Senator Dick Durbin's (D-IL) Online "Public-Option Poll" - Still Needs Propeller Users' "Prop-It/Drop-It" Rapid Straw-Poll »

Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), a key member of the Senate subcommittee overseeing the Health & Human Services Dept. and a key player in the current Healthcare Reform debates, has posted a “Public Option” poll on his website – allowing American citizens to make their opinions known on the various HCR bill proposals being tossed around the “closed doors” of Congress.

I took the poll today on Sen. Durbin's site, but there was no confirmation on when the results would be made public. So, I thought I would put the questions from the poll in front of you here and get your comments on which "Public Option" proposal would be he most effective in terms of achieving "Universal Healthcare"-based federal subsidization of health insurance for low-income Americans -- given your Propeller-powered ability to comment and "Prop-It/Drop-It." It would just be great early barometer of what Propeller's American citizenry thinks of this rather complicated, multiple-choice "Opt-Out/Opt-In/Trigger/Full 50-State Public Option/No Public Option bill proposal.

Sen. Durbin’s poll lays out 5 different “Public Option” scenarios, asking respondents to score them on a 0-to-10 scale of popularity, as follows:

1) The “50-State Public Option” - Basically the “Full Monty” of Public Option assistance to provide Americans with government-funded health insurance coverage “to introduce competition to keep private insurance companies honest” (is this with For-Profit/Big Insurance carriers keeping their 64-year-old federal government-enacted ANTITRUST EXEMPTIONS left intact?);

2) The “Opt-Out Public Option” - It would allow states to simply “opt-out” of this “fully-funded” federal health insurance assistance program;

3) The “Opt-In Public Option” - Legislation that would “require each state to ‘opt-in’ to a fully-funded public health insurance option, likely resulting in lower participation rates than an ‘opt-out’ public option,” which is about as convoluted an explanation as the kind of legislation coming out Congress for many years. Does anyone have a legal interpreter/lawyer who can explain this one?;

4) The “Trigger” Option - Legislation that would “only allow for the creation of a public health insurance option several years from now [“…in a galaxy, far, far away”], if and only if private insurance companies continue unreasonable premium increases and demonstrate an unwillingness to compete in the marketplace [isn’t that a foregone conclusion?]";

5) The “No Public-Option” plan - Just what it implies...a continuation of America’s century-old For-Profit/Big Health Insurance, “DENIALS-BASED, HAVE OR HAVE-NOT” healthcare system (if “system” is what it can be called?).

Well, if you think these Public-Option scenarios resemble a Rorschach-like visual abstract test or rat’s maze, you’re probably right. I’m still just totally dumbfounded why our federal government can’t just simply join the 50 or so other countries around the world in offering various forms of a “full” Public Option-based “Universal Healthcare” system?

In all seriousness, though, I think that Senator Durbin’s poll really gives us Americans a chance to cast our votes/opinions on the Public-Option aspects of Healthcare Reform – minus Congress and the White House ever actually putting this process up for a truly OPEN PUBLIC-FORUM, CONSENSUS-BUILDING, bill-making referendum.

You can probably guess that I voted for the “50-State Option” (with “10” being the most popular choice and “Os” for the remaining four option scenarios). But I also followed up my vote with an online letter to Senator Durbin (view below), asking when and whether the results will be made public as well as strongly suggesting that a “full” Public Option plan should be part-and-parcel of a working, “proven” NONPROFIT health insurance system (currently offered on a limited/isolated basis by the Medicare Advantage Prescription Drug [MA-PD] program) that TANC explores and advocates in its “Rx for U.S. Healthcare Reform” position paper found at http://www.transamericanalliance.org.

I also urge you to please re-post the link to Senator Durbin’s “Public Option Poll” with any other social network connections (i.e. Facebook Friends, Twitter followers, etc.) you might also belong to. The more people we can get to vote on this, the closer we will actually feel like we can make a difference – short of having NO voice or hand in the current CLOSED-DOOR/CLOSED-FORUM Congressional debates on Healthcare Reform. Power to the [Propeller] People!

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