President Barack Obama’s new health care proposal – more of an outline than an actual plan – builds largely on the Senate bill passed in December, and like that plan contains no “public option.” But there is built into the President’s proposal a mechanism by which the public option may one day make a triumphant return.
The key is in one of the few new features to show up in the President’s plan, the creation of a “Health Insurance Rate Authority,” a new federal agency charged with monitoring health insurers to make sure that any proposed premium increases are not “unreasonable” or “unjustified.” This federal agency will have the power to compel private insurers to lower premiums, offer rebates, or “take other actions to make premiums affordable.”
