public option

U.S. health care

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  In United States: Negotiating health care reform

  …(most notably excluding the “public option” through which a government-run program would have provided lower-cost competition for private insurance companies). It just barely survived a filibuster attempt by Republicans, holding all 58 Democrats plus the Senate’s two independents, Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Joe Lieberman of Connecticut.

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  In Barack Obama: Passage of health care reform

  …the creation of a “public option,” a lower-cost government-run program that would act as competition for private insurance companies. The Senate was more deliberate in its consideration. Obama seemed to let conservative Democrat Sen. Max Baucus take the lead in that body at the head of the “Group of…

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  In Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: Prelude to reform

  …Obama favouring a so-called “public option,” a government insurance program that would compete with private businesses. The pharmaceutical industry, which had helped to scuttle Pres. Bill Clinton’s health care reform attempt in 1993–94, said that it would support reform. In August, as members of Congress went home to their…

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