A Simple Test for the Public Plan
In general, you can figure out whether something is a public plan by asking a single question: Is it run by the public sector? If no, then it's not a public plan. Simple as that.
This is another way of saying that whatever Kent Conrad's co-op plan idea is, it's not a public plan. Conrad's idea for private co-ops that would offer health insurance -- an idea I'm on record saying I like -- is not run by the public sector. That's why he compares it to Ocean Spray, the co-op that makes cranberry juice, rather than Medicare. It is, in other words, not a public plan. And Kathleen Sebelius shouldn't be implying otherwise.
By
Ezra Klein
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June 17, 2009; 4:43 PM ET
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Health Reform
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Posted by: JonWa | June 17, 2009 6:17 PM | Report abuse
Or you could ask, "does the plan have access to public money?"
Posted by: tomtildrum | June 18, 2009 11:58 AM | Report abuse
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I do think it is rich irony the Republicans are stopping a small expansion in socialism by backing the organizational structure of Syndicate-Anarchism. (I think the Republicans support co-ops only because they plan to cripple them with strange rules so that they die a quick death.)
The GOP may come to regret co-ops when they find out it is another word for worker's unions, people collectives, syndicates, or communes.
A small medicare like program only for individuals not insured would be very politically passive program. Million member strong cooperatives are a different matter. They will throw their political weight around. Ironically health care coops might just be the thing to save labor unions and let them because broader worker's unions.