Government Health- Reform Plan Viewed as “Fallback” Option

The vociferous debate on whether to implement a government-backed health plan to compete against private insurers continues to thrive in Congress. Last week, Senator Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) met privately with several different members of Congress to discuss health care reform legislation. One option that Snowe supports and that continues to gain momentum in the search for a compromise is a “fallback public plan” that would be implemented in the next few years. Essentially, the fallback option gives private health insurers the chance to cut costs and increase accessibility before a government-backed public plan would be put in place. A similar option was included in the legislation that created Medicare Part D prescription drug coverage, but a public plan was never created because private companies were able to meet the legislation’s goals and standards. Snowe has had fruitful discussions with a group of bipartisan senators on the Senate Finance Committee, chaired by Sen. Max Baucus (D-Montana). “Fallback is on the table,” Baucus stated at a Kaiser Family Foundation on May 21. Despite the support of the fallback public plan among many bipartisan members of Congress, many have a very difficult time supporting any kind of government-backed plan. A group of House and Senate Republicans claimed on Tuesday the government-backed plan would have “the compassion of the IRS, the efficiency of the post office, and the incompetence of Katrina assistance efforts.”