Public Favors Public Option

The thing about the public option is that the public really wants it.

The latest Washington Post/ABC poll shows 57 percent of the American public in favor of a public option, with the numbers going up.

And the latest NYT/CBS poll shows 65 percent of the American public in favor of Medicare for all who want it.

But this isn’t in the Baucus bill.

What’s in the Baucus bill is no public option at all. On top of that, the bill includes a tax on the best health care plans that insurance companies offer. In fact, that’s the major way the Baucus bill is able to save money: by gouging those plans, many of them hard won at the bargaining table.

The Congressional Budget Office analysis shows that this tax would save $215 billion in the next ten years, compared with $1.1 billion saved by getting rid of “fraud, waste, and abuse,” something Obama has made a big deal about.

The Washington Post/ABC poll shows that 61 percent of the American public opposes taxing these high-benefit insurance plans, as well they should. If your union has fought long and hard for this benefit, why should the government impose a tax on the policy, which is likely to make the insurance company not offer it any more? This is a backdoor assault on unions, and union benefits.

So why is this idea going forward, with a wink from Obama, while the public option is being constantly downplayed by the Obama Administration?

Obama needs to stop acting like the Baucus bill is acceptable.

It is not.

The American public, loud and clear, is demanding a public option. And we deserve one, especially a robust one that lets any of us join Medicare.

Another interesting fact about the Washington Post/ABC poll is that it shows almost 50 percent of the public is even willing to pay more in taxes for the public option, if that’s what it’s going to take.

But Obama himself ruled this out when he foolishly said that the health care reform had to be budget neutral. He never says that about the war in Iraq or the war in Afghanistan, or the outrageous bailout of the banks.

Health care is a human right and a common good. Private insurance is neither.

So Obama should get foursquare behind the public option, which is the only possible way to keep the insurance companies honest.

Nothing less than a robust public option can be called health care reform.