When do we start fighting for The Public Option?

[TheKentuckian]

21. The real answer is probably after we "fix" NAFTA.

My answer is after we get a national exchange with universal access, until then a public option is a dumping ground for the cartel to rid themselves of the expensive to cover both by pushing them toward it and by self selection, if you have real problems who do you trust to actually provide care the cartel or Uncle Sam?

Would you select Tricare or Cigna if you had serious ailments or a terrible condition?

If we are betting our asses on "market forces" then it seems imperative that we actually give them a chance to function which means as few and as large a pools as possible and access to the market for everyone depended on it rather than sequestering a small minority into an arena where there is choice and competition.

Laser focus on the public option is probably part of the reason the bill structurally stinks as much as it does because so little pressure was ever applied in the more mundane areas like ending the anti-trust exemption or a national exchange or ramping of the population in to the exchange(s) or even how subsidies would be distributed.

I just think we need to do a hell of a lot to clean up the actual structure before we go back to fixating on features. We probably will find that there are some poison pills we allowed into the bill with the hundreds of TeaPubliKlan Amendments accepted without a single vote. Seems Ensign got a toxic bit in that will allow increases based on health and compliance with advice from wellness visits that allow substantial cost increases for one.

I also find certain treatments of people to be inconsistent like being able to carry a child to 26, in which case we are providing a needed benefit to those just starting out in life that can't afford insurance but also see a 19 year old as a deadbeat who doesn't want to contribute because that kid's parents don't have coverage or refuse to carry them.

These young folks are exactly the same except in their choice of parent but one needs generous and comprehensive help and the other is a welfare queen type that wants a free ride.
Why are the adult children of the middle and upper class in need of more patience and budget wiggle room than the children of the poor and working class without insurance?
Why does an 18 year old helper on a construction site need 8.5% (or whatever) more of their income than a 23 year old working in the same office (making similar money, to boot) I do based on the status and willingness to help of their parents?

If we as a society believe that a person needs to the age of 26 to establish themselves then that should apply to all people below 26 not just those in the more fortunate circumstances. Hell, we didn't even mandate that people carry their adult children, instead we just said if they want to they may.

The whole law is filled with separate and unequal, that shit has to be fixed.