Latest Health Care Scam: State Based Opt Out From The Public Option

Democrats in the Senate are furiously trying to figure out how to include something called a 'public option' and still get 60 votes. The problem is, every time they think they get 2 more votes with a new idea, they lose 3. It's actually kind of fun watching Harry Reid shuffle back and forth trying to sweep the sea.

The latest gambit is a scheme that would allow states to opt out of any public option.

The proposal, which was described by other senators and congressional aides, represented a first overture by the Nevada Democrat to solve one of the knottiest issues dividing his party: whether to create a national plan that would serve as a low-cost alternative to private insurers. House Democratic leaders are strongly behind a government-run plan, though exact details have yet to be finalized.

Whether the Senate will embrace any form of the idea is unknown. Republicans are lining up in near lockstep against it. Moderate Democrats are concerned, too, and responded Thursday with wariness.

Sen. Ben Nelson, who has met twice this week with Mr. Reid, said it would be "very difficult" for him to support any proposal that creates a national plan -- even one that allows states to opt out. The Nebraska Democrat wants to empower states to experiment with their own public plans, he said, "the nature of which would be determined by the states, not the federal government."

One of the biggest questions about this option is whether states would have the chance to opt out before it's implemented or after. The Senate Democrats don't seem to be saying much but one of the more visible liberal House Democrats, Anthony Weiner of NY says states would have to be a part of the plan at first and then they could bail.

I would accept and would be open to the idea of after the program's up and running a couple of years, if a state wants to opt out, if they want to leave 25,000, 30,000, 50,000 of their citizens without that choice-I don't believe it's going to happen, so I would accept that kind of an opt-out thing.

That's from Wednesday on Hardball but he said basically the same thing last night with Olbermann (talk about going from the loony left to the, well, loony left).

Here's the thing, if they do go with this opt out provision but only after a few years, no state will ever opt out. By the time 3 or 4 years goes by so many people will have been dumped from their employer based plans into the government option, no state is going to be able to pull back, no matter how much it kills state and federal budgets.

This opt out idea is simply another scam.

Now if states want to enact their own public options, they can now. In fact some have, with the predictably disastrous results.

Of course the supporters say what they always do, the only way to fix the failure of a government program is with...more government programs!

Added: Commenter "the other coyote" makes a good point

The opt-out means a state can opt out of PARTICIPATING in the public option plan.

The state can't opt-out of PAYING for the public option plan.

If Texas opts out, the Texas taxpayer is STILL going to be paying for this debacle through their federal taxes

That's a point that voters in states represented by the likes of Blanche Lincoln, Mary Landrieu and Olympia Snowe need to be reminded of.

posted by DrewM. at 11:00 AM

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