"Obama Vows to 'Deliver on Health Care'"

Right after Obama's speech addressed to the public and the congress tonight, the New York Times posted an article called "Obama Vows to 'Deliver on Health Care'". Basically this article does a great job on summarizing the main points that Obama made during this congressional address. I watched it, and I thought that he did a great job on delivering the basic foundations of the health care reform plan. He spoke with confidence that it is now time to enforce a reform, or things will only get worse. I agree with Obama and I thought that he spoke with hope to a brighter future. However, I was also skeptical about his speech. It all sounded to good to be true. Yes the reform including the public option sounds great on paper, but will it work once it is implemented? I think that the health care reform gives us solutions to many problems. For example, with this new plan Obama promises that it will be against the law for insurance companies to deny coverage because of pre-existing conditions, and it would be against the law to drop someone's coverage when he or she got sick. In addition, the plan would limit the charge of out of pocket expenses that many people need to pay. Also, routine check-ups and preventive care will be covered no matter what. All of these changes sound really great, and I do not see any reason why anyone would be against these reforms.

To me, it seems like the problems arise with hesitation towards the public option. Obama made the public option sound like a great idea, explaining that those who are insured will be able to keep their doctors, but those who are not covered will receive insurance from the non-profit government option. Obama believes that the competition that this would create between insurance companies will help improve the market, since consumers do better with choice and competitive companies. However, many people think that this public option will be destructive to insurance companies. This scares many people because it can cause many layoffs within medical employment, and it has the possibility of driving private insurance companies out of business. I saw on the news that health care provides 13.7 million jobs, and it is the 3rd largest source of employment. With all of this said, it is hard to say that this public option reform can only be positive.

Do you think that an effective health care reform plan can exist without the public option, or do you think that the public option is essential?
To read this full article go to New York Times