Robert Reich, writing on Salon dot com a couple of weeks ago, claimed that Obama had struck a deal with health insurance and pharmaceutical firms in January: no public option in exchange for their support. Now, I can't verify that in any way, although I would say that the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries have not made much fuss until now. I will also say that the Obama administration has been, until recently, a bit vague about the absolute need for a public option. Now Obama seems to want something in the Senate bill, a public option or at least a trigger or state by state public option. And the insurance companies are responding.
Interestingly, Karen Ignangi of the insurance association was on the PBS News Hour yesterday complaining about how the penalties for not getting health insurance are not high enough, and young healthy people will not buy health insurance. Of course, health insurance companies could charge lower premiums to young healthy people ... Anyway, the funny thing about that complaint is that young healthy people often get married and have children. So we should be able to count on many young healthy women and men seeing an absolute need for health insurance when the woman gets pregnant (I won't even mention the ridiculous number of doctor visits needed for kids).
1 comment:
Robert Reich, writing on Salon dot com a couple of weeks ago, claimed that Obama had struck a deal with health insurance and pharmaceutical firms in January: no public option in exchange for their support. Now, I can't verify that in any way, although I would say that the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries have not made much fuss until now. I will also say that the Obama administration has been, until recently, a bit vague about the absolute need for a public option. Now Obama seems to want something in the Senate bill, a public option or at least a trigger or state by state public option. And the insurance companies are responding.
Interestingly, Karen Ignangi of the insurance association was on the PBS News Hour yesterday complaining about how the penalties for not getting health insurance are not high enough, and young healthy people will not buy health insurance. Of course, health insurance companies could charge lower premiums to young healthy people ... Anyway, the funny thing about that complaint is that young healthy people often get married and have children. So we should be able to count on many young healthy women and men seeing an absolute need for health insurance when the woman gets pregnant (I won't even mention the ridiculous number of doctor visits needed for kids).
Post a Comment