The Public Option has come back from the dead so often, maybe someone should put a stake through its heart.

...really

Wow, this is a pretty good political cartoon. Obviously not good in what it represents but good in its message.

^2

Always found it funny how you had to bump your own posts.

I'll say it again, a public option (simply an option, without the phaseout clause) is nothing bad or new and already exists in other areas of the insurance industry - namely Work Comp coverage. Not only does competition exist in those areas from private entities, but now that they realize they can write policies they once thought would be too risky to write, they are expanding back into markets they abandoned and reducing the share of State-run insurance programs.

In other words, there' nothing wrong with a public option. A phaseout of private options is a bad thing, but the offering of a public option is not, in and of itself, a bad thing.

Pete Johnson?

Public option = more money out of my pocket to pay for someone else's insurance. 47 more policies are going to be paid for by either current insurance policy holders or taxpayers (they are probably the same people). We will pay more and get less than we currently get. There are no free lunches.

There are plenty of free lunches. I pay for highways in Idaho I will never drive on, bullets that will never be fired, subsidies for buildings I will never visit or enter, administrators and staff for programs I will never use, federal agents I will never need, wells I will never drink from, trains I will never ride, etc. etc.

Don't say there are no free lunches, it just isn't true.

And depending on how the public option is formed, it won't cost you much of anything. Just because you offer an alternative doesn't mean it has to be a free alternative - the programs currently used in WC insurance aren't free, you pay for their coverage just like with anyone else and their rates are competitive, but not always the best - especially for particular industries. A public option can simply be that - an optional, alternative plan offered by the government that may/may not be an attractive option for some people.

EXACTLY, here's a novel idea....why don't you earn that free lunch. Get off the government tit and actually try working. Quit complaining about how everything is not your fault and just man up and go to work.

^8

Who is "you?" I work plenty, am on-call almost 24/7, and pay for all of the above-listed free lunches for other folks. Only difference is you don't hear me whining about it as if having to shell out for others is something new or outrageous.

Public option = less health care for all.

^10

Yeah, MediCare and MediCaid sure reduced health care options for everyone . . .

State run comp insurance sure reduced health care options for everyone . . .

Ummmm . . . yeah . . . ah . . . yeah.

I've paid enough for health care, I don't need to pay for yours, or anyone else's for that matter.

^12

A public option doesn't necessarily require you to pay anything, some quasi-public agencies (which is what the public option insurers in comp are set up as) cover their costs simply through the insurance they sell.

In other words, you set up a public option that sells the same or similar insurance at a lower rate (because it is a non-profit). What is the harm in that? Or did you not consider that it was possible to have a public option that didn't cost the taxpayer a dime?