The Public Option

There are reports that as of the time I write this commentary the White House is ready to abandon the idea of a public option by which the public could buy health insurance from the government at prices competitive with those of private insurance companies. Apparently, the public option is a deal breaker with many of those Blue Dog Democrats who have taken so much money from the health insurance industry. Senator Kent Conrad says that there are not enough votes in Congress to pass health care with the public option.

Now is the time for the President and the Democrats in Congress to stand-up to the insurance companies and their congressional lackeys, the Republicans, and forge ahead with plans for a public option. If there are not enough votes to pass it, so be it, but don’t surrender before the battle begins. The public option is crucial to hopes of providing health insurance to the 47 million uninsured people in America.

One mindless remark frequently repeated by opponents of health care reform is that we do not want government running our health care because government makes a mess of everything it touches. The statement is simply not true. One need only look at Medicare, TRICARE, and The Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP). Far from being poorly run, these governmental health programs are models of efficiency and provide excellent health service to millions of Americans. As a Medicare beneficiary I can testify to the excellence of this program. The truth is that for-profit insurance companies, because of their high administrative costs and their mission to make a profit, are the inefficient providers.

Medicare spends only 3 percent of its budget on administrative costs compared with up to 25 percent spent by private health insurers. The only reason Medicare is running low on money is that doctors and hospitals have for many years been gaming the system by making enormously wasteful charges for unnecessary tests, procedures, and even surgeries (I will cover that problem in a separate column).

At one raucous town hall meeting, a protestor got up and asked the crowd: “how many people are against having the federal government run their health care?” Most of the people raised their hands. The Congressman then asked: “How many people here are on Medicare?” Most of the same people raised their hands. Somehow, these people did not realize that Medicare is a federal government health care program. In one forum a woman said to President Obama: “I don’t want the government interfering with my Medicare.” Millions of obtuse people do not realize that the government runs Medicare, and does it quite well.

Another governmental health care program is TRICARE, the program that covers all military service personnel and veterans. TRICARE is a vitally important part of the national healthcare infrastructure. TRICARE provides world class health care to over 9.4 million beneficiaries who currently serve or have served this nation. In 2008, TRICARE was rated the best health care insurer in the nation according to the Wilson Health Information survey of customer satisfaction.

The Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP), which currently covers 8 million active and retired federal employees and their dependents, is the nation’s largest employer-sponsored health insurance plan. The program is routinely held up as a model for national health care reform.

The enormously profitable, wasteful, inefficient, deceitful health insurance industry wants people to think that enactment of a public option would mean a complete governmental take-over of health care in America. It would mean no such thing. It would just be another health insurance option. People would be able to keep their previous health insurance, private doctors, and private hospitals. Nothing would change except that there would be one more highly attractive alternative for health insurance.