Senator Max Baucus is saying that he favors a “public option” in his health insurance proposal, but is not specific as to what that might be. I suspect that this is where he and the insurance industry are going to nail us – the devil will be in their details.
In Montana we already have a public option. We just don’t call it that. It’s called the “Montana Comprehensive Health Association“. There are something like 77,000 Montanans without health insurance, and MCHA picks up maybe three to four thousand of them. The reason it covers so few is that it is a horribly expensive high-deductible plan. But it is a “public option”.
Here’s the rules for qualifying for MCHA:
1)You have been rejected or offered a restrictive rider by two insurers within the last six months or have one of the listed specified illnesses (see this link – there’s a bunch); and
2) You are not eligible for any other health insurance coverage, or,
3) You have comparable coverage but are paying or have received a notice of a premium rate that is more than 150% of the average premium rate used to calculate MCHA premium rates.
In other words, you can go there only after the private insurance people have decided you are too high a risk for them.
Baucus and the insurance industry need to come clean on what they mean by “public option”, and soon. This could be a trap door, with Baucus holding the lever.
Footnote: Blue Cross Blue Shield administers MCHA, but has no risk – they merely collect a fee for use of their network. This is their idea of a “public service”.
Piece of Mindful 
We more or less own AIG. Why not offer anyone and everyone a “public option” to join Medicare, underwritten by our newly-acquired insurance giant. The competition would be good for private insurers and for Medicare. Eventually, most would migrate to the best plan, best service at the best price. Isn’t this what right-wingers want: government to run more like business?
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