It’s looking grim for “the public option” in healthcare reform.
Maine Senator Olympia Snowe, is a key potential swing vote in the Senate on healthcare reform. Snowe today said there is “no way” a healthcare reform with a public option can pass out of the Senate:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= … Sy1YRWktbc
And yet some Democratic progressives appear determined to torpedo any reform without a public option:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/1 … 83756.html
Jane Hamsher’s Firedoglake.com blog has been at the forefront of the effort to shore up support for a “public option”:
http://campaignsilo.firedoglake.com/200 … s-buzzing/
The progressives have been fighting a valiant fight. But it’s not worth
circling the wagons and opening fire on this one. It’s time for progressives to start counting votes and living in the real world.
So it looks like we’ll see a plan emerge that encourages insurance “co-ops”. The details aren’t clear, and in any event the plan will be changing.
Will these work?
Michael Hitzlik of the Los Angeles Times penned an excellent reminder of the California experience with insurance exchanges. California tried them before, and they didn’t work, so there are many lessons here:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-h … ?track=rss
Stay tuned.
Julius Young
www.boxerlaw.com
Category: Political developments
510.835.8870