On the night of Reid’s announcement to go for a public option Sen Wyden appeared on Maddow to announce a fight all the way to floor to open the public option to everyone, not just a few as is the case now. He says this is the time for progressives to demand the rhetoric of choice to match reality in policy. Right now the PO would be open to 10pt of America. Maddow and Wyden argue- the bigger the pool for the PO the stronger its ability to hold down rates.
Sen Merkley is preparing an amendment to open the PO to many more. Wyden is pressing to open it to all in a national exchange. Of note- he says all the polls done ask would you support having a public option. Of course most say yes. Wyden wonders if you polled asking "Would you support a public option open to a small number of people not all?" He bets the results would be VERY different.
UPDATE: SEN WYDEN AND REP WEINER TOGETHER AT NEW REPUBLIC FORUM ON HCARE IN DC THIS AM. Weiner asks what good is reform if people cannot get away from their private insurance. Wyden urges an natl exchange to be like federal employee menu. I cant find a live feed of the event yet but Ezra is liveblogging:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/...
UPDATE 2: WYDEN WILL APPEAR ON OLBERMANN TONIGHT TO TALK MORE ABOUT OPENING THE PO TO ALL AMERICANS AND POSS. ADDRESS THE LIBERMAN FILLIBUSTER. STAFFER TOLD ME THIS TODAY.
Maddow:
Her brilliant explanation of the public option. Her guest - Sen Wyden. This is great tv here. She asks why cant 60 Democrats at least open the public option to everyone? Wyden has been making the rounds-Olbermann was very supportive of his initiative to open the public option. Tonight Maddow pushed to make the public option bigger and blasted the opt out.
Wyden says Americans all want access to the PO. He promises a fight on the floor to open it to all! He says its time for the grassroots to advocate not talking points that public option gives you choice when it likely wont. He says if we push to open the public option to all now would be the time.
Wyden and Merkley promise to fight for choice for ALL AMERICANS. Dems keep saying we must have a choice between a pub opt and private ones. Well , like these senators say, let’s make rhetoric match policy!
According to a quick analysis by the Congressional Budget Office, about 90 percent of all people seeking coverage would not be allowed to enter the insurance exchange offering the government-run choice. The only ones in the exchange would be those who currently lack coverage and a small subset of small business.
Sen. Ron Wyden has doubts about the scope of the public option plan announced Monday. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, immediately jumped on that number.
"I agree with Senator Reid that health reform should give Americans more options. Now, I want to work with him to ensure that all Americans can choose those options,'' Wyden said. ``The bottom line is that the public option can’t really hold private insurers accountable if it is only competing for 10 percent of the insurance market, because private insurance companies aren’t going to change their business practices if 90 percent of their customers can’t take their business elsewhere.
``Real reform means empowering Americans to choose insurance that works well for them and their family, while rejecting plans that don’t. Including a public option is a step in the right direction, now let’s remove the firewalls in this bill that prevent Americans from choosing it,'' Wyden said in a statement.
Merkley, for example, said he would be unhappy if more Americans weren't able to select the so-called public option. As a member of one of the committees that wrote a health care bill, Merkley actively supported a government-option as the best way to maintain costs and provide greater choice. Merkley said in an interview Monday that he would press for any public option to be broadly available along the lines of an amendment he successfully offered in July when the bill was in committee.
Merkley's amendment is designed to give small businesses access to newly created health insurance exchanges that, in theory, breed competition by pooling the number of customers in a specific region. Merkley estimated that his amendment would allow nearly 25,000 more businesses – employing 485,000 workers – to enter the exchanges and 32 million people nationwide.
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That amendment would increase the size of small businesses eligible for enter the national exchange that includes a public options. He also supports giving states the right expand the size of eligible businesses even more.
``What sense does it make to keep companies from going into the exchange?'' he said.
http://www.oregonlive.com/...