[HCIP] HELP health plan, Reform without public plan, Urban Institute report

***HEALTHCARE FOR ALL INFORMATION PROJECT***
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http://www.ourfuture.org/healthcare [2]

Contents:
1.  CBO-KAY! Senate HELP Bill Rebounds [3]
2.  Important new report on public insurance plans from the Urban Institute [4]
3.  Memo To Deficit Hawks: Public Plan Option Indisputably Saves Money [5]
4.  Health Care Deform: Afraid of the public option? This is what America will look like without it [6]
5.  WeWantThePublicOption.com [7]
6.  Tell Congress: Take the Pledge! [8]

1. CBO-KAY! Senate HELP Bill Rebounds [9]
By Tim Foley
Change.org
Click for source [9]

Republicans have made hay for the past few weeks on how Ted Kennedy's bill cost too much ($1 trillion dollars) and covered too few (only an additional 16 million).  Of course, that score was on a partial bill, one that the Congressional Budget Office itself claimed "[does] not represent a formal or complete cost estimate for the draft legislation" (italics theirs.)  It also lacked the details on the individual mandate, the employer "pay or play" mandate, and the public health insurance option.  But Kennedy and Chris Dodd have kept at it, undeterred from the catcalls, and have finally delivered the goods.  According to Jon Cohn on The Treatment, the new, full bill is in.
Read more here [9]

2. Important new report on public insurance plans from the Urban Institute [10]
By John Holahan and Linda Blumberg
Urban Institute
Click for source [10]

John Holahan and Linda Blumberg make the economic case that the public health insurance option will drive competition and control costs in what is currently a non-competitive marketplace, in a new paper released by the Urban Institute last week. The report, called "Is a Public Health Insurance Option an Essential Part of Reform?" describes both the heavy consolidation in the insurer and hospital markets and its implications as well as the benefits of a public health insurer competitor. The authors find that a robust national public plan would save the federal government between $224 and $400 billion. They assume such a plan would not only be able to offer Americans a lower-cost insurance option, but it would set a benchmark for private plans that would lead them to be more efficient and bring down their costs.
Read the whole report here [10]

3. Memo To Deficit Hawks: Public Plan Option Indisputably Saves Money [11]
By Bill Scher
Campaign for America's Future
Click for source [11]

When the CBO scored an early draft of the health care form bill from the Senate HELP committee as costing $1 trillion over 10 years but only covering one-third of the uninsured, obstructionists pounced and proclaimed the public plan option dead.
But the CBO had not assessed the cost of the public plan option, nor a mandate on most employers to either provide insurance or contribute to the public plan.

Now they have.  And as serious reform advocates long claimed, including those two key provisions drops the 10-year cost of reform by nearly $400 billion, while achieving near universal coverage. Will the self-proclaimed deficit hawks now embrace the public plan option since it would save money?
Read more here [11]

4. Health Care Deform: Afraid of the public option? This is what America will look like without it [12]
By Jacob Hacker and Rahul Rajkumar
The New Republic
Click for source [12]

The issue sucking up the oxygen in Washington today is whether to have a public health insurance plan compete with private insurers for the business of Americans without secure workplace coverage. Americans overwhelmingly back the idea, President Obama strongly supports it, and House Democratic leaders have drafted legislation that shows how it can be done. But the insurance and pharmaceutical lobbies and some medical provider groups have cried foul, and they have found a receptive ear not just among Republicans but also some Democrats who demand that reform be bipartisan, even if they have to cut the heart out of it.
Read more here [12]

5. WeWantThePublicOption.com [13]
Progressive Change Campaign Committee
Click for source [13]

76% of Americans say "we want the public option," and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee is going to make sure that Democratic Senators listen to them. The PCCC is currently airing an ad showing popular support for the public health insurance plan in Washington, DC on MSNBC, CNN, and during the Daily Show. Lend your support to making sure that your Senators hear your voice.
Read more here [13]

6. Tell Congress: Take the Pledge! [14]
Firedoglake.com
Click for source [14]

Progressive members of Congress need to draw a line in the sand and demand a public health insurance option -- something 76% of Americans want.

They need to Take the Pledge to vote against any health care bill that doesn't have a public plan which is:

• available nationwide
• on day one
• and accountable to Congress and the voters
• Please call progressive members of Congress and ask them to Take the Pledge now.

Take part in the whip count here [14]

Additional Resources:
Public Health Insurance Resource Page [15]

• Health Care for America Now:  Premiums Soaring in Consolidated Health Insurance Market:Lack of Competition Hurts Rural States, Small Businesses [16]
• Jacob Hacker: "Healthy Competition: How to Structure Public Health Insurance Plan Choice to Ensure Risk-Sharing, Cost Control, and Quality Improvement" (PDF) [17]
• Jacob Hacker: "The Case For Public Plan Choice in National Health Reform: Key to Cost Control and Quality Coverage" (PDF) [18]
• Diane Archer: "Near Universal Coverage, But No Cost Controls or Guarantee of Quality, Affordable Health Care for All" (PDF) [19]
• Frank Clemente: "A Public Health Insurance Plan: Reducing Costs and Improving Quality" (PDF) [20]
• The Commonwealth Fund: The Path to a High Performance U.S. Health System: A 2020 Vision and the Policies to Pave the Way [21]
• Leaders and Experts Agree that a Public Insurance Option is Critical to the Success of Obama's Health Reform Proposals (PDF) [22]