Wednesday, June 24

A poll released Monday showed 72 percent of Americans favor an insurance health care plan with a public option. So why do only 36 senators support it?

Sure, the Senate is supposed to be a more deliberative body and not be swayed by public opinion to the same extent as the House. But, if there’s widespread backing for this concept, and it’s getting a renewed push from President Obama, why so much resistance in the Senate?

Is it because senators are standing on good old-fashioned apple pie principles?

Maybe not. Here’s an analysis that suggests insurance company PAC money is having the greatest impact on middle-of-the road Democratic senators. According to the report:

“Liberal Democrats are likely to hold firm to the public option unless they receive a lot of remuneration from health care PACs. Conservative Democrats may not support the public option in the first place for ideological reasons, although money can certainly push them more firmly against it.

“But the impact on mainline Democrats appears to be quite large: if a mainline Democrat has received $60,000 from insurance PACs over the past six years, his likelihood of supporting the public option is cut roughly in half from 80 percent to 40 percent.”

As I’ve said, there may well be legitimate philosophical reasons to oppose this type of national health care plan, or any other approach, for that matter. An umbilical cord flowing with ready cash from major insurers isn’t one of them.

To his credit, Obama finally put pressure on health care companies, and opponents of the public option, in a news conference Tuesday.

As he correctly pointed out: “If private insurers say that the marketplace provides the best quality health care … then why is it that the government, which they say can’t run anything, suddenly is going to drive them out of business? That’s not logical.”

It’s only logical if you understand that cash is the conduit through which public policy decisions are often made.

Money doesn’t talk, Dylan said, it swears.





