Current Event #5

Washington Post- Saturday, October 24, 2009
Article- Prognosis improves for public insurance

Democratic leaders in the Senate and House have decide that the government-run insurance plan is the cheapest way to expand health coverage. The shift in momentum is so dramatic that many lawmakers believe that Obama will sign a final bill that includes some form of government-sponsored insurance through the work place. Even Democrats with strong beliefs about expanding government's role in the health-care system say they are reconsidering. They hope that the government should make low-cost plans widely available. Any public plan is likely to have easy and cheaper access to health coverage through an employer to those that are not able to access it. The public option would effectively be just another insurance plan which would be offered on the open market. It would probably be administered by a private insurance provider, charging premiums and copayments just like any other policy. Because a government-run plan would be dedicated to holding down costs and would lack a profit motive, analyist predict that it could reduce that cost of expanding coverage to people who don't have it by as much as $100 billion dollars over the next ten years. House leaders are planning to work to resolve as many individual concerns as possible, with the goal of producing a bill as soon as next week.

This plan seems to be a valid idea. This plan would just be administered by a private insurance which tries to offer other a cheap plan to those that don't have access to one. I hope that this can provide others with a plan which they can afford and able to achieve equal medical coverage. Its about time they came out with some form of health coverage but we will have to see whether it will work and be properly funded.

Editorial- James E. Clyburn (S.C.) said "the debate is no longer whether to include a public option but whether or not we will get this form of a public option or that form of public option"