Senator Kirsten Gillibrand Supports “the Public Option”
Via her diary at dkos,
I believe that by opening up a not-for-profit public health plan like a “Medicare for all,” we can ensure that every American has access to quality, affordable healthcare regardless of his or her income. In the world’s wealthiest nation, it’s unconscionable that people are turned away from coverage because of a pre-existing condition and that families are just one illness away from bankruptcy.
[snip]
I believe that offering a public health care plan option to compete with private insurers is the best way to truly lower health costs, improve quality of care, and ensure access to care in rural and other underserved areas. By offering more services and limiting out-of-pocket costs like high deductibles and large co-payments, a public health plan would improve access and affordability and would set a standard for coverage and efficiency with which private insurers would have to compete. Injecting healthy competition into the health care market is the only way to achieve real health care reform.
[snip]
As we wrote in the letter, there are several ways to go about achieving a public plan option and at this point all should be on the table. What should NOT be on the table, however, is the rejection of a public plan altogether. For me, that is simply a non-starter.
It starts with accepting a concept. The implementation of the “Public option” is not defined and ultimately will morph into a detailed plan. It could be a single payer system or something else but whatever it will be eventually - good for Senator Gillibrand for accepting the concept. Now it is up to us to make our detailed wishes known.
Looking forward to more from her like this.
Related posts:
How many of you have stayed in bad job situations simply because that job offered health care benefits? This is an absolute disgrace, and makes for a disgruntled and less-productive workforce.
Hats off to Sen. Gillibrand for not being completely on the HMOs and Pharma’s payroll.
She needs to get Senator Schumer on board for the public options too.
Anyone call her office and thank her?
[...] like like Howard Dean using his dog whistle to whistle a single payer tune. Senator Gillibrand even hears the call, Medicare for all. Is anyone [...]