| By Bret Thompson, ProgressOhio - Jul 3rd, 2009 at 10:44 am EDT |
Kay Hagan (D-NC) joins Arlen Specter as yet another Senator who had been openly skeptical of including a public option in the health care reform bill and has now come to embrace it.
In the latest proposal from the Senate's HELP committee, the public option has been rebranded the Community Health Insurance Option. Here are Sen. Hagan's remarks from yesterday about the plan:
"My colleagues and I on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee have been working on a plan to reform the health care system in this country. We have crafted a plan that will stabilize health care costs and includes a Community Health Insurance Option, which I support. It is a backstop option for people without access to affordable coverage. Health care providers will not be required to participate, payment rates will be set in a competitive fashion, and the community health insurance option will compete on a level playing field with private health insurance plans in the gateway."
The public option is a critical part of any serious effort to reform health care and is one of Health Care for America Now's reform principles.
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