Despite some rallies around the country this Labor Day weekend (here’s one in Florida that drew 550 people!), the left can’t manage to drum up popular support for the costly “public option” that would set up a government-run system of health care that would be the foot in the door for single-payer socialized medicine. Nor can President Obama, after 27 health care speeches. But the public option remains non-negotiable for Obama’s far-left base. So–what to do?
Enter the “trigger option,” described in this Wall Street Journal editorial:
A new government program for the middle class would only come on line if private insurance companies fail to meet certain benchmarks, such as lowering overall health spending or shrinking the number of the uninsured. This is supposed to appeal to Maine Republican Olympia Snowe, who could end up as ObamaCare’s 60th Senator, while still appeasing the single-payer left.
Liberals should love the idea because a trigger isn’t a substantive concession; it merely ensures that the public option will arrive eventually, instead of immediately. Democrats will goose the tests so that private insurers can’t possibly meet them, mainly by imposing new regulations and other costly burdens.
So–voila! We’ll have a public option anyway! A trigger option may not fool the rest of us, but it’s bound to fool the ever-”bipartisan” Snowe.