General Discussion

The public option was just a choice qualifying people and firms could make when faced with all the plans in the ACA marketplace. I would not have been all encompassing.

The progressive idea was a universal single-payer plan, like “Medicare for All.” A fully public health system (like the UK) could perhaps be described as the radical left position. And there was substantial support in the House for Medicare for All.

So let’s be clear what was killed in the ACA debate. A moderate, fully centrist option was killed in favor of a plan that relies wholly on heavily subsidizing the private sector. Aside from the Medicaid expansion portion of the ACA, it is a 100 % right of center plan (moderately right of center, but right of center nonetheless). It’s Romneycare, cheese and rice.