Word: optionally
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...about what he wants to see in the final product, and the details of the plan will very much determine whether potential opponents will support him in the end. Nowhere is that clearer than on the controversial question of whether the health-care-reform scheme will include a "public option," which would give people the choice of being covered under a government-financed program. On Thursday, the American Medical Association (AMA) said that while it is willing to consider a public plan under some circumstances, it "opposes any public plan that forces physicians to participate, expands the fiscally challenged Medicare...
...clear that system is breaking down and now leaders in Moscow are at a loss for a solution. Sending Russian troops into these areas would not be effective, as keeping track of insurgents is an almost impossible task. Blocking funds to the republics is also not an option. "It would just result in a massive social upheaval and that's the last thing the Kremlin wants," says Malashenko...
...Public Plan. Yes, the House version has a government-run option, which Democrats say would be crucial to holding down costs and to provide competition that would, in President Barack Obama's words, "keep insurance companies honest," but which Republicans say would be a deal-breaker. Still, the House model appears to be far weaker than one described in early drafts of the HELP Committee's legislation. If those early drafts are any indication, the HELP version would look a lot like Medicare, with the rates that it reimburses hospitals, doctors and other health-care providers linked to those paid...
...House version, on the other hand, would have a government plan that looks a lot like a private insurance company. "The public health insurance option is self-sustaining and competes on 'level field' with private insurers," according to the document released by the three committee chairmen...
That's a very big difference. Where the insurance industry says that it would go broke if it had to compete with a Medicare-like option, some of the big companies say privately they could live with a government plan, if it had to sustain itself (as they do) on the premiums they collect, and if it is subject to the same regulatory rules that they are. Similarly, the weaker House version would not run into as much opposition from hospitals and doctors, who don't want yet another government plan squeezing them the way that Medicare does. However, that...