Even after the healthcare bill was passed into law, the public option is not going away. In fact, it is on its way, according to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. It’s just a matter of when.
In an effort to appease disappointed progressives at the liberal Netroots gathering in Las Vegas, Reid remarked, “Now I know you wish some of these reforms were even more sweeping and believe me I do, too. But we also have to be realists. I wish we had a public option. But we’re going to have a public option. It’s a question of when”.
The process is already underway. The Public Option Act, a bill that would add the public option to the healthcare law, was introduced by 128 Democrats to the United States House of Representatives last week.
This should come as a shock both to Americans who voiced their dissatisfaction with the public option, as well as the Congressmen who willingly eliminated the public option from the healthcare law as a means to acquire the necessary support for the bill’s passage.
The public option would create a government-run health insurance agency that would compete with other health insurance companies. Critics like CATO Institute’s Michael F. Cannon and Senator Charles Grassley seized upon the government’s inefficient running of Medicaid and Medicare as pathetic examples of what government-run healthcare looks like.
Apparently Reid possesses rose-colored glasses when it comes to the competence of government program. During a question-and-answer session at the Netroots convention, Reid asserted that Social Security is not going broke, and is contrarily “the most successful social program in the history of the world.” (Even if that was true, it certainly doesn’t say much.)
As long as the majority of Americans continue to favor repeal of the healthcare law, any additions to the unpopular law appear as a slap in the face of the American people.
