The Congressional compromise on our Health Care Reform has been proving more disappointing every day. Currently our oldest citizens enjoy the government run health care program called Medicare. Our government is insuring the most expensive group of people in this country while the private insurance companies bitch about not making enough money insuring the cheapest. Now Congress wants our government to take on the next most expensive group, those aged 55-64 while forcing all other Americans into the private sector. It seems every day our health care reform is compromised more and more while the private insurance companies continue to benefit. So Im proposing two Public Options that do not need Congressional Approval, since we know how useless that organization is.
Public Option #1:
The ideal Public Option most people envision would be a non-profit agency that uses customer premiums to pay for the health care provided with minimum administrative overhead. To keep the Public Option fair to the private sector it would not be subsidized with tax payer money. This makes sense. Why do we need Congressional approval for this? With the help of organizations who are strongly fighting for a Public Option in our health care reform why can't we put together our own non-profit corporation that does just this? These organizations already prove they can run a movement that doesn't require extraordinary profits and obnoxious executive pay. Lets create our own non-profit private Public Option to compete with the rest of the private sector.
Public Option #2:
I'm incredibly appalled that Congress thinks they can dictate to all Americans that they must have health insurance while not providing a public option. To be forced to buy a private product is unAmerican. Sure, we're required to purchase auto insurance if we own and drive a car, but owning and driving a car is a choice and a privilege, while birth is not. If I do not purchase private insurance then I'll have to pay a fine. That's fine, I'll consider that the money I would have paid in premiums to a real Public Option. What if I get sick though before qualifying for Medicare? Well private insurers won't be able to reject me or charge higher premiums for having a pre-existing condition, so if I get sick then I'll look into purchasing a private plan. Until then I'll pay the fine.
These are my two proposals for fixing the problems with health care reform by what we unfortunately refer to as Congress. I'm interested in hearing any suggestions to these Public Options or continuing with new ideas to bring about the Public Option we as Americans deserve.