Why not Include a Public Health Insurance Option?

As I noted in a previous post, our national Constitution itself declares that one purpose of our union is "to promote the general welfare."

In that regard, our national experience has shown that:
1. We cannot rely entirely on the private sector to insure our access to health care. There are many Americans who are being deprived of health care insurance by the private system.
2. Several forms of optional public health insurance have functioned for decades and remain popular, such as Medicare, Medicaid and the Veteran’s Administration.

I am therefore in favor of having some form of universal public health insurance available in our national health care system. I think it would be easiest to expand the Medicare option to include anyone who wants it, but perhaps experience and investigation indicate that another way is likely to be more effective.

To those who are opposed to having any public health insurance option, I would ask, “What is your opposition based on?” If it is based simply on anti-government dogma, your opposition represents a refusal to consider options, facts and experience, and it is unworthy of consideration in the real world. There are simply too many lives at stake.