If states are allowed to form band together to form a multi-state public option under Tom Carper's compromise, then if it turns out to be a way to get 60 or 61 votes it's pretty attractive. I would prefer to get the Schumer option written into the merged Senate bill, but perhaps this is a way to square the circle.
Update: looks like a mixed bag. States can band together, but they can't force providers to participate or tie rates to Medicare, or even Medicare plus some fixed percentage. If you can convince Carper to allow states to tie rates to Medicare+5% or something like that, it'd be a good start.
2 comments:
Why hasn't anyone discussed using Medicaid as the public option? Its what we did for CHIP, its already set up on a state-by-state basis (so in principle people in any state would have a "public option" that already has rates arranged with health care providers in their community), and it would save even more money than using medicare rates.
That's are really good idea.
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