Straightforward Answers To Very Good Questions
By JMM:
Am I the only one who thinks that if the Dems pass a bill with mandates and subsidies for poor and moderate income people to purchase it but no public option or competition with the insurers, that it will be pretty much a catastrophe for the Democrats in political terms?
No. This has been…
And, of course, it’s not just the politics, either. In theory, it’s possible that a bill without a public option (and, more to the point, a bill passed by a Congress whose median votes are sufficiently in hock to insurance interests that a public option can’t pass) could have generous enough subsidies and tough enough regulations to be a large improvement on the merits. I know how I’m betting. And while I’d like to take solace in the fact that in exchange for torpedoing the best chance for health care reform in decades Nelson, Baucus et al. could lose their seats, it’s not much consolation.