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Will there or won't there be a Public Insurance Option?
The Crisis:
Health care is bankrupting us individually and as a nation. More than 60% of personal bankruptcies are driven
by medical bills, and of those more than 70% thought they had adequate health insurance. We pay twice as much as the rest
of the developed world. We die sooner and are less healthy. They have universal coverage.
We are at a competitive disadvantage internationally. While we spend 16% of our GNP on
health care, Europe for instance, spend 8%. We can stimulate our economy far more effectively than we have by reducing
health insurance costs.
As the baby-boomer generation reaches age 65 beginning
in 2011, millions more will be added to the Medicare rolls causing our national debt to mushroom even further. When added
to the debt we have built up, not just from the $7.4 billion bailout of the financial system, and the $7 billion stimulus
package, but also from the ongoing costs of war and the shortfall in tax revenues, it is clear that something must be done.
We are back from the brink of financial system collapse, but now
the real economy is edging closer to the cliff. It is rare that a public policy initiative presents itself that can do so
much so quickly. The strong public option is such an initiative. It is not a cure all, but it addresses a very large part
of the problem.
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