Keep Your Job, Lose Your Health Insurance

By Monica Sanchez, Campaign for America's Future. Posted February 7, 2009.

"This legislation funding of health information technology, evidence-based prevention, and comparative effectiveness research will set the stage for the broader reforms needed to address the high cost of health care."

Another important aspect of President Obama's health care reform plan is the addition of a public health insurance plan option to drive more value in our health care system by competing side-by-side with private insurance and using its bargaining power to rein in costs.

In his analysis of how a hybrid public/private plan choice would improve the U.S. health care system, "The Case For Public Plan Choice In National Health Reform", Jacob Hacker concludes that a national public health insurance plan option would allow for a much larger and broader risk pool and would be in a better position to contain overall health care costs by using its large membership in negotiating for discounts. It can also test and, where appropriate, implement evidence-based protocols, which private plans may choose to shun because of cost concerns, for treatments and payment systems, rewarding value.

And Americans want that choice. A new poll conducted by Lake Research Partners on behalf of Health Care for America Now (HCAN) found there is "intense and widespread voter support" for the choice of a public health insurance plan as part of comprehensive, national health care reform even when voters hear the sharpest insurance industry attacks on a public plan. In paired statements supporting and attacking a public health insurance plan, a majority of voters choose the statement backing a public health insurance option every time. For example:

• 62% of voters believe a public health insurance plan will spend less on profits and administration and force private insurers to compete.
  • Only 28% of voters believe the attack that a public health insurance plan would be a "big, government bureaucracy."
• 60% believe that if private insurers are really more efficient than government, then they won't have any trouble competing with a public health insurance plan.
  • Only 23% believe a public health insurance plan would have an unfair advantage over private plans.

While recent polling has shown consistent broad support for comprehensive health care reform, this poll specifically addressed whether people want a choice of a public health insurance plan. The answer is an overwhelming yes:

• 73% of voters want a choice of a private or public health insurance plan, including Democrats (77%), Independents (79%), and Republicans (63%).

"Voters strongly value having a choice of private or public health insurance plans and support having the guaranteed, affordable coverage that a public health insurance plan provides. They also believe that a public health insurance plan will help contain costs in ways that private insurers have failed to do," said Celinda Lake, President of Lake Research Partners.

Let's make sure our representatives in Congress are listening.

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