Harry Reid has a really difficult task, Democrats have decided to lay down all their weapons and craft bills that need 60 votes to even get a vote. Tom Carper is apparently the go-to guy for compromise in the Senate health care debate. Some details of Carper’s latest trial balloon are now emerging – it sounds like a semi-triggered national non-profit:
Carper has been working on variations of the public option for months. Recently, he has touted a so-called hammer public option that he believes answers centrists’ criticisms that the public option in Reid’s bill is government-run and government-funded. The public option would kick in for states where insurance companies fail to meet standards of availability and affordability of plans. Unlike Snowe’s trigger proposal, which would give insurers at least one year to satisfy those requirements, Carper’s public option would start the first year the bill goes into effect. States might be permitted to opt into the public option even if the benchmarks are met.
Under Carper’s proposal, the bill would establish a national public insurance program founded by the government but managed by a non-governmental board. In addition, the plan would be unable to access any taxpayer dollars beyond its initial seed money. This public option would operate alongside private insurance and, potentially, the nonprofit healthcare cooperatives and state-based public plans authorized by Reid’s bill.
I’m not hot on the idea. I think giving money to a middleman is a waste of time and it just feeds into the Republican narrative that government can’t do anything right (except run Middle Eastern governments). What do you all think?