Universal Healthcare Backup Plan

It's starting to look more and more like there won't be a Public Option in the upcoming healthcare legislation. If there isn't a public option, then I wouldn't refer to this bill as anything approximating healthcare reform. I'm not even completely certain that all the loopholes regarding pre-existing condition will be closed.

If that's the case, then there needs to be some back-up plan in the works. I suggest the following (which is nearly the same as what we're suggesting for the public option, but proposed and worded diffferently).

1) Extend Medicare to those ages 55+. Essentially, the people that are most vocally opposed to the Public Option are those in the 45-65+ range. They're worried that Medicare either A) Won't be there when they turn 65, or B) worried that Medicare is going to start cutting back their coverage. Of course, those of with brains know that isn't the case, so billing healthcare reform as 'Extending Eligible Age of Medicare' negates the connotation of "Cuts to Medicare."

2) Enact a provision that a person of any age may opt for private insurance. Of course, we know that insurance companies basically default on your coverage once you turn 65 because they know that you're covered under the government's insurance program. Enacting a provision so that people that hit 55 may either keep their coverage (and the insurance companies cannot drop them, as long as they pay their premiums), or opt for Medicare.

3) Extend the coverage of SCHIP so that every child under the age of 18 is eligible. The nearest statistics I could find on coverage of SCHIP was around 6.6 million children in 2006. Of the some-odd 75 million children in the US, 8.3 million do not have some form of health insurance. I don't know the best way to do this, but it would seem as if the coverage rate was either expanded to include higher percentage levels of poverty, or if funding were simply doubled, then the 8.3 million uninsured children could receive some form of coverage. Like I said, I don't know enough about income disparities and efficiencies to know the best way to insure children, but I don't think there is any reason that a child should not have coverage, especially if it's because a parent can't afford it. It's not a child's fault if the parent can't afford medical insurance. (I vote that we just cover children under 18 via Medicare and get rid of the SCHIP component. I also vote that we make this mandatory coverage, regardless of whether the parent wants their child covered or not. We make them enroll in school; we should make them enroll in health care.)

4) Include a section wherein every few years (let's just say '5') the eligibility age to enroll in Medicare is reduced by 5. So, in 2014, the eligible age to enroll in Medicare becomes 50. In 2019, the eligible age becomes 45. So (unless other changes were made), by the year 2045, every adult in America would be eligible for coverage under Medicare and every child would already have coverage. This would be more difficult to pass (incrementalism always is); however, it would be easier in a few years time to simply add this portion into the existing laws. After all, if you vote to extend Medicare coverage by five years, you've got five years of voters that are in favor of it.

I have other 'Band-Aid' ideas that could improve the situation without being a full-blown public option, but I don't need to go into them here because hopefully, some of the Democrats will get their heads out of their asses and realize that the public option (Republican ass-hattery aside) is what the population wants. And I don't care about the portion of the population that has insurance now (the 65+ers, and those with private insurance) that are yelling they don't want private insurance. I'm talking about the portion of the population that right now does not have health insurance. They're yelling that they need something. Democrats (Blanche Lincoln, Mark Pryor, and Mike Ross) need to forget about the politics, the town hall meetings, and the media (FoxSmear) and simply do what makes the most sense: the public option.

I hope this is my last post on the current health care divide. I'd like to talk about something else (not that anybody is twisting my arm into talking about this).