The Public Option

I am sorry I just pasted this video. I forget that not everyone knows about this healthcare business. Everything is up in the air because the bill is in the Senate.

The public option is represented by the young, energetic track star. The out of conditioned suits are the insurance providers of today. They may have to get a little competitive; thus, the video.

Public Option - What it is right now

For those who do not have insurance provided by an employer, or for small businesses who want to buy a plan at an affordable rate, the bills would create a Health Exchange – a one-stop shopping market for health care. Any private insurance company could offer a plan in the Exchange, but they’d have to adhere to certain standards:

• minimum set of benefits for all plans, no one could be turned down on the basis of pre-existing conditions.
• guaranteed renewal of policies (no dumping a customer because they got sick.)
• no different price because of gender, health status or type of employment.
• different rate for age, but it would be more restricted than the premium rates today.
• If you couldn’t afford the full premium and you made less than 400% of the federal poverty line (about $43,000 for an individual or $88,000 for a family of 4), you’d get a subsidy so your premium would be pegged to a fixed percentage of your income.
• Everyone would have a cap on out-of-pocket expenses.
• All of the information would be transparent -- you would be able to compare standard benefits across companies to find the one that works for you.

I guess you can see the the Public Option would be a very good thing for us, but insurance companies and their paid lobbyists are busy on Capital Hill trying to keep the status quo.

For more information, please read Healthy Competition : How to Structure Public Health Insurance Plan Choice to Ensure Risk-Sharing, Cost Control, and Quality Improvement by Jacob Hacker, Institute for America’s Future and The Center on Health, Economic and Family Security; University of California, Berkeley

Tags: public option, psa, heather graham, moveon org, insurance reform