Health Insurance Public Option

The health insurance public option section of the health care bill was one of the more controversial issues. Some loved the idea of the government providing a low cost option for the public and others found it to be the biggest offense of a bill they didn’t back. The health insurance public option is nothing more than a governmentally operated insurance company. It would function much like Medicare and not have exclusion for pre-existing conditions.

Opponents of the health insurance option don’t want to see the government in competition with private enterprise. They believe that once the program began, it would eventually take business away from private insurance companies and cause these companies to fail. This would drive their clients to the public option and eventually, all insurance would be run by the government.

The unfair competition charge could be right on target. According to the head of the White House Office of Health Reform head, Nancy-Ann DeParle, a public option would be more cost effective. The administration cost of sales and commission paid to brokers would no longer exist. There also would be no necessity to make a profit. The payment rates could be similar to Medicare or similar to regular insurance. Of course, if your neighbor pays half the price you do for health care insurance and is on the public option, you’d probably think twice about renewing your health insurance with a private carrier.

Any one that listened to the ongoing debate knew that there was a great deal of opposition to the government health care plan. They also knew it had an equal number of avid proponents. There were two bills, the bill that originated in the House of Representatives that contained the health insurance public option and the bill from the Senate that didn’t.

The controversy in the House over the public option led it unsettled due to filibusters and the inability to get the required number of votes to pass as legislation. Scott Brown, the newly elected Republican that won the seat of the late Senator Edward Kennedy created a huge problem for the gathering of enough votes. The proponents of the bill decided to bypass the Constitutional rules, or at least use a loophole that allowed the proponents to use budget reconciliation procedures that bypassed filibusters and lowered the number of votes to 51 to get the measure passed.

President Obama, the original proponent and campaigner for the health insurance public option no longer supported that option because of much of the controversy. It was one of the items slowing Congress from passing of any type of reform. Ultimately, he dropped the support for the health insurance public option and felt it would be better tackled at a later date.

The Senate bill contained no health insurance public option and it was doubtful that there would be enough support to pass it. The Senate bill was used with a number of side compromises. In an effort to get a health care bill into place, the public option was removed from the bill and left to the wayside for another time.