It’s official — the public option has finally been put to rest, and in it’s place are a set of measures which arguably are a much — much — better deal. Here’s Talking Points Memo with the details:
As has been widely reported, one of the trade-offs will be to extend a version of the Federal Employees Health Benefits Plan to consumers in the exchanges. Insurance companies will have the option of creating nationally-based non-profit insurance plans that would offered on the exchanges in every state. However, according to the aide, if insurance companies don’t step up to the plate to offer such plans, that will trigger a national public option.
Beyond that, the group agreed–contingent upon CBO analysis–to a Medicare buy in.
That buy-in option would initially be made available to some uninsured people aged 55-64 in 2011, three years before the exchanges open. For the period between 2011 and 2014, when the exchanges do open, the Medicare option will not be subsidized–people will have to pay in without federal premium assistance–and so will likely be quite expensive, the aide noted. However, after the exchanges launch, the Medicare option would be offered in the exchanges, where people could pay into it with their subsidies.
The only thing I’d change about this deal is making the Medicare buy-in option open to ALL people aged 55-64, other than that, it sounds good to me. It certainly doesn’t take the place of a strong public option, but since that wasn’t going to happen anyway, it seems to me to be the next best thing (a weak, opt-out public option could end up doing more harm than good).
Now we just have to hope that Ben Nelson isn’t dangling this shiny object in front of liberals, just to take it away. My guess is that killing the public option should be enough to satiate his hunger for liberal anger (since pissing of liberals seems to be the only thing that motivates/explains his behavior).
