It's baaaack.
The government-run public option, which seemed all but
dead just a few weeks ago, much to the joy of health insurers
such as
UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH),
Coventry Health Care (NYSE: CVH), and
WellPoint (NYSE: WLP), is looking as though
it might make a comeback.
Sort of.
Yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the bill
that comes to the floor will contain a public option that
individual states can opt out of.
It's a public option; no, it's a
government-runplan
While finances and politics often go hand in hand,
Fools try out best to keep our political leanings out of the
articles we write. Except when limited by space, I'll try to
refer to it as a government-run public option to keep
everyone happy.
Naturally, the lawmakers in Washington are a little more
partisan. You'll hear the Democrats call it a public option
and the Republicans call it a government-run plan. You can
tell by the subliminal message in the labels who's for the
public option and who's against the government-run plan.
By giving states the right to opt out, there's potential
to make enough people happy to get a bill passed. Red states
that want to keep the government from encroaching further
into health care could opt out of the plan while still giving
blue states the option of giving the evil insurance companies
some much-needed competition.
If I sound a little snarky, that's because I am. I don't
care if there is or isn't a government-run public option in
the final bill. I doubt it'll make much of a difference to
the cost of health care one way or the other. What's
important is that we get a reform bill passed that lowers
health-care costs so we can all get back to
making money. We should know fairly soon how well the
merged bill from the Senate Finance Committee and the
Senate's health and labor committee does at lowering costs;
Reid has already sent it off to the Congressional Budget
Office.
The backup-backup plan
If the Senate leadership can't get enough support for
an opt-out plan, the backup plan seems to be a trigger that
would cause a public plan to be set up in states where
insurers weren't able to expand coverage quickly enough.
That might be palatable enough to bring in some people
opposed to the government-sponsored public option, but it
could also upset some lawmakers who feel strongly that a
public plan is a necessity.
How bad would it hurt insurers?
It's hard to tell; there are still lots of details to
be worked out: How do states opt out? Governor? Legislature?
Special referendum? Can states opt back in? One report said
that the public plan might be structured so that states had
to be in the program for two years before they could opt
out. Continued... |