With prospects dim for the U.S. to adopt a single-payer “Medicare for All” program, health care reform advocates turned instead to an insurance plan designed by the government that could compete with private insurance plans sold on the health care exchanges. The idea behind this “public option” is that it could ultimately expand health care access by making a lower-cost plan available to consumers.
But that public-option plan, though backed by Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama, also has gone nowhere because of political opposition in Congress.
Some states have picked up the banner and are creating their own public-option plans. But they, too, are facing formidable opposition from the health care establishment, which is resisting the pressure to reduce costs on the back end so that consumers can pay less.
