Plus, there are even more savings that are likely from the public option because the government has proven to be more efficient in how they run healthcare insurance policies. Medicare has 2% in overhead, while the average private insurance plan has about 10-25% of their costs in overhead. That's an enormous difference. But even if you think the government can't run an enterprise as efficiently (though the evidence clearly shows otherwise), you would be hard pressed to think they couldn't at least cut costs significantly because of the first three reasons stated above.
So, given all of this, it is absolutely clear that the public option must be included in any real healthcare reform plan that comes out of Congress. Otherwise, it's a joke and the lobbyists have won again. The public option is the whole enchilada here. Politicians who talk about compromising on it have no policy ground to stand on. They are simply doing the bidding of their benefactors, large healthcare corporations who feed their campaign coffers. Don't believe any sweet talk about necessary compromises. It is a deception meant to kill the heart of the bill.
It must be the public option or bust. There will be many things to negotiate in the final bill, but this cannot be one of them. Otherwise, there will be no real reform.
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Cenk Uygur is host of The Young Turks, the first ever live, daily web television talk show. The Young Turks are on XM Satellite Radio 8-9PM ET (XM 167, America Left) and on Sirius Left 146. The Young Turks is one of the Top 100 You Tube Partners, with over 18 million views a month on (
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