Obama writing his own health bill, just in case

Word has it that Obama has been drafting his own health care bill secretly, just in case the Senate bill turns into a Frankenstein monster. So he has yet another way to get in the win column. My guess is that his plan looks something like this:


The bill will establish a national coop which will be governed by members paid from coop’s own funds, and administered by private firms; getting its policy and financial safety net from HHS.

It will mandate irrevocable coverage, both public and private, with accountability to consumers and a “basic services” platform including prescriptions; it will prevent price spikes, adverse selection, lifetime caps, huge deductibles, and denial and termination of coverage.

The bill will control rising costs and encourage competition; buy-in will be significantly less than the 13 percent of annual income which Snowe prescribed.

The bill will supercede all preferential deals which insurers have with local governments and reaffirm the supremacy of Article 1 of the Constitution over Amendment 10.

We may never see this bill, but if we do, we can check to see how close my guess is. My proposed bill is not technically public option but it has just about all the features that people want from the public option.