Would everyone please just stop for a moment and think about this. Regarding healthcare reform and the public option, or lack thereof.
First, to the substance. Here's just some of what we get without a public option:
- Increased coverage
- The exchanges
- Better medical/loss ratio
- End to pre-existing condition denials
- End to rescission
- End to life-time caps
- Huge funding boost for community health clinics
- Required coverage for early detection, prevention, and wellness
- Live to fight another day for other progressive causes
Now, second, to the math. The truth of the matter is, folks, the numbers were never there for us in this congress to pass a public option. Before you jump, just wait a second and think about it. Even at the highest point, the most we could get out of the house (the more progressive body, remember) was 220 votes for a weakened public option. And, the other hard truth is, that the push to get Harry Reid to go with an opt-out instead of the trigger, cost us getting any public option at all. The trigger was never about "President Snowe" (as so many here liked to ridicule at the time)--it was about those moderate and conservative democrats). And, it also prolonged the debate to the point where the bill almost got completely killed. You can be angry and disappointed in this president all you want, but this bill would be dead if not for him continuing to push it. The majority of democrats in congress were more than willing to walk away from it after that Massachusetts election.
So, here we are. You've got about half the number of required senators willing to sign on to push a public option through reconciliation. In the meantime, you've got a sizeable bloc of moderate-conservative dems in the house willing to vote for the senate bill with fixes that the president put forward yesterday, who didn't vote for the first house bill. They will not vote for one with a public option--we know this because they didn't the first time. Here's the hard truth: you've maxed out on progressive votes in both the house and senate for a public option. If you go "public option or bust", you're going to get "bust". Now, maybe that's what some here want, but not me.
So, here's my action plan:
- Push to get passed what the president put forward yesterday
- Hope and pray that it makes it through within the next 60 days
- Work like crazy to build on our baseline comprehensive bill and strengthen it over time with amendments, etc. Also, work like crazy to elect more progressives to the house and senate. Also, work to abolish the senate.
- Live to fight another day on more legislation (jobs, energy, education, financial reg's, consumer protections, etc.)
UPDATE: per commenter bindle
action #5) push for state-by-state reforms through state legislatures (work to get individual states to adopt single-payer, or other more progressive reforms that can't get through federal legislation at this time)