Jacob Hacker Writes in Vox on the Public Option
Jacob Hacker’s new piece in Vox, “There’s a Simple Fix for Obamacare’s Current Woes: The Public Option,” makes the case that now more than ever the public option should be revisited. Comparing the 2010 Affordable Care Act to a ‘starter home’, he writes, “Now the home has been built, and it’s in need of some additions.”
The public option is a Medicare-like plan that would be offered in the existing health care marketplace. It would attempt to give patients a broad choice of providers and provide more stability and predictable costs. Implementing it should be relatively easy to do. He writes:
“Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, we already have a system for subsidizing coverage for low- and middle-income Americans and a set of regulated portals for enrolling those Americans in private insurance plans that meet minimum standards. These could easily be adapted to incorporate a national public option.”