Sally Pipes: "Senate Democrats Eyeing Public Option"

The following is an excerpt from an article by Sally Pipes, Founder and Chair of the Benjamin Rush Institute, published in Newsmax. Click here to read the full article in your browser.

Senate Democrats are once again laying the groundwork for a federal public option.

Last week, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and his fellow Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee released a request for information seeking ideas to expand health coverage — including creation of a government-run “public option” insurance plan.

Its supporters describe the public option as simply another choice for consumers.

But a government-run plan wouldn’t enter the market on equal footing with private insurers. Washington would write the rules, enforce them, and compete under them simultaneously.

A federal public option would enjoy advantages no private insurer could match — and eventually put the country on a gradual path toward a government-run, single-payer healthcare system, where private health insurance is outlawed.

That gradualism is what makes the public option so politically attractive to its supporters. Unlike Medicare for All, which would replace private insurance in one stroke, the public option would expand government coverage incrementally.

A federally sponsored plan would steadily gain market share while private insurers lost ground — and give Washington an ever-larger role in financing Americans’ healthcare.

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