American Health care reform is the biggest issue facing the country at present. There are many ways to look at possible strategies, but without some kind of government program, it would be difficult to offer everyone coverage without seriously regulating private insurers. To ensure that everyone is covered, insurance agencies will have to collectively provide affordable insurance for every citizen, including Americans who do have serious conditions, or there must be some backup plan that people, whose coverage would seriously strain private insurers, may resort to. That is why President Obama's health care reform plan includes such an entity.
The Public Option and Its Intent
The public option, which Democrats are considering "reforming" in itself as it is a highly-debated issue, would be a government program that offered insurance coverage at affordable rates. Although it was not proposed to effect anyone who presently has coverage from private insurers, the plan would allow people to switch from their agencies if they preferred the government-run coverage option. The purpose of the public plan, however, is to provide coverage to those that are not able to afford it from insurance agencies. Even though this government program would compete with private agencies, without the public option, the only way to ensure that everyone is able to receive coverage would be to force private insurers to collectively cover every citizen, which would seem to place larger strains on the agencies.
The Public Option from a Democratic Viewpoint, and Why It is Necessary
From a liberal perspective, the public option is about the easiest way to extend health insurance to those who are not able to afford it. Some citizens are not able to find coverage because of pre-existing conditions, which may cause private insurers to charge them extreme rates for coverage, which only increase once coverage is needed. This can prove to be very expensive, and some clients are not able to pay their premiums, so they are denied coverage. The public option would allow such people to have coverage at rates affordable to them, which means that everyone will have the potential to be covered even if some cannot pay the rates expected by private insurers.
The Public Plan from a Conservative View, and Why It Could Hurt the Insurance Industry
Although the proposed public plan would solve the problem that many uninsured citizens face, many Republicans feel that it would prove to be a steep competitor of private insurers. With this government-sponsored health coverage plan, some people would leave their private insurers and seek more affordable coverage with the low-cost public option. This could potentially take serious business away from many private insurers. The plan could also cost billions of dollars over the next decade, which many would say could increase American National debt.
Why the Public Option is Necessary
If America is to have a health care system that does not exclude some because of health conditions or financial difficulties, either insurance companies would have to cover every citizen (which would mean some agencies would have to offer low rates to clients who have particular health conditions) or some government program would be required. The former option seems like it would pose a more serious threat to insurance agencies than would the government-run insurance program, which would likely compete, at least to some degree, with private agencies.
As Deborah Tedford of NPR reports in her September 8, 2009 article entitled Pelosi: 'Public Option Essential To Health Care Bill,' Pelosi stated, "I believe that a public option will be essential to our passing a bill in the House of Representatives." And to ensure that every citizen is covered, the public option may well be entirely necessary.
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