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President Obama wants healthcare reform legislation on his desk this fall!
Unfortunately, healthcare reformers within the Democratic Party say that single-payer healthcare is "off the table." They advocate instead a proposed "public option" that promises many benefits and lower cost. As a result, the debate between advocates of single-payer healthcare (S-P) and the yet-to-be- defined “public option” (PO) has reached the boiling point.
What is the public option? How does it compare to the single-payer solution?
At PDA-Chicago’s May meeting John Gaudette, IL Director of Health Care for All Now (HCAN), an advocate for the public option, accepted an invitation to continue a debate on single-payer healthcare and the public option. Dr. Anne Scheetz, PDA and PNHP member, represented single payer. (The debate began three weeks earlier at an HCAN rally in Chicago.)
To see and hear a clear, concise comparison of the ‘public option' and single-payer plans, view Dr. Scheetz’s opening remarks covering:
• How single-payer healthcare and the public option came into being
• Underlying ethic principals of both plans
• Evidence and logic underlying both plans
Dr. Anne Scheetz, , a physician in private practice making house calls for elderly patients, began the discussion by mentioning that the work she does as a single-payer advocate is unpaid, in addition to her private medical practice.
Significantly, single-payer healthcare remains in the public consciousness solely because of the commitment of individuals like Dr. Scheetz, while HCAN’s reported $40 million dollar endowment (Mr. Gaudette assured us the actual amount is far less) enables HCAN to promote the public option across the nation.
In Chicago, groups like PDA, Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), Chicago Single-Payer Action Network, and Illinois Single Payer Coalition (ISPC) work to educate the public and lobby legislators about single-payer.
Mr. Gaudette's case for the public option centered on politics, not policy, acknowledging the battering the public option has taken in the Senate, but laying out a pretty explicit timetable for legislation, whether it be “good, bad or indifferent.”
When Mr. Gaudette was asked why he thought single-payer advocates have been excluded from the debate, he added his guess to a list that runs the gamut from “it was a strategic decision” to “I assume it’s a power question” to “we haven’t excluded anyone.”
Overall, the debate exceeded our expectations. It provided a truly democratic format for presenting important policy options to the public before the legislature acts. There’s little doubt that when people are informed they will make the right decisions.
See more video segments of the debate.
All videos thanks to Illinois Media Progressives, Al Nowakowski and Cat Jaboe.
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