Health care compromise within reach

By GottaLaff

Ted Kennedy and Howard Dean, what are your thoughts:

President Barack Obama's top health care adviser said Wednesday a compromise is within reach on a government health plan for the middle class that wouldn't drive private insurers out of business. [...]

Nancy-Ann DeParle, director of the White House health reform office, said a public plan could be designed to address concerns about the federal government overreaching in its role. [...]

For example, she said one compromise might be that the public plan pays hospitals and doctors rates similar to what private insurers pay. That would address fears that government would use its muscle to pay rock-bottom prices for medical services, allowing the public plan to charge discounted premiums that private insurers couldn't compete with. [...]

Even if the government plan paid private-market rates to doctors and hospitals, it could still cut costs, DeParle said. A government plan wouldn't have to turn a profit, and could also save on administrative expenses.

However, DeParle acknowledged that ideological objections to government's role would be hard to overcome.

Most Americans may not realize it, but government already pays nearly half of the nation's health care tab. Government programs cover seniors, poor families, and many children. Obama has proposed to expand that.

His plan would offer middle class workers and their families the option of enrolling in a public plan, along with private insurance, through a new kind of purchasing pool. [...]

If a public plan was open to all employers and individuals, and paid doctors and hospitals the same low rates as Medicare, it would become the dominant insurer in the country, the study found. But if the plan were open only to individuals and small businesses, and paid rates similar to private insurers, its impact would be limited. In that case, the public plan would mainly be helping groups that now have a hard time getting private coverage.

The insurance industry remains skeptical, and some Republican lawmakers say any kind of public plan would be a deal breaker.

Let's be honest. To the Rushpublics, any plan would be a deal breaker.