The Fight Over the Public Option Is Already Here
By Sarah Jones (New York 3/17/2021)
Excerpts
The nonpartisan Partnership for America’s Healthcare Future has already reserved TV slots for new ads against Medicare X in Maine, Montana, and in the Washington D.C. area market, presumably to influence key senators. “Politicians have proposed a new idea called a public option. The problem is the costs of the public option aren’t optional,” one ad warns. Annual payroll taxes could increase by $2,500, it adds, a figure drawn from research it co-sponsored with the conservative Hoover Institution.
The group’s sister organization, the Partnership for America’s Health Care Future Action, has also begun airing ads against a public option in Colorado, where Democratic lawmakers plan to try to pass legislation this year. Websites targeting voters in Connecticut and Nevada also recently appeared, all with the Partnership’s branding. The Partnership says it simply wants to educate voters with the facts, said Lauren Crawford Shaver, the group’s executive director and a former Obama administration official.
