2 Opinions

Here are 2 different opinions in the health care debate and in support of the public option in particular:

The first is an editorial in the New York Times, "The Public Plan, Continued." The author explains how the Senate Finance and Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committees must now reconcile their two versions of a bill, the former having struck the public option and the latter still insisting on its inclusion. The opinion of the editorial board lies closer to the HELP Committee's version supporting a strong public option but "with care taken to mitigate adverse effects on rural areas," such as low rates of reimbursement for rural hospitals.

The second is from Robert Reich, former US Secretary of Labor under Clinton and current professor at the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley, on his personal blog: "Why Obama Has to do What Letterman Did: Refuse to Pay Hush Money." Reich is critical of both Big Pharma and Doctors, as represented by the AMA, nearly equating their demands on the White House's plan to extortion. He proposes that if the President caves to their demands, it is middle-income taxpayers who will ultimately be forced to provide the hush money in the forms of "still higher premiums, co-payments, and deductibles, higher drug prices, Medicare premiums, and taxes." Reich also warns that if Obama is too soft on the Senate and lets important cost containment efforts fail, we may be dealing with an even scarier prospect than further increasing health care costs: Sarah Palin in 2012.