Healthcare Reform: Breaking Down the Public Option

Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2009/09/08/MOMENTUM_Healthcare_Briefing

Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access California, gives a detailed overview of the hotly debated public option.

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As President Obama pushes to enact an alternative plan, organizers and policy makers must work the devil out of the details. Join Momentum for a candid, up-to-the-minute conversation on where the debate stands, what is missing and how to best provide affordable healthcare access for all Americans. - Momentum Conference

Anthony Wright is Executive Director for Health Access California, the statewide health care consumer advocacy coalition which has been a leader in both state and national efforts to fight health care budget cuts, to win consumer protections, and to advance comprehensive health reform and coverage expansions. Wright led fights to pass a first-in-the-nation law to set standards for timely access to care, and a first-in-the-nation law against hospital overcharging of the uninsured, and to win a prescription drug discount program despite an $80 million industry campaign against it.

A consumer advocate and community organizer. Wright has been widely quoted in local and national media on a range of issues. He has also worked for New Jersey Citizen Action, the Center for Media Education, The Nation magazine, and in Vice President Gore's office in the White House.

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[Anothercoilgun]

Option has now turned to mean Mandatory.

[deefirst]

HEALTHCARE WINS BY 220 VOTES! YAY!

[FrickinLaserBeam]

Simple, yes. Good, no. You can control costs like Medicare does, by cutting payments. That is not a good way to attract more doctors, hospitals, medical equipment manufacturers, etc. Shortages?

And, even worse, it detaches your services received from your payment made. To control costs YOU must shell out the cash directly to the doctor. You must see the money leaving your hand, not an invisible payroll tax or inflation. Then you can decide exactly how much to spend on which doctor.

[FrickinLaserBeam]

@mm:

Perhaps I misunderstand your comment. Gov't and insurance can not pay anything out that they do not take in from the citizenry first. They have no bucket of cash to draw from.

By keeping costs/benefits at the individual level you are exactly creating an equilibrium.

[vegaskidd]

its not a commodity, that's why it can't be bought in bulk, technology is just as important should we ahve a public option on that too?

[mmingione]

Presently, most individuals have any incentive to demand high quality care and a fair price because someone else pays for it: either government or insurance. If costs and benefits were kept at the individual level, there might be some supply/demand equilibrium put in place.

[forwardmover]

Case study of young pretentious know-nothing socialist grandiose Krugman wannabee. Gets a BA in sociology, runs a left-wing non-profit, and now actually wants to have real impact on american lives. hillaryous

[burntonion05]

That is easy to say. But it is not easy to do. I think i have lost hope for America because there are just too many dumb people who don't care about facts. Faux news is filling people's heads with complete garbage and it is destroying America. You are correct and single payer is the solution, but you are naive to think that Americans are smart enough to get it done.

[teleutube]

True cost containment solution: SINGLE PAYER MODEL - SIMPLE TO EXPLAIN. Health care should be treated as a basic need, a neccessity and NOT as a commodity.

[JessieHimself]

Minimum wage a bad idea? Are you retarded? Minimum wage actually makes having a job worth it. Ever hear of the Gilded Age? Children having to work in factories for extra income to help their family survive? Their lives must have sucked terribly and they still lived in destitution, but at least they had jobs, right? If everyone had jobs, then there would be no one to train for new jobs. Unemployment is a necessary evil to provide a workforce that constantly renews itself and stays up-to-date.