Wyden: Republicans Will Never Support A Public Health Option
Wyden: Republicans Will Never Support A Public Health Option
The POLITICO reports that Republicans are turning their backs on Obama’s public health plan proposal:
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who has filed the only health care reform bill with Republican cosponsors, said he spoke with 85 senators as he developed his proposal over the last few years—and found no GOP support for a plan that included a government option. “From a raw political standpoint, having talked to a lot of senators, I wouldn’t have any Republicans on the Healthy Americans Act as cosponsors if we had a public option,” Wyden told POLITICO this week.
Gloomy news, but certainly not a death sentence. Part of the problem is that nobody has spent much time sketching out the details for how to foster fair private/public competition. Republicans have hijacked the concept and confused it with socialist medicine, and progressives are only now starting to push back against their rhetoric.
For instance, the New America Foundation’s Elizabeth Carpenter explained to me that Len Nichol’s recent ‘A Modest Proposal For A Competing Public Health Plan‘ “was really designed to turn the debate from “the public plan is socialism” to a more substantive conversation about how to design the public plan.” Other papers are also in the pipeline. (Next Monday, CAPAF will release a new paper by Peter Harbage titled, Public Plan Choice.)
It’s also worth noting that while Republicans have already slammed the book on the public option, the public supports the idea. A new poll released today by Lake Research found that a whopping 73% of voters “want everyone to have a choice of private health insurance or a public health insurance plan while only 15% want everyone to have private insurance.”
5 Responses to “Wyden: Republicans Will Never Support A Public Health Option”
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Texas Republicans removed primary care as an essential public health function a decade ago. That’s a clue, Repugnicants won’t do anything to improve access to care for 50 million uninsureds, without enriching the private health care sector.
Wyden should be talking about “moderate” Democrats, House Blue Dogs & Senate Corporacrats. They’ll determine the success or failure of health reform, not irrelevant Repugs.
However, this is the same Ron Wyden trying to dump health insurance costs onto the employer. He’s a member of the Gang of Ten. Remember the gang when private health care comes out on top and the U.S. Chamber plan makes retirement and health care an “individual responsibility”. Corporations are tired of doing their part, even though it’s less and less each year.
March 23rd, 2009 at 11:08 pmCongress and the Bush White House had a long track record of ignoring public will:
80% of Americans want the government or their employer to cover more of their health care costs.
Ignoring the 73% who want a choice of public or private plans should be a piece of cake.
March 23rd, 2009 at 11:11 pmNow’s the time to ask them if their opposition to public health programs includes Medicare or Medicaid.
March 23rd, 2009 at 11:19 pmPost #1 has a mistake. Wyden tried to dump health insurance costs on the employee, not the employer.
March 24th, 2009 at 9:45 amThe Republicans never will support a government national health care policy. They want to keep things exactly as they are, with no direct government involvement beyond Medicare or Medicaid. The GOP cares far more for the health of the insurance industry and pharmaceutical companies than they do for the health of the American citizen. They are a severly misguided group and will lie and pull out all the stops to defeat a government-sponsored universal plan. That is why we are already hearing ridiculously inaccurate and dishonest cries of “socialized medicine.” If the Democrats can pick up 2 or 3 more Senate seats in 2010, it won’t matter: The Republicans will be deservedly steamrolled. But until then, just wait, folks. You ain’t heard nuthin’ yet!
March 24th, 2009 at 10:21 am