Which brings us back to Sen. Baucus, who told us last week that health care reform in America will include “both public and private coverage,” and that he'll be carrying legislation that will have “a very strong incentive for private (insurance) coverage.”
Baucus hasn't rolled out any bills yet, but in December he said he wants to require everyone to buy health insurance and take steps to ensure that the insurance will be affordable. The actual details of his multipronged approach are much more complex, but that's the general idea, along with expansion of some public insurance programs like Medicare and the Children's Health Insurance Program.
He also reiterated last week that he won't support or even consider a Medicare-for-all system that would extend government coverage to everyone, financed by taxes.
“I just have to make a judgment, and I think at this time in this country that single-payer is not going to get even to first base in Congress,” he said at a Washington, D.C., conference on health policy.
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Couldn't be clearer, could it?
If the government has to incentivize private insurance, then "the market" has failed! So, why do we need the insurance companies at all, then? So that everybody -- except the patient -- can get their percentage?
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." -- Mahatma Gandhi
my prediction
Baucus is going to propose a version of the "private" Medicare option that now exists for seniors -- you know, the one that costs the government 18% more than medicare that is administered by the government itself?
the real question is how does Baucus pay for it?