Raising the Stakes on the Public Option

I just finished watching Ocean’s Thirteen so, I’ve got a little bit of a gambling fixation.  Not that I would ever bet on Healthcare Reform — It’s way too important an issue — but what does gambling say about where the Public Option might stand right now?

Bear with me for a moment . . . Something like 77% of Americans think the time is right for a Public Option (see SurveyUSA poll Question #2).  But a lot of the criticism that’s coming out of Washington right now centers on the health insurance companies — largely due to Republican and lobbyist influence — getting pretty much everything they want.  In particular, it’s shaping up that they’re going to be really rolling in it (and by ‘it’ we mean ‘profits’).

Maybe that’s why the Republicans are playing it a bit cooler than they were earlier . . .

Think it through.  What if the needle tipped even more in favor of the health insurance companies?  Or even just that public sentiment thought the needle was tipping too much in favor of the health insurance companies?

Well, you know what? I think it raises the stakes on a whiplash in favor of the Public Option to put all those corporate profits back into play (think AIG and the tremendous backlash against employee bonuses earlier in the year).

There’s a lot of ways this could yet go, but the above might go a long way to explaining why the Republican strategy to defeat Healthcare Reform appears to have boiled down to a five-letter chant, S-T-A-L-L.