{"id":608,"date":"2010-03-11T11:48:03","date_gmt":"2010-03-11T11:48:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/2010\/03\/forget-the-public-option-i-w.html"},"modified":"2010-03-11T11:48:03","modified_gmt":"2010-03-11T11:48:03","slug":"forget-the-public-option-i-w","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2010\/03\/forget-the-public-option-i-w.html","title":{"rendered":"forget the public option – I want Medicare"},"content":{"rendered":"

The public option is almost assuredly not going to be in the final package for health reform, and that’s a good thing because it’s existence imperils passage of this historic and incredibly progressive legislation<\/a>. It represents a huge – and long overdue – leftwards shift<\/a> for American social policy, despite the public option’s absence. And note again that the PO would not have been available to everyone<\/a> anyway, so how progressive was it really?<\/p>\n

The ultimate progressive health reform would have been single-payer insurance, but that was taken off the table (with good reason) by President Obama. However, since Medicare is already a single-payer system, it’s possible to leverage that existing system for creating a “single payer option” which would not be as disruptive as true single payer, would provide a more genuinely public option than the public option, and possibly even help reduce structural deficits. That would simply be to allow people under age 65 to “buy-in” to Medicare.<\/p>\n

Think about this. Medicare caters to people over 65, whose medical expenses cost more than young peoples’. By allowing yong people to buy in, who presumably will have less demands on payouts due to better health, then the financial situation of Medicare actually improves<\/em>.<\/p>\n

And legislation to achieve Medicare buy-in is quite a simple change, which can exist separate from the comprehensive (and still necessary) reform in the broader health care package. In fact it’s already been introduced<\/a> to the House by Rep Alan Grayson – clocking in at only 4 pages<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In fact, there’s an online petition<\/a> by Rep Grayson to encourage Speaker Pelosi to bring the Medicare buy-in to a vote – just go to WeWantMedicare.com<\/a> to sign it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The public option is almost assuredly not going to be in the final package for health reform, and that’s a good thing because it’s existence imperils passage of this historic and incredibly progressive legislation. It represents a huge – and long overdue – leftwards shift for American social policy, despite the public option’s absence. 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City of Brass is his weblog, which was founded in 2002 under the name UNMEDIA. He is a co-founder of the annual Brass Crescent Awards. The name City of Brass refers to the Story of the City of Brass in the Thousand and One Nights, and the poem by Rudyard Kipling of the same name: Here was a people whom, after their works, thou shalt see wept over for their lost dominion; And in this palace is the last information respecting lords collected in the dust. -- Thousand and One Nights, Story of the City of Brass IN A land that the sand overlays, the ways to her gates are untrod, A multitude ended their days whose fates were made splendid by God, Till they grew drunk and were smitten with madness and went to their fall, And of these is a story written: but Allah Alone knoweth all! -- Rudyard Kipling, The City of Brass (1909)"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/165"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}