For several weeks now, I've been beating a drum (here and here for example) about how the public option is the option of good conscience -- an escape hatch for those of us who don't want to be forced by the federal government to buy private insurance from one of the various mafia families. And as we've seen in the Baucus plan, the penalties are punative enough to coerce us into keeping the cartels well-fed.
But I'm really glad to see that this "Option of Good Conscience" idea is spreading.
Third — and this is where I am getting a very bad feeling about the idea of throwing in the towel on the public option — is the politics. Remember, to make reform work we have to have an individual mandate. And everything I see says that there will be a major backlash against the idea of forcing people to buy insurance from the existing companies. That backlash was part of what got Obama the nomination! Having the public option offers a defense against that backlash.
Backlash understates the impact. But there's also a core values and morality component here that feeds the backlash. The politics are bad, yes. And the backlash will be significant. But the Democratic Party and the White House will be asking us to do something that is morally impossible for many of us. A compulsory corporate giveaway is unthinkable.
Josh Marshall is also hitting this idea, too:
Am I the only one who thinks that if the Dems pass a bill with mandates and subsidies for poor and moderate income people to purchase it but no public option or competition with the insurers, that it will be pretty much a catastrophe for the Democrats in political terms?
You're definitely not the only one, Josh. And with the Baucus Plan on the table, we all need to watch its progress very carefully and ramp up the mobilization in support of the public option.