Public Plan: Good Policy, Good Politics

Matthew Ygelsias does an excellent job discussing the unfortunate politics of including a public plan in health care reform as demonstrated by this chart.

Happily for politicians contemplating the inclusion of such a plan, a robust public option is also the best way available to control costs and minimize the need for new taxes. So just keep in mind that when people talk about political obstacles to a robust public plan, they’re not talking about mass public opinion as an obstacle—they’re talking about the wealth and power of relatively narrow interests.

The current system is broken, the public is strongly supportive of reform, and yet moderate Democrats en mass are concerned that a public plan would be “unfair” to the same people that broke the health care system in the first place. That moderate Dems would even contemplate voting against a health care reform package in a floor vote is hard to understand, much less badger us for burdening the poor private insurers that have been sucking the American economy dry.

-Chris