If costs could be lowered, more people could afford insurance. But if the insurance industry doesn't drive down costs, then a public option awaits. That is a great compromise because it provides an incentive to insurance companies to do what they're supposed to do and it doesn't eliminate setting up a government insurance option. This may be what we hear from Obama on Sept. 9:
The compromise plan would lack a government-run public health insurance option favored by Obama, but would leave the door open to adding that provision down the road under an idea proposed by Snowe, the sources said.It's not going to make liberals happy, though. Many liberals have already dismissed it but they're just shooting themselves in the foot because the only other option they have is to pass a public option through reconciliation, a process that is iffy at best.
One of the sources said White House officials are "deep in conversations" with Snowe on a much smaller health care bill than Obama originally envisioned.
The modified proposal would include insurance reforms, such as preventing insurance companies from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, according to the source.
The potential deal would give insurance companies a defined period to make such changes in order to help cover more people and drive down long-term costs. But if those changes failed to occur within the defined period, a so-called "trigger" would provide for creating a public option to force change on the insurance companies, the source said. CNN
