The ongoing debate on Capitol Hill about the public health-care insurance option is both mystifying and disturbing. This option is essential to meaningful heath-care reform. Polling results consistently show strong public support for this choice. Congress must recognize that legislation that does not include this critical component will not achieve the core objectives of health-care reform. Further, it will leave many citizens wondering whether our elected representatives are more committed to protecting the private interests of insurers and maintaining the status quo than they are to serving the public interest.
Our private-only system has left 47 million uninsured and tens of millions underinsured, often faced with difficult choices between foregoing treatment or risking poverty. Health-care costs are the leading cause of personal bankruptcy.
Our current private only system is barely competitive. Many states are dominated by few private insurers who have limited incentive to lower rates or improve benefits. In Virginia the top two insurers control 62 percent of the market.
The public health insurance option would provide: competition, a benchmark for quality, care regardless of pre-existing conditions and the choice to keep your own doctor.
Consumers have the opportunity to choose between public and private options for other services like college education. Should consumers have fewer options for health care than they do for education?
If our private health insurance industry could provide the solution to our health-care system’s problems, why haven’t they done it already? The addition of a public health insurance option provides our best hope of achieving quality affordable health care.
Jim Lindsay is a member of the Health Care Committee of the Virginia Organizing Project.
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