The Public Health Plan Reincarnated: New and Troubling Powers for OPM

The Senate health-care overhaul (which, along with the Reconciliation Act, became law) contains a stealth “public option,” which has been disguised and given a false identity. Under that legislation, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) would be empowered to offer government-sponsored and effectively government-run (though privately administered) health plans, which would be the only health plans in America permitted to compete on a national or multi-state basis. This advantage, along with partial exemptions from state and federal regulatory standards, enticing opportunities for collusion between OPM and the Department of Health and Human Services, and the strong possibility of government subsidies for the public plan at taxpayer expense, means that these plans wouldn’t be competing with private plans on anything like even terms — and the effect on ordinary Americans’ health care would largely be the same as under a transparent public option.