Here's the latest contortion from Senate Dems trying to win over
a few Republicans to a "public option": Let nonprofits create
health-care cooperatives, and call them the public option. Kent
Conrad came up with this bamboozle. Finance Chair Baucus is
impressed, and some Republicans -- even Grassley -- seem
interested. Watch your wallets.  Nonprofit health-care
cooperatives won't have any real bargaining leverage to get
lower prices because they'll be too small and too numerous.
Pharma and Insurance know they can roll them. That's why the
Conrad compromise is getting a good reception from across the
aisle, just as Olympia Snowe's "trigger" (which means no public
option until some time down the pike, and only if Pharma and
Insurance don't bring down and extend coverage a tad) is also
gaining traction.  The truth is that there's only one "public
option" that will truly bring down costs and premiums -- one
that's national in scale and combines its bargaining power with
Medicare, and is allowed to negotiate lower