The Public Option At Risk

In my interview with Laura Flanders of GritTV, I analyze the prospects for the public option in the Senate in the wake of the Senate Finance Committee's two votes against public option proposals this week.

I'm baffled, as I said in the interview, about how Democrats can think that it is good public policy to force Americans to buy private health insurance without doing anything to make sure that the health insurance is affordable.

But, as Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., one of the public-option amendment sponsors, said, this is an issue that will only grow in the days ahead. For one thing, there are a number of progressives in the House and the Senate who believe, as I do, that a public option is at the core of meaningful reform. Plus, if a reform bill with a public option was filibustered on the Senate floor, I doubt that Democrats have the stomach to see the bill defeated over that one issue.

Also, reform opponents threw everything they could at the reform effort during the August recess, and yet Democrats in both houses remain committed to the effort.

Finally, I have a great deal of faith in the American people and the support they have shown so far.

If we have a vigorous debate on the public option in the weeks ahead, I believe we can win that debate. The most important thing that progressives can do is get even more engaged than they have been up to now. In doing so, the two most important questions about any health care reform proposal are:

• Does it provide affordable coverage for all Americans?
• Does it create accountability?

You can't have one without the other, and you don't have either without the public plan option.