Link: Senate Panel Rejects of Public Option in Health Plan
WASHINGTON — After a half-day of animated debate, the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday rejected efforts by liberal Democrats to add a government-run health insurance plan to major health care legislation, dealing the first official setback to an idea that many Democrats, including President Obama, say they support.
There are more than enough sources on the internet that anyone can read that explain why the public option was possibly the most crucial element of health care reform.
Advocates of a public plan say it would provide crucial competition for private insurers and that the larger goals of the legislation, to extend coverage to more than 30 million uninsured Americans and to slow the steep rise in health care costs, cannot be achieved without it. I tend to agree with them—and I’ll go a step further. If there was indeed one part of the country that was turned into an actual socialized sector, health care is that one sector. Otherwise, 45,000 people will die each year, according to multiple sources. So I guess a congratulations are in order?
About a dozen people carrying guns, including one with an AR-15 assault rifle, milled among protesters outside an event where President Barack Obama was giving a speech Monday in Phoenix.
