Americans Prefer a Public Option to a Bipartisan Bill

It's true. For all the noise made the last few months about making sure the health care bill has bipartisan support, the majority of Americans really don't care--if it means the public option wouldn't be part of the final bill. From the ABC News/Washington Post poll:

"Which of these would you prefer – (a plan that includes some form of government-sponsored health insurance for people who can’t get affordable private insurance, but is approved without support from Republicans in Congress); or (a plan that is approved with support from Republicans in Congress, but does not include any form of government-sponsored health insurance for people who can’t get affordable private insurance)?"

Fifty one percent said they preferred the public option; 37 percent said they preferred a bill with some support from Republicans in Congress. Six percent said neither and seven percent expressed no opinion.

New Poll Shows Public Option: Popular! GOP: Not so much.

You know how Congressional Republicans keep saying nobody wants the public option? And that Republicans have nothing to lose and everything to gain by opposing legislation proposed by Democrats?

Well...hmmm.

Friday Afternoon Links

• Do you feel like the government's helping people like you?
  
  
• E.J. Dionne on why the public option should be a centrist proposal.
  
  
• Depressing news for a gloomy fall day: we lost a lot more jobs than we thought we would in September. Yuck.
  
  
• Food workers need a union in order to guarantee safety on the job. Because, as the American Prospect details here, companies won't make the effort to do so.
  

Health Care Insurance Companies Scared of Losing Massive Profits to Public Option

According to the Associated Press, Health Insurance companies sent a letter today to the Senate saying that a pubic option for health insurance would cripple their profit-driven business model and hamstring employer-provided health insurance.

This is just another example of the scare tactics that opponents of health care reform are selling, and the American people still aren't buying.

And the health insurance lobby has a reason to be scared. New York Times/CBS Poll that came out this week found that most Americans

said the government could do a better job of holding down health-care costs than the private sector.

These are companies that have imposed average premium increases of more than 120% over the past decade, according to Health Care for American Now!

The basic disagreement comes down to this:

Americans think that the government could do a better job than private health insurance companies and therefore want a public option.

Private Health Insurers know that the government could do a better job than private health insurance companies and therefore do not want a public option.

The private health insurers have a really big interest in keeping the system the way it is, in spite of it being broken. Why? Because

Profits at 10 of the country’s largest publicly traded health insurance companies rose 428 percent from 2000 to 2007. In 2007 alone, the chief executive officers at these companies collected combined total compensation of $118.6 million-an average of $11.9 million each.

Whose interests should our elected officials keep in mind?