Mike Michaud is the House representative for Maine's second congressional district and a member of the Blue Dog coalition. The second district is poor and bleeding jobs and dominated by Aetna and Blue Cross, so I wanted to find out where this Blue Dog democrat stood on the public option so here is what I did.
I sent him a very long and detailed letter with all the reasons why a public option would benefit everyone in the second district from physicians, to small business owners, to ordinary citizens. And as typical of a Blue Dog, he couches his acceptance of the public option with BS reasoning:
Dear Dave:
Thank you for contacting me regarding the inclusion of the public option in H.R. 3200, the American's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009. One of the most important parts of my job is to hear the many perspectives from the people I represent. That's why I come back to Maine almost every single weekend - so I can stay in touch with what's on the minds of the people of Maine's Second Congressional District.
While I believe that reform must bring real cost reductions to our health care system, I continue to support the public option. A public option provides real competition in markets like Maine where one insurer dominates the market. When coupled with the exchanges proposed in the House bill, the public option helps bring real change to health care and a significant reduction in premium costs. However, not all of my concerns regarding the impact of a public option on a rural state like Maine have been addressed. One such very serious concern with the current draft of the bill is that using Medicare-like rates for a public option would have a grave effect on Maine. Currently, the formula used to reimburse physicians and hospitals through Medicare puts rural states at a disadvantage by undercutting payments to our health care providers and contributing to higher health care premiums in Maine. Making matters worse, there is a severe shortage of health care providers in our state, and this number will continue to decrease unless we can develop a reimbursement system that will not drive our providers out of business and, ultimately, out of Maine altogether.
So my question is this - how do I respond and explain to Rep. Michaud that a public option would benefit doctors and patients by putting a viable alternative to private health insurance on the table. He seems to think a public option would exacerbate the already existing problem of doctors not being reimbursed in full for services provided.