I saw this being written up in the CongressDaily newspaper, where Senator Carper is planning to offer a "Plan B" in case Senator Reid's "opt-out" proposal for the public option doesn't get sixty votes in the Senate. It's an even worse form of Senator Snowe's trigger, and it first starts out with a trigger, and the so-called "public option" would be a state-based non-profit company with no governmental oversight.
In states where private insurers fail to offer affordable coverage, Carper said the alternative would permit them to set up a non-profit board, likely appointed by the president, to offer insurance.
"That kind of approach might come close to hitting a sweet spot for a lot of people," said Carper, noting the approach "addresses concerns about government-owned, government-run."
Senator Carper seems to be the kind to take bad ideas, and make them even worse. It must be his favorite legislative pastime in the Senate. This "triggered" form of the public option under Senator Carper's proposal is also likely to never get started, and wouldn't even have the market power to constrain costs. Here's more on this below:
A Senate aide said the plan, still being worked out, would initially be run by the government but that its leadership would later be turned over to a non-governmental entity.
Carper is "trying to put something together that would actually have some sort of point at which the government is not responsible [and an] organization, likely a nonprofit of sorts" takes over, the aide said.
And Jon Walker further expands on the terrible nature of Senator Carper's so-called "sweet spot" for conservadems:
Does that sound familiar to anyone? It should because that is nearly identical to Conrad’s co-ops idea, which the CBO already labeled as worthless. Conrad’s idea was for the government to help set up state-based, non-profit, non-government entities to sell health insurance. Except, Conrad’s co-ops would be available right away without a trigger. Olympia Snowe voted for Conrad’s co-ops idea in committee, so it should also be able to get 60 votes if liberal senators stay on board.
What Carper did was take the two worst aspects of the two most worthless ideas (a trigger and zero government oversight), and combine them into one super-awful proposal. The entity created is not national, would not be large enough to negotiate low rates, would not be available on day one, and would not answer to Congress. Carper has created a "trigger for co-ops" proposal in an attempt to get 60 votes, but, not only would the idea do nothing to help control costs, but it needlessly weakens two worthless ideas Snowe already supports.
Basically it's a triggered state-based co-op. I'd laugh if I didn't know that it's just the latest obstacle to a trigger-free national public option that the conservadems are pulling for a "compromise." And they were hoping to sneak this proposal behind our backs:
The Democratic aide said staffers have tried to keep Carper’s alternative quiet due to concerns that publicity could draw attacks from liberal activists, which could complicate efforts to line up support from the full Democratic caucus.
Well, it's why we're attacking this worthless compromise right now. It's a completely worthless idea that won't even do a whit in keeping private insurers honest and it doesn't even approach anything like the cost containment that a national trigger-free public option provides. And this was done with the endorsement of Senator Reid. Has the spine flu come back to attack Senator Reid with a renewed vengeance?
It's a part of the reason why we've joined with Democracy For America and CREDO in whipping the House progressive members to see where they stand on the trigger and opt-out for the public option so we can marshal a block against a triggered public option, just like NARAL and Planned Parenthood are now supportive of a similar block in the House against the Stupak amendment in the final bill.
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