No Country for the Public Plan Option

In today's The Health Care Blog, Jeff Goldsmith provides remarks in an article entitle No Country for Old Men, which, perhaps, should be called "No Country for the Public Plan Option."  An interesting read with some observations about the systemic risks for a public plan option and the challenges its proposal presents to political success for healthcare reform this time around.  After significant discussion, Mr. Goldsmith concludes "[r]ather than wasting scarce political capital on the public plan, health reformers need to focus on hospital and primary care physician payment reform, expanding Medicare coverage for the almost 11 million uninsured boomers and sensible design of a federal health insurance exchange.   It isn’t going to take a miracle to get this important public task done, just focus and discipline." The Health Care Blog: No Country for Old Men.