Government Option = Government Takeover = Government Dibacle = Government Failure = Broken Heathcare = Bankrupt America = Global Takeover = End of America.

Of course, that's Obama's plan. After all, he's a 'citizen of the world'. How's that hope and change workin' for you?

You can get instant quality full coverage medical insurance for entire family at the best price from http://bit.ly/39pFJx

Our country is bankrupt.

Right. Reining in the abusive insurance companies means the end of America? The right of insurance companies to profit from the suffering of individuals is nowhere in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, The Gettysburg Address, the Pledge of Allegiance, or any of Ronald Reagan's movies. A public option will make America a better place. A healthier population = a healthier country.

debbiewingard, except that website can not provide plans in the state of Maine. Through regulation and public option the people of the state of Maine are screwed.

hank. What's the profit margin for health insurance companies? The public option will lead to single payer.... the federal government. Good luck with that. Prepare to die.

Total control is coming like a thief in the night

The Govt. can't run anything right and not on their own . They contract medicare out to Blue Cross and if they do get a option plan Blue Cross would get that too.

There are far more people than President Obama that think a Public Option is needed

Like alot of Healthcare Professionals.

I`m going with the Healthcare Progessionals.

And I for ONE hope that it does lead to a Single Payer Healthcare Option

Rather you helped vote in Obama or not.

This is a line by line issue for ALL of US.

If you cannot see that maybe u should do more reseach

Instead of sitting in your armchair playing President

This in NOT a game

((((Electra Supports a Single Payer Option))))

The notion of Government in competition with privately held business is a silly one. Not only does government set the rules, it sets the rates and terms that Insurance companies are required to follow. When a competitor sets the rules and the prices that isnt competition. That is something else.

This writer is only partially correct when he/she says that private insurance will not go away. For the vast majority of the middle class it is likely. Those with large incomes will still have the best insurance and health care. The super-rich will be as they always have, not paying any insurance costs at all. The vast majority will fall into this governement operated pit of fewer healthcare choices and Wal-mart, "push them through the line" healthcare. which btw is in the style of 1950's Soviet Union.

Actually Electra I was discussing this with my physician on thursday. This plan is not at all as popular with the in-the-know portion of the healthcare profession as you think it is.

Polling numbers. The writer said that between 50-61% of the population favor a so-called Public option. She/he did not cite a source. In a Rassmusan poll released this morning the results were starkly different. 49% say that doing nothing in healthcare at this time is a better option than passing any of the bills Congress is considering and that only 39% believe the current effort is better than doing nothing. This is hardly a ringing national endorsement of the "public option" as the editor would have you believe.

This latest health care proposal produced by the House is an obomination! Has the editorial staff of this newspaper completely lost it's mind? It will kill small business, cost trillions, not insure everyone and cause Dr's to retire in droves. Wake up people! There are lots of steps our govt could take to make health care in this country more accesible. Start small. Start with a catastrophic program. Reform malpractice laws. Allow insurance companines to compete state to state. We do not want this. Obama, does not know what the bleep he is doing. Again this monstrocity is scarier than the scariest gool on halloween!

I am in favor of universal health care. In the countries which practice it, the health care is cheaper, and the outcomes are generally better, BUT none of the bills being discussed are the right bills (IMHO) it is not the right time, and the people pushing these bills are mostly dishonest charlatans. just like the Corporate interests pushing against them.

Hey Hank, I'd rather deal with an insurance company any day than the U.S. govt. Wake up! Insurance companies can be held accountable, who the bleep is going to hold the govt accountable? Get real. And haven't you been paying attention? Insurance Co Their profits are not what the likes of CNN would like you to believe. We have problems with our health care we do not want what our govt. is proposing.

Hey harry, the outcomes are NOT generally better. Cancer survival rates in countries like Canada and Great Britain are far lower than in the US. Especially Breast Cancer. Those countries routinely do not allow treatments because of costs that are allowed in this country. Come on posters do your homework.

commonsense that is utter baloney. Life expectancy is longer in Canada, Britain, Japan, France, even Cuba, than in the US. And who, exactly, is holding insurance companies accountable? They can charge whatever they want. They can deny whoever they want. If someone builds a nuclear power plant near my home, I certainly want a watchdog with no vested interest in that power plant's profits to monitor the safety of the plant. In the same way, I want an agency to oversee the private insurance industry and legislate against its excesses. Safeguarding citizens from the abuse of a defacto monopoly is a legitimate and necessary role of government. The insurance companies are the ticket scalpers outside the ballgame of US health care. They're middlemen who limit access and drive up the price while taking their cut. To paraphrase Rush Limbaugh, I hope they fail.

Hank,. If you think they can charge what they want or deny what they want you havent visitied Augusta lately. If you think that insurance is somehow all one monopoly and the government is needed to protect us from them ... then who protects you from the government Hank when they start denying care. There will be noone to turn to. You will be like the older canadian citizen whom I chat with periodically who cant get a hip replacement and has been on the list for 3 years. When I asked him if it bothered him that he had to wait so long. His response was "thats just the way it is." Personally I would have been a bit more aggressive in relieving the pain than he is being, but then again he doesnt have the option.

Along with a viable public option, the health care legislation should also strip away insurance companies' exemption from anti-trust laws.

vichet that is just a vacuous argument. If private health insurance is the ONLY option, citizens are not protected from a system that puts profit ahead of care. That's why, as a self-governing people, we elected an administration that pledged to do something about it. Government is answerable to the electorate, whereas the private insurance companies are answerable to... their shareholders? My admittedly incomplete knowledge of the Canadian health care system is that life-threatening conditions have priority over things like hip replacements. Call it rationing if you want to, but it's a more moral system than one in which money talks the loudest and drowns out all other considerations. We're all gonna die, but Canadians live longer. Why is that? The evidence points to the superiority of their single-payer system.

Thats the problem Hank, you've bought into the notion that a government run system is somehow an "option" when should this bill pass, within a few years for most it will be a requirement. I do understand the profit motive Hank...and also understand that all Insurance is risk aversion vehicle nothing more. I feel more comfortable navigating that system with the government watching (which it is) from the sidelines. As for governance, its role should be to level the playing field for its citizens not become the guy that owns the ball. There are many reasons, mostly demographic, why western Europeans & Canadians outlive Americans but I dont believe for a second that its is the presumed superiority of a government run healthcare system. That strikes me as particularly vacuous.

The cripplingly expensive, morally barbaric status quo must NOT be an "option" anymore...

If you wonder why it costs so much and is crippiling look no further than Augusta and Washington.

If you wonder why it costs so much and is crippling look no further than the insurance companies' practice of "cherry-picking" the people and services they will cover, and the outrageous salaries of their administrators and CEOs. A single-payer system will save millions in administrative costs alone.

After reading the editorial I believe that the bill described is a different bill than the one I've been following these last few months. I know of no bill that will do what is being claimed here. The conservatives should should be praising Rep. Michaud for killing this bill. This bill is a perfect example of how the Dems or Repb can't do anything right and people have every right to distrust the government.