Medicare Part E

by digby

One can only wonder how it all might have gone if they’d done this in the first place:

Say hello to “Medicare Part E” — as in, “Medicare for Everyone.” House Democrats are looking at re-branding the public health insurance option as Medicare, an established government healthcare program that is better known than the public option.
The strategy could benefit Democrats struggling to bridge the gap between liberals in their party, who want the public option, and centrists, who are worried it would drive private insurers out of business.

While much of the public is foggy on what a public option actually is, people understand Medicare. It also would place the new public option within the rubric of a familiar system rather than something new and unknown.
The idea has bubbled up among House Democrats and leaders in the past week, most prominently in a caucus meeting last Thursday.
Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark.) spoke out last week in favor of re-branding the public option as Medicare, startling many because he has loudly proclaimed his opposition to a public option.

When this first came up a week ago, I said let’s take yes for an answer. Of course, I assumed that Ross meant what he said, which was that people should just be able to “buy in” to Medicare, which seems eminently reasonable to me. As I said at the time, I would buy into that program in a minute.

This has come up from time to time since the beginning of the reform debate but it never seemed to go anywhere. I don’t know how serious this is, but if it is, it’s far better rhetorically and substantively than what we’ve been doing so far. I’m a little bit surprised that Mr Blue Dog is pushing it, but maybe he’s seen the light …

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