In President Obama’s weekly radio address yesterday he said:
“Now, the source of a lot of these fears about government-run health care is confusion over what’s called the public option. This is one idea among many to provide more competition and choice, especially in the many places around the country where just one insurer thoroughly dominates the marketplace. This alternative would have to operate as any other insurer, on the basis of the premiums it collects. And let me repeat – it would be just an option; those who prefer their private insurer would be under no obligation to shift to a public plan.”
Now apart from the fact that this is greatly different from what Obama said just a little more than a month ago since it clearly backs a line in the sand about a public option down to the PO being only one among many ways to provide more competition in the insurance industry:
“. . . any plan I sign must include an insurance exchange: a one-stop shopping marketplace where you can compare the benefits, cost and track records of a variety of plans – including a public option to increase competition and keep insurance companies honest – and choose what’s best for your family. . . “
it also reeks of irony. After all, if people are confused about the public option, whose fault is that? Who’s been talking about the PO almost since the beginning of the health care debate? Who took Medicare for All off the table? Who turned things over to the Congress so that they could construct 1050 page bills that no one can understand? Who has been deliberately vague about the PO, so he could keep the conversation about health care reform at the level of vague principle and continue talking to the insurance companies, the Republicans, and the Blue Dogs? Whose Administration has been saying that single-payer is the “wonk” solution while the PO is the solution of realists and practical people? In short, who has created the conditions under which confusion could develop and flourish?
A while back, I wrote a post saying that the PO was a disingenuous concept, and warning that it could victimize either the insurance companies, or the progressives, and saying that I thought the progressives had better watch out because it was likely that it was they who would get fooled in the end. Now it looks like it’s not just the progressives, but the President himself who’s discovered that systematic vagueness and ambiguity in telling people what you want, can get you in trouble, and specifically can get you to have to do all sorts of work to dispel the confusion you, yourself created.
I’ve also been saying for awhile now that to dispel the confusion about the PO, you really need to replace that idea with Medicare for All. Everyone knows what Medicare for All means and people will easily be able to tell whether someone is lying about it. That alone should cripple anti-health care reform propaganda, and help the Administration to fix up its still broken messaging machine.
(Also posted at FiredogLake where there may be more comments)