House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Peter Stark (D-CA), health care expert and U.C. Berkeley professor Jacob Hacker and Institute for America's Future co-director Roger Hickey held a press teleconference, which DOTmed attended, in order to announce the release of a policy brief on public insurance options as a critical element of President-elect Obama's health care reforms. The new brief is entitled "The Case for Public Plan Choice in National Health Reform," and is authored by Hacker. The Report was published jointly by the Institute (a non-partisan research and education organization) and the Center on Health, Economic and Family Security from the U.C. Berkeley Law School.

According to the Institute, the insurance industry is opposing key elements of reform embraced by President-elect Obama, Obama's health care point person Tom Daschle and Senate Finance Committee chairman Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT). However, the Institute says, the new brief shows that "a public insurance option is crucial to controlling health care costs and achieving quality coverage."

During the teleconference, Prof. Hacker explained that a core and controversial part of President-Elect Obama's proposed health care reform is to offer a public insurance option to Americans who lack employment-based coverage. The option would be similar to conventional Medicare, managed by the Government, and paying private providers for the care. The proposed public plan would be offered through a national insurance exchange, competing with private plans "on a level playing field." Prof. Hacker said the new policy brief being released sets out an argument for a public plan choice--that public and private insurance have distinct strengths and should be able to compete with each other so that public insurance can serve as a benchmark for private insurance, and private insurance can remedy some of the weaknesses of public insurance. According to Prof. Hacker, the plan is a hybrid approach, building upon the best elements of the present systems, while putting in place new means by which those without access to secure workplace insurance can choose among plans for affordable coverage. For those without workplace coverage, Hacker emphasized, any menu of options must include a public plan to achieve the broad goals of health care reform, namely universal insurance and improved quality.
Three-Point Plan

Prof. Hacker then briefly explained the three points of the plan discussed in the brief: cost containment, quality improvement and value. Rep. Stark then commented that the primary reason for a safety net program was to ensure care for the approximately 47 million persons who can't afford insurance and medical care, and don't qualify for Medicare.

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