The death of the PUBLIC OPTION

[Cal]

No matter how many times he said he wanted it, both on the campaign trail and as President, we're supposed to believe he really didn't want it.

Right?

The Public Option never really was a core part of his campaign..Mostly mentioned in passing.

You must have slept through the campaign then.

In fact, Obama promised a public option with NO mandate. In just about every stump speech.

Video?..I can't even recall him saying it ONCE in a speech..It was mentioned several time's in passing when being interviewed and I think he had something referring to it on his site but never did I hear him stump on it..

 

[Polk]

The Public Option never really was a core part of his campaign..Mostly mentioned in passing.

You must have slept through the campaign then.

In fact, Obama promised a public option with NO mandate. In just about every stump speech.

Video?..I can't even recall him saying it ONCE in a speech..It was mentioned several time's in passing when being interviewed and I think he had something referring to it on his site but never did I hear him stump on it..

I don't call it a core part, but Obama did campaign on it.

 

[Polk]

The death of something that's been dead for weeks. This whole "we're okay without it as long as the same ends are met" is trying to save face. The more liberal members of the caucus are not getting the bill they want, but are signaling they'll vote for it anyway.

 

[Chris]

The public option is not dead.

We just have the most expensive public option in the world.

The emergency room.

That's why we pay TWICE as much per capita for healthcare as any other industrialized society.

How dumb are we?

 

[Navy1960]

This is from the Obama Campaign, in 2008,

The Obama plan both builds upon and improves our current insurance system, upon which most Americans continue to rely, and leaves Medicare intact for older and disabled Americans. The Obama plan also addresses the large gaps in coverage that leave 45 million Americans uninsured. Specifically, the Obama plan will: (1) establish a new public insurance program available to Americans who neither qualify for Medicaid or SCHIP nor have access to insurance through their employers, as well as to small businesses that want to offer insurance to their employees; (2) make available the National Health Insurance Exchange to help Americans and businesses that want to purchase private health insurance directly; (3) require all employers to contribute towards health coverage for their employees; (4) mandate all children have health care coverage; (5) expand Medicaid and SCHIP to cover more of the least well-off among us; and (6) allow state flexibility for state health reform plans.

http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/files/30/files//2009/09/5996811583d82a33cd_6muomvq5x.pdf

Now, " public option" as I mentioned in the last post is this new public plan meant to compete with private insurance, which was STRONGLY advocated by many democrats. Chris, the programs you mentioned are Govt. healthcare programs yes, but, in terms of serving the public as the Democrat party had led many to believe those do not pass that test, with the possible exception of Medicaid, and even that program is not available for everyone, and those who it is not available for will be forced to purchase private insurance. While President Obama back in 2007 did mention a healthcare program something very close to the current Senate bill, with Medicaid being the principle mechanism by which it will run, in 2008, both the President and the DNC led people to believe otherwise.