Health Reform Flavor of the Day: The Opt-Out Public Option

Published On: October 23rd, 2009

Health Reform A few weeks back, the WSJ’s Wash Wire predicted that the phrase “public option” — DC shorthand for a new, government-backed health-insurance plan — could come to mean any of several different things as the health care debate rolls on.

Here’s the version Democratic leaders in the Senate were kicking around today: Create a new health insurance plan backed by the federal government, but allow individual states to opt-out and not offer the plan.

This idea has surfaced before. And some key moderates — Democrat Ben Nelson, and Republican Olympia Snowe, two name two quoted today by Dow Jones Newswires — don’t like it. (Snowe has said she opposes creating a public option immediately, but supports creating a “trigger” that would launch a government-run plan if private insurers fail to meet certain benchmarks.)

If the Senate does include a public plan, the rates would likely be negotiated with doctors and hospitals. Over in the House today, the Washington Post notes, Democrats are moving toward a bill that would include a public option where the rates are tied to Medicare rates. Any differences between the bills — and it looks like there will be plenty — will have to be reconciled before a bill is sent to the president.

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Health Reform Flavor of the Day: The Opt-Out Public Option

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