Talk me down here.
The way the "Democrats" crafted the so-called "public option", it is only available to people who have no health insurance (unemployed, or own a small business).
Hence, the so-called "public option" is not available to the vast majority of people (people who have jobs), and thus they are all stuck with their lousy, failing private insurance plans.
So there is no true choice or option being provided here, and thus, there is no straight-up competition with the corrupt private insurance industry. If the goal was competition, this clearly ain't it.
If you have a job, you're unconditionally stuck with your lousy private insurance and their escalating costs (and denials of surgery, etc.), and you do not have the freedom or choice to opt out of that private plan and get a fatter paycheck, and then go out and select the public option for yourself (and bypass the Insurance Industry).
So this public option will never, ever bring about a switchover away from private insurance companies. It can't. The private insurance monopoly position is completely protected, and only 10% have the ability (unemployed) to even choose the public plan.
How does this resolve anything?
It doesn't.
The only way that the public option would have a genuine broad reform impact is for it to be widely available, and left as a choice for every consumer. Then, there would be real market competition. But it doesn't work that way.
The way it works is if you have a job, then you as a consumer have no damn choice. You are stuck with the Employers lousy private insurance plans. You cannot opt out of your Employers plan (which would save both you and your Employer a lot of money), and then pick the public plan as your free choice. In fact, you have no choice.
The private insurance monopoly therefore still runs the show.
They remain in complete control. Nothing is really different.
I, as a consumer, have no choice (because I have a job), and my Health coverage remains in the hands and at the mercy of the Private Insurance Monopoly.
The "public option" is a scam.
Tell me where I am wrong.