Public Plan Mirage: It pretends to control costs and improve access when it doesn’t.

The promise of the public plan is a mirage. Its political brilliance is to use free-market rhetoric (more “choice” and “competition”) to expand government power.

As originally conceived by Yale political scientist Jacob Hacker, the public plan would be a government-created, nonprofit insurance company providing Medicare-like coverage to the under-65 population. But unlike Medicare, benefits would be paid for mainly by premiums—not taxes. Americans could buy coverage from the public plan or a private insurer.

Pelosi lacks votes for most sweeping public option

Speaker Nancy Pelosi counted votes Thursday night (10/22) and determined she could not pass a “robust public option” — the most aggressive of the three forms of a public option that the House Democrats have been considering as part of a national overhaul of health care.

Regarding the public health insurance option: US Science czar John Holdren

This man, the Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, and Co-Chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology — informally known as the Science Czar of the US White House who undoubtedly has influence on the health issue and implementations, authored in his 1977 book ECOSCIENCE the following..

Only three cities in the U.S. have better health-insurance coverage than Seattle

Only three cities in the U.S. have better health-insurance coverage than Seattle, according to new U.S. Census Bureau data. Only 9.51% of people are without health insurance. Dallas, however boasts a whopping 36.97% without health insurance! The Pacific Northwest rocks!!

source: http://seattle.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2009/10/12/daily7.html?ana=from_rss