I don’t think there is a lot of honesty about the public option. Most Democrats support single-payer health care. They like the public option because it allows them to get health insurance without paying a corporation for the privilege. They hope that a public option will do exactly what the Republicans fear it will do…destroy the market for private health insurance and lead to a single-payer system.
Compromise, in this context, is making concessions that will help keep private insurers in business. After all, the primary rationale for a public option is that it will help keep costs down and make it affordable both for individuals to get insurance and for the government to run their health care programs.
It’s kind of funny that the White House professes ignorance about how the public option got to be the key to progressive support for a health care bill. We want to kill private insurance, and we want the public option to start that process. That’s our compromise position because we really want HR 676.
This is one example where a Republican talking point is somewhat accurate. But the Republicans mistake progressives for Democrats. We want to lop off the head of Aetna. The Democrats (too many of them anyway) want to protect Aetna.
