President Barack Obama wants a public insurance plan to compete with private carriers. Democrats in the House of Representatives want a government-run plan. Apparently so do a majority of Democrats in the Senate. However, as of now there’s enough Democrats in the Senate opposed to the idea to keep the support below the 60 votes needed to pass health care reform legislation. A compromise being considered in the Senate, however, could change the math, creating the potential government health plans will be part of the health care reform package ultimately enacted by lawmakers.

Advocates for public plans were set back when the Senate Finance Committee defeated amendments to add a government medical plan to the health care reform bill its writing. But liberals immediately pledged to keep pushing for the public option and many claim a public option is critical to meaningful reform. Whether progressives would defeat health care reform which doesn’t include a public health insurance plan is uncertain, but it is possible.

Enter Senator Tom Carper from Delaware. Senator Carper is a thoughtful moderate who voted against one of the public option amendments in the Senate Finance Committee, but voted for another. He is floating a compromise that not only may appeal to liberals, but to moderate Democrats and, conceivably, to Republican Senator Olympia Snowe, the only member of her party considered likely to support a Democratic version of health care reform.

Politico.com reports that Senator Carper proposal would give “states the option of creating a competitor to private insurers, (these competitors could be) a government plan, a network of co-ops, or a large purchasing pool modeled after the revered Federal Employees health Benefits Plan.” Unlike a compromise suggested by Senator Snowe which would create a national government-run plan only if private carriers failed to offer affordable coverage to at least 95 percent of the population, Senator Carper’s plan envision only state (and, perhaps, regional) public plans and permits states to move forward if, according to another Politico.com posting, “if affordable insurance is not widely available or the insurance market is dominated by only one or two players.” (It should be noted Senator Snowe has not sought a vote on her idea by the Senate Finance Committee)

Brian Beutler, writing on the Talking Points Memo blog, predicts Senator Carper’s idea may fail to gain support from either liberals and conservatives. He writes, “Liberal critics will charge that, while the plan doesn’t involve triggers, it does lack the heft that a plan organized at the national level would have to bargain down prices with providers” while conservatives will reject it as the first step toward a single payer system. “

Mr. Beutler may be right, but I think a compromise along the lines of Senator Carper’s proposal will gain traction. According to a second Politico.com posting, lawmakers, both public option supporters and opponents, are speaking positively about Senator Carper’s compromise.

The political reality is that there probably will not be enough votes to pass the “pure” public option desired by liberals. So they will face a choice: no government-run plan at all, a host of state-run insurance plans, or no health care reform. To reject health care reform because the public plans competing with private carriers are not controlled by the federal government is a political argument few liberals will want to make.

At the same time moderate Democrats may see the compromise as a way to push the entire public plan controversy to the states. This would allow them to escape the intense pressure they are under from party activists (and, perhaps soon, the White House) without personally voting for a government-run plan. State’s rights are usually championed by moderates and conservatives. It is certainly reasonable for a lawmaker to conclude that the public option is an appropriate decision for states and not the federal government. It is interesting to note that one of the three Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee to vote against both attempts to add a public option, Senator Kent Conrad described Senator Carper’s plan as a “very constructive option,” according to Politico.

What the effort to construct a workable public health insurance option overlooks is that it is virtually impossible to create a government-run plan that will both lower medical costs and compete fairly with the private marketplace. A public plan can lower health care spending only by imposing (not negotiating) low reimbursement rates on doctors and hospitals, most likely by tying them to other government programs such as Medicare. (It is important to note that Medicare often pays providers less than their actual costs). But imposing rates, something only monopolies and governments can do, is unfair competition (which is why we have laws against monopolies). But a public plan that merely negotiates rates with doctors and hospitals like any other health plan does is unlikely to be effective in reducing costs.

I’ve long predicted the health care reform legislation eventually enacted this year will not include a government-run health plan. Now, however, I have to recognize the possibility that a compromise along the lines of those proposed by Senator Carper or Senator Snowe might make it into the final package. It’s far from certain, but it is a possibility.

Similar Posts:

  • Share/Bookmark