Legal Commentary

Reich: Don't Believe The Third Wayers, Public Option Alive And Well

By Big Tent Democrat

Contra Third Wayers Ezra Klein and Steve Pearlstein, Robert Reich says the public option is alive and well:

Washington, D.C. is an echo chamber in which anyone who sounds authoritative repeats the conventional authoritative wisdom about the "consensus" of inside opinion, which they've heard from someone else who sounds equally authoritative, who of course has heard it from another authoritative source. [. . .] In the last few days authoritative sources have repeatedly told me that the public option is dead, that the President won't be able to get a comprehensive health care bill, and that the White House and congressional leadership already know the best they'll be able to do now is move incrementally [. . . ]with the hope of more reforms in the years ahead. Don't believe it.

[W]e've come to the point where health-care incrementalism won't work. To be sure, the health-insurance industry is powerful and will fight reforms that threaten their profits. But they won't fight if they know their profits will be restored when everyone is required to have health insurance. (This isn't just conventional authoritative wisdom; it's political fact.) Obviously, in order to require everyone to have health insurance, tens of millions of Americans will need help affording it. The only way the government can possibly pay that tab is to raise taxes on the rich while also getting long-term health-insurance costs under control. And one of the surest ways to get long-term costs under control is to force private insurers [. . .] to compete with a public insurance option that can use its bargaining clout with drug companies and medical providers to negotiate lower prices.

. . . So forget the authoritative sources. Mobilize and organize. We can get comprehensive, meaningful health care reform if we push hard enough. And we must.

What he said.

Speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on August 28, 2009 (boomark / email).