Three Reasons for the Choice of a Public Health Insurance Plan

Sure, some people are satisfied with their current health insurance. But the millions of Americans who are tired of increasing costs and decreasing benefits should have the chance to opt into a program that will offer affordable, quality care, says Health Care for America Now's Richard Kirsch.

by Richard Kirsch, National Campaign Manager for Health Care for America Now!

As a candidate, President Obama promised Americans a choice. He promised that if you can keep your health insurance if you like it. Or choose a public health insurance option that would always be there if we needed it. Now that Congress is taking up health reform, they will have to make their own choice about whether to include this promise in their reform proposals.

What Congress decides will determine whether health care reform will make your life better. The public health insurance option is the key to making reform work for you for three reasons.

Choice

Currently, private health insurance companies enjoy monopoly power in most markets. That means that you (or your employer) likely only have one or two insurance plans to choose from. With so few choices, it's not surprising that many find their health insurance doesn't meet their needs, or are squeezed by rising costs without any other options. The insurance industry's monopoly is bad for your health and your wallet.

A public health insurance option will give everyone in America a true choice. If for whatever reason you become dissatisfied with your current insurance, you will be able to switch your coverage to the public health insurance plan, which will guarantee your premiums will be affordable and your benefits will meet your needs. Your bank account will be happy, and you'll have your health.

Putting you first

The mission of health insurance companies is a healthy bottom line, not your health. That’s why health insurers deny care to people with pre-existing conditions, charge more if you have any history of even minor health problems and deny and delay approving care.

The mission of a public health insurance company will be your health, not the financial health of stockholders. A public health insurance company won’t have multi-million dollar executives with corporate jets. It won’t have to please Wall Street financial analysts. It will have a mandate to provide health care, from preventive care through care for serious and chronic illnesses. And a public insurance plan will invest in health care in our communities.

Peace of mind

A public health insurance option will always be there when you need it. The public health insurance option is your guaranteed backup, a promise that you will always be able to get health insurance and care that meets your needs at a price you can afford to pay.

Will Congress follow through on President Obama's promise? Will Congress give us the choice we need, foster competition to make the entire health care system better and hold private industry accountable, and give us the peace of mind of a guaranteed backup? They will do it, but only with your strong support.

With your voice speaking out for a public health insurance option, we can make this kind of reform - real reform that makes our lives better - a reality this year.

Richard Kirsch is Health Care for America Now’s National Campaign Manager. He spent 22 years helping lead successful campaigns to establish programs that now provide affordable, comprehensive health coverage to more than 1 million working families in New York. Kirsch is an author of New York's Managed Care Bill of Rights legislation and is also the author of several studies on health care reform including the Managed Care Bill of Rights: A Health Care Policy Guide for Consumer Advocates; the financing of universal health care; health and health system global budgeting; and risk management. In June 1995, Kirsch received the New York Statewide Senior Action Council Human Services Advocacy Award for "his vision, boldness and relentless dedication in pursuit of health care for all," and Kirsch was honored by Families USA in January 2001 as National Health Care Consumer Advocate of the Year.

Posted on May 15, 2009.

Comments

Posted by Madeline on Friday, May 29 at 11:01 a.m.

Thank you Mr. Blumenauer for posting this infromation supporting the public health insurance option. I am behind you 100%.

-Madeline 97215
Posted by plmd on Sunday, May 31 at 03:00 p.m.

Has anyone seen a Veterans Hospital or is anyone familiar with Medicare or Medicaid. They are all broken and useless government systems that do not work. Medicare and Medicaid pays me so little money for my work that I will not be able to make a living if a "public" plan is my source of income. The quality of doctors will go down immediately.
Posted by TSS on Sunday, May 31 at 05:20 p.m.

In the past 30 yrs it has been the governments attitude that it should allow the private sector to provide heathcare services, this has lead to our current greedy healthcare/insurance monopoly situation. Once the goverment funds healthcare the two situations will entirely diffrent and can not be compared straight across, like apples and oranges. Furthermore, to say Dr.'s will be suddenly lower quality Dr.'s is rediculous, all medical schools educate their students in the best way they know how and will continue to do this in the future. The only change I can see here is that Dr.'s that wish to heal people will be attracted to the profession instead of Dr.'s that want to get rich. This will of course inprove healthcare aver all not hurt it. And finally, I work in healthcare and find that all of the individuals that I have worked with are compinsated extreemly well for the services they provide, especially when considering the short amount of time it takes for most of them to become educated. 2 yr degrees are bringing in $60,000.00/yr incomes in many cases. This not the case in other industries. A private heathcare system could pay at least as well when taking into consideration that the Corp. executive expenses like Jets will not be figured into the over all budget. -Who knows they may pay even better.
Posted by Jeff Zurschmeide on Wednesday, June 03 at 02:43 a.m.

Any congressman, senator, or state representative who wants to get my vote will be supporting a single-payer alternative. The current situation is ludicrous - our health insurance for a family of three is substantially more than our mortgage and car payments combined!

It's time to stop screwing around and offer a public alternative. Anyone who wants to keep subsidizing the lifestyles of insurance execs should be free to do so, but let's have a reasonable system for the rest of us.

We pay for police, fire, and military protection through our taxes and we receive good value that way. Why is health protection any different?
Posted by M Stone on Saturday, June 06 at 01:09 a.m.

I don't understand the "choice" option. There is NO WAY that private insurance companies want to compete with a single-payer universal health care plan (which is what is sounds like you are offering as the choice to private insurance) so if you espouse that "The mission of health insurance companies is a healthy bottom line, not your health. That’s why health insurers deny care to people with pre-existing conditions, charge more if you have any history of even minor health problems and deny and delay approving care." then who in their right mind would choose private insurance over public insurance? Why make it a choice??? Something doesn't sound right here. I want to see the details of this "public choice" plan. Something tells me that the devil is in the details!!!!

Until I see the details of this "choice" plan...I will stick with the expansion of "Medicare for all" like what Canada, France, England, etc. have!
Posted by Robert May on Friday, June 12 at 10:22 p.m.

The American people want and need a single-payer plan. If you used truth serum on the insurance companies and the pharmaceutical companies, they would agree that single-payer is better for the people. This already is demonstrated in White House documentation: http://www.whitehouse.gov/assets/documents/CEA_Health_Care_Report.pdf

So, what's the problem? There are only two (very big) challenges: (1) Industry lobby money against single-payer going directly into the pockets of our elected politicians, and (2) All the insurance company employees who would lose their jobs.

Winning the battle with lobby money will happen only after we have campaign finance reform. In the meantime, we must encourage everyone we know to call their Senators and Representatives to (politely) demand that single-payer be put on the table in all subsequent discussions.

To me, insurance company employees could be categorized as victims of "foreign competition," i.e., all the other countries that use single-payer, are cheaper and have much better outcomes. This would provide unemployment, retraining and job placement benefits for all the displaced workers. This isn't the best of all possible worlds but look at all the laid-off people who don't get retraining and job placement. And many of them couldn't afford health insurance in the first place!

The "government option" is a benefit, yes, but it doesn't go nearly far enough. If you look at the benefits government workers get, e.g., everyone covered, no rejection due to prior problems, etc., these are in the industry's current agreements (at least implied acceptance). The remaining problem, however, is that federal employees still must sign up with a for-profit insurance provider by state. There are multiple plans per state and the rates appear to be comparable to what businesses offer their employees. Since we still must work with for-profit insurance companies, we still lose.

Food for thought.
Posted by Dianne on Friday, July 31 at 12:10 p.m.

I wish I could vote for you. Unfortunately I live in Texas which is dominated by R's. Even though our dear govenor likes to brag about our economy here in Texas, we have the worst schools, and are at the bottom on health care. Keep up the good work!
Posted by Larry Farmen on Friday, July 31 at 08:03 p.m.

Access to comprehensive affordable healthcare is a basic human right,too long denied to the American public.It's time to join the rest of the civilized world and establish a national single payer healthcare system for all.
Posted by Roger Hardesty on Monday, August 17 at 10:20 p.m.

We need your help and diplomacy. As a constituent, I ask you to use all means at your disposal to bring Sen. Wyden into the fold. He looked like a Democrat when set beside Smith; now his Healthy Americans Act makes him an apologist for the insurance industry. Our president has called him out: what leadership can you demonstrate to our fellow Oregonian?