Hi Earl,

> But the "public option" does nothing to help people with pre-existing
> conditions.  The government insurance company is supposed to COMPETE with

That was all part of the bill, it came with the public option and it's one 
of the elements of the bill the Republicans disagree with.  Their charge is 
this program would establish death panels, but by comparison, they already 
have death panels. It's the insurance companies who now decide who lives and 
who dies.

> private insurers, not help them out by taking the uninsurable off their
> hands.  If it only took high risk people, it would have to charge the same
> kind of rates as the private companies.  And the law that is being debated
> can be passed without any public option in it, and the part on 
> pre-existing
> conditions would still be there.

What the insurance companies have issues with (and thus their campaign 
against this legislation) is to insure someone with a chronic pre-existing 
condition is a financial loss.  Ergo, by being forced to add those people, 
the insurance rates will go up for everyone else.  They won't take a cut in 
their profits.  By adding a supplemented public option (either through 
contracted insurance companies or the USG itself), it provides for those who 
don't have insurance and that will eventually drive the cost of insurance 
(overall) down.  Without the public option, the theory is that insurance 
rates will go up - unless we regulate their profit margins - *that's not a 
road that I'm willing to go down either*.  The law would provide a 
supplementation of those premiums so the individual would be able to afford 
the insurance.  The idea is that a person who is healthy may become 
(probably in most cases) a productive citizen who will be able to afford 
their own unsupplemented health care in time.

I can see we will disagree on this issue and I doubt either of us will ever 
know what may have happened.  In all likelihood the public option won't pass 
this go-round.  It will poke it's head up again in the future, I have no 
doubt.

Shannon


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