I haven't seen anything substantial to indicate it has grown in it's chances of making it to Obama's desk. Do you have a little birdie that I am not privvy to?? :D

I'll probably modify my prediction after the Senate debates the Baucus version.

One thing I can state with utter certainty is that there will be no Public Option. Or, at the very least, a Public Option that everyone sane agrees is nothing like a Public Option. :D

Michale.....

Still confident that "DunselCare" (as you charmingly call it) is dead for the year? Or, perchance, would you like to hedge your bets?

:-)

-CW

that happens already with only private options available. when there's competition, some companies go out of business. they do now, with no public plan. an available public option doesn't necessarily mean there will be any more attrition than before, just more choices in the market.

True.. Yet that doesn't address the fact that the claim by this populist group is still misleading.

If the public option drives some insurance companies to bankruptcy, then those who have that insurance will NOT be able to keep their same insurance. Ergo, the statement made by the populist group is false.

The fact that it could happen anyways without DunselCare is irrelevant to the validity (or lack thereof) of the populist's statement.

as CW first pointed out in FTP-76, it's the height of doublethink to say that a Tedicare choice will be terrible AND will put private insurance out of business. either it will be worse and people won't choose it, or it will be better, in which case it will be BETTER. either way, the patient wins.

You would be correct, IF....

IF the only issue that drives a customer's choice is the quality of the care..

However, we both know that, for the majority of the people that DunselCare is, ostensibly, designed to help, the overriding factor is cost. DunselCare will likely be much cheaper than competing insurances. Therefore, people will flock to it. The domino effect will start killing off other insurance companies that are actually BETTER (quality-wise) than DunselCare. Those that DIDN'T flock to DunselCare will lose their current insurance due to these bankruptcies and be forced to take the only viable alternative. DunselCare..

In this all too likely scenario, the patients lose, the medical services lose and the insurance companies lose.

The only winner here is big and intrusive government.

Is THAT what we want???

David,

And also seriously, yes to more competition!

But that's just the problem.

DunselCare isn't competition.

Do you HONESTLY believe that a government run Insurance will abide by the same laws and regulations it makes for the rest of the industry??

Of course not.

The ONLY way that DunselCare would be TRUE competition is if it played by the same rules that exist for the insurance industry.

It won't so it's not.

Michale.....

You must've missed my interview with Braley, back in March.

Check it out!

:-)

nypoet22 -

I'm impressed - it's not often I have someone else do a better job looking up my own citations than I could. I have nothing more to add, you summed it up beautifully. Thanks!

-CW

Seriously, I had never heard of this and it is a great way to specifically reach out to the middle class.

And also seriously, yes to more competition!

This is a statement from WellPoint's website: "One in nine Americans receives coverage for their medical care through WellPoint's affiliated health plans."

that happens already with only private options available. when there's competition, some companies go out of business. they do now, with no public plan. an available public option doesn't necessarily mean there will be any more attrition than before, just more choices in the market. if a company is good, it won't fail. if it's NOT good then it SHOULD fail, and the people who had it can get something better, private or public. That's how the market ought to work.

as CW first pointed out in FTP-76, it's the height of doublethink to say that a Tedicare choice will be terrible AND will put private insurance out of business. either it will be worse and people won't choose it, or it will be better, in which case it will be BETTER. either way, the patient wins.

the patient wins.

isn't that what we want?

The problem with this assesment is it's misleading.

What if the public option does drive some insurance companies to bankruptcy, which is certainly possible and even likely..

The people who still choose to have that particular insurance company won't be able to keep their private insurance, as the letter claims.

Michale.....