Petition for Public Option


See marym's comment immediately below the essay before choosing whether to sign.

SIGN THE PETITION: Make the Public Option a Priority in the Next Congress

After trying to blackmail the government into approving a big corporate merger they wanted, Aetna pulled out of almost all of the Obamacare exchanges. Millions of Americans now only have one provider to choose from -- and a county in Arizona has none!
We need a public option through Medicare to provide real choice to consumers, and competition to the private insurance companies.

Sign the petition on this page to members of Congress and congressional candidates:


We want a public option! Members of Congress and candidates should embrace it in 2016 so we have momentum and can pass it under the next president.

You may want to un-check the box which will get you updates from TOP.

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Comments

From PNHP:

A public option would not have worked before andr will not work now by virtue of being too small and administratively more complex. It would be subject to adverse selection of sicker enrollees as private insurers continue to game the system in their own self-interest. Most of the not-for-profit co-ops started under the ACA have already died for these reasons. It is just a make-believe idea to think that a public option could increase competition today now that the industry has grown and consolidated to a point that just four or five insurers control most of the market. The insurance industry and its lobbyists would also kill early buy-in to Medicare without any trouble. Any thought that either a public option or early Medicare buy-in could be a transitional step toward single-payer is likewise out of the question.

Also from PNHP (PDF) The “Public Plan Option”: Myths and facts

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MsGrin's picture

but of course it is. I'll leave this up so folks can see your post.

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'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member

Unabashed Liberal's picture

a bit leery that this is mostly another Dem Party GOTV gimmick, since they waited until FSC is sinking in the polls, to bother with this petition drive.

As I've posted in the past, many health care experts are expecting (based on WJC's past proposal of a Medicare Buy-In) that FSC's proposal, if there actually is one, will be for unsubsidized premiums, only.

IIRC, CBO's most recent estimate for the unsubsidized premium was in the range of $630-650 per beneficiary. Not exactly a 'deal' (IMO).

Thanks for giving me another opportunity to gripe about the so-called Medicare Buy-In, MsGrin!

Wink

Mollie


“I believe in the redemptive powers of a dog’s love. It is in recognition of each dog’s potential to lift the human spirit, and, therefore, to change society for the better, that I fight to make sure every street dog has its day.”
--Stasha Wong, Secretary, Save Our Street Dogs (SOSD)

National Mill Dog Rescue (NMDR) - Dogs Available For Adoption

Update: Misty May has been adopted. Yeah!

Misty May - NMDR

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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

... because it keeps the issue on the front burner. I've already accepted the fact that there will be many steps/missteps before we get to single payer.

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Get rid of for profit insurance altogether. Create three times as many openings in Med schools nationwide, reduce tuition fees for students across the board, free for financially limited students.

I am fortunate to be reasonably healthy, though one heart incident cost me, and my insurance company around $25k to find out nothing can be done. Most of the cost was to keep me in the hospital waiting for a heart catheter for 3 days to see what life has done to my heart. I, for one, am tired of being a hostage to impending financial disaster at the hands of the nouveaux riche that makeup the medical industry. Why to hell should a colonoscopy; a test required by most insurance companies cost $5000, and takes an hour in some outpatient clinic owned by the practitioners? Because the insurance companies will pay for it...well the part that exceeds your deductible. And... used to be if you were free of polyps, etc., you could wait 10 years to be violated again... now they say 5...Just two examples of runaway extortion by the insurance, drug companies, hospital corps, med schools, etc.. When every town of any size had a small local hospital, medical costs were reasonable. Now we have bankruptcy galore from boutique healthcare brought to you by Corporate America, by people trained at corporatized universities.

Fuck the million dollar cap, and liens on my house... I'll take a big vial of morphine please...far cheaper, and far more humane than being kept alive to assure some oncologist can make his yacht payment, and condo fees in the Cayman Islands

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riverlover's picture

For most just a minus line off SS monthly deposit. It is now over $100/ month, projected to rise with "medical inflation" to near $200/ month. Off a Social Security check not going up.

I currently pay $89.90/month to UHC through NY State retirees. I get Social Security as a surviving spouse of a relatively high wage-earner. I shudder to have to flip into Medicare in two years.

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

MsGrin's picture

So, I guess they are doing some part of it right.

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'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member

unless you're poor enough. If you are below a certain income level, the part of Medicare that SocSec doesn't pay (I think it's Part D) gets covered by Medicaid (through your state). I don't know what the income cut-off level is.

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MsGrin's picture

and end up with pretty good coverage... but I think the income levels for that are quite low.

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'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member

Unabashed Liberal's picture

the FPL, up to a certain income level, can get Medicare Premium assistance, and assistance with Part D (RX).

But, folks should beware--as I mentioned the other day, GWB lifted WJC's dictate that these premiums be recouped through the MERP--meaning, that he allowed states to decide whether they would lien a beneficiary's property, who had this premium assistance.

And, read recently that PBO was going to 'standardize' this rule.

My expectation is that he'll go back to WJC's punitive rules, mandating that state Medicaid programs recoup this premium assistance. (But, I don't know that--it didn't indicate what he had in mind.)

Several years ago, I ran across this checking out something else, and passed along the info to an associate. He had been devastated financially, due to health problems and a divorce, although he was highly educated. He applied, and qualified for one of the programs. Luckily, he was in a state that did not put a lien on property to recoup the premium assistance. When he passed away, his adult daughter was able to inherit his home--as it should be (IMO).

Anyhoo, I have no idea of all the details, but I would suggest that anyone looking into this program, exercise a good deal of caution (unless you want to forfeit your home).

OTOH, if PBO doesn't wreck the program when he 'standardizes' it, for those in states who 'choose to waive recovery,' it could obviously be a great help to a beneficiary's financial bottom line.

Mollie


“I believe in the redemptive powers of a dog’s love. It is in recognition of each dog’s potential to lift the human spirit, and, therefore, to change society for the better, that I fight to make sure every street dog has its day.”
--Stasha Wong, Secretary, Save Our Street Dogs (SOSD)

National Mill Dog Rescue (NMDR) - Dogs Available For Adoption

Update: Misty May has been adopted. Yeah!

Misty May - NMDR

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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

thanatokephaloides's picture

...... is that we must transition directly to single public payer, no opt-out, financed by mandatory taxation, now. (You know, like civilized countries have.) Limited Medicare and profit private "insurance" have reached the point where they cannot render healthcare any longer. The insurance industry has all but admitted it: they can't afford to supply coverage any more, but insist on maintaining their monopoly on selling it.

It's time (and then some) to disempower and kill off this particular sub-species of vampire squid.

Diablo

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

I recall Hillary attempting to present her abomination to the Congress. I couldn't believe that she could do so with a straight face! It was so utterly complicated that there was no chance of passage - and I wanted a good plan so it could.

Unless Dr. Stein wins, anyone else in the Oval Office will preside over the demise of the only good thing Obama accomplished, poorly planned and executed as it proved to be. This will hasten the collapse of the American Medical Industry, for with wages under attack and benefits being eliminated, medical doctors will find themselves in the same straits as dentists [Scroll down under ad for article].

We laughed hard and long when Sue Lowden declared "in the olden days, our grandparents, they would bring a chicken to the doctor...". Physicians' Practice, a webzine for doctors, didn't think this such a great idea in 2010:

Even if a patient needed a nonemergent procedure, it would be difficult for the patient and his or her doctor to agree on the value of goods or services to be provided in lieu of financial payments. Would a physician say, “I’m sorry, but the car repair you’re offering me just isn’t enough to cover your back operation, so you’ll have to go elsewhere?” What if the physician accepted the car repair in lieu of payment, but the patient was not a good mechanic and did a lousy job?

What if, indeed!

The only realistic forecast for most people is Alan Grayson's observation regarding the medical insurance industry's view on those needing health coverage:

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Vowing To Oppose Everything Trump Attempts.

divineorder's picture

comment! Hope all will consider getting behind #HR676

http://www.pnhp.org/news/2015/february/doctors-group-hails-reintroductio...
SNIP
Zarr, a Washington, D.C.-based pediatrician, continued: “An expanded and improved Medicare-for-All program would assure truly universal coverage, cover all necessary services, and knock down the growing financial barriers to care – high premiums, co-pays, deductibles and coinsurance – that our nation’s patients and their families are increasingly running up against, often with calamitous results.

“Such a plan would save over $400 billion a year currently wasted on private-insurance-related bureaucracy, paperwork and marketing. That’s enough money to provide first-dollar coverage for everyone in the country – without increasing U.S. health spending by a single penny.

“Such a program would also have the financial clout to negotiate with drug and medical equipment suppliers for lower prices, and would further save money through lump-sum budgeting for hospitals.

“In short,” Zarr said, “the enactment of Rep. Conyers’ bill would take us much further down the road to a humane, just and sustainable health care system than the 2010 health law, which, despite its modest benefits, will not be able to control costs and will still leave 31 million people uninsured in 2024, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Millions more will be inadequately insured, with skimpy coverage.”

Zarr pointed out that the Census Bureau reports there were 5.9 million uninsured children in 2013.

“Surveys have repeatedly shown that about two-thirds of the public supports a Medicare-for-all approach,” he said, “and recent surveys show physician support is also strong and growing. Hundreds of labor, civic and faith-based organizations have endorsed this model of deep-going reform.

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

MsGrin's picture

2005 maybe? Earlier?

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'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member

MsGrin's picture

I attended several mtgs for a CA single payer program ahead of 676, couldn't quite remember when all that was.

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'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member