Saw an article today saying that the Obama administration may be backing off its push for a public option in health care.  If this is true, it is good news.  But it makes me a bit nervous to see conservatives talking this up as some kind of victory.  As I posted in the comments section of another blog:

Without having done a lot of research, I can think of a few things to consider:

1. Depending on how the thing is set up, there may still be increased federal involvement. One article talks about government insurance whenever there are fewer than two private alternatives, and Schumer has said that he feels any co-op would need to achieve the same goals as the public option.
2. The co-op would probably need to be started by the federal government, probably with federal dollars. As we saw with the car companies, when the federal government gives money away, it thinks it owns the thing it gave money to. How independent is a federally funded co-op really going to be?
3. If these were such a good idea, why hasn’t private industry created its own co-op system yet?
4. The public option is only part of the government’s health care plans. A co-op may kill that, but it won’t keep the government from expanding its reach in other ways.
5. To me, it feels like socialized health care on an installment plan. They reached too far, and are now willing to make concessions and meet in the middle. If this passes, expect the next health care go-around to focus explicitly on single-payer, with concessions to get us back to about what we’ve rejected today.

With the left apparently on the run, now is the time to press the attack.  When fighting Medusa, one does not quit after removing only the first snake.

Tags: healthcare