Public Insurance Plan Remains an Option in Health Reform

Negative Senate Finance Committee vote is only temporary set-back

Published: October 1, 2009

(Harrisburg) Support for a public insurance plan is growing, notwithstanding votes September 29 in the U.S. Senate Finance Committee not to include such an option in a comprehensive reform bill.
Members of the Pennsylvania Health Access Network (PHAN) see yesterday’s Finance Committee vote as a fully expected step in the process. The Senate HELP committee bill, adopted in July includes a public option, as does the House bill. Votes on those measures lie ahead, and those votes are more likely to reflect strong support for a public plan registered by physicians as well as the general public.
“The debate is far from over,” said Berry Friesen. “We fully expect the final compromise bill will include a public option.”
What accounts for the growing public support for a government-offered health plan? Several factors:

Along with an individual mandate, insurance companies will receive millions of new customers whose purchases of coverage are subsidized by billions of public dollars. The public wants some checks and balances to accompany those subsidies and sees competition from a public plan as performing that function.

The public has become more aware that high insurance company profits and administrative costs are contributing to the rapid rise in health care costs. The prospect of a coverage option whose price does not include private profit and high administrative costs is very attractive.

Talk of a “government take-over of health care” has waned as people have learned that even the most aggressive public insurance option – the one contained in HR 3200, which is awaiting action in the U.S. House – is only expected to enroll 3-4 percent of the American public.

“Earlier in September, the editorial board of my local newspaper in conservative Lancaster County endorsed the public insurance option,” said Berry Friesen, PHAN’s public affairs manager. “The rationale was entirely pragmatic: the need to bring health care costs under control.”
PHAN is a coalition of 50 groups working to improve access to quality health care through the expansion of affordable health insurance. See http://www.pahealthaccess.org/phan-members.