. If Obama gets this through, and it is an affordable option for those of us without employer coverage, I will be first in line next election. HELP!!!!

Catherine Kane of KY 4:16PM July 15, 2009

Good Lord! I'm a lifelong Republican, yet I have favored not just a "Public Option", but full National Medicine, since living in Europe 40 years ago. We are the ONLY country in the civilized world WITHOUT National Health Care. It should be the first purpose of government, well above military and education. We are a primitive nation, living in the past, on this issue.

PUBLIC health would be far cheaper than the current "theft option". Middlemen steal 33% of what we "spend on health". Transaction costs in Europe are just 2%! Single payer, computerized health records, the 21st Century "option".

We cover everybody one way or the other. Now, they just go to the back door of the hospital. It would be cheaper to bring the uninsured in through the front door. My business clients would return to a competitive position in the international markets, and generate new profits, without being burdened by "health care benefits". Who thought this up anyway? Why would BUSINESS be responsible for health, not government? Why not the CHURCH? Why not FAMILY? What a goofy system we have, not logical, not even sane.

Force me to buy insurance? That sounds like a tax to me. Forced profits for a non-productive insurance industry.

While we are at it, simplifying medical, why don't we go to a value added tax system, like so many others?

Tom Bardeen of CA 11:37AM July 15, 2009

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