Since I was in Washington, D.C., anyway, moving my daughter there to work as an intern in Representative Braley’s office for the summer, it was convenient to stop by the Washington offices and ask about my Senators’ and Representative’s position on the public plan option.

Before we even left for D.C., I had read on Dailykos that Senator Harkin was one of 16 Senators signing on to a letter to Senators Baucus and Kennedy strongly supporting the public plan option. You can read the letter here. Please call or email Senator Harkin and thank him! If you don’t thank him for his support, he will only hear from those in opposition, and he will not realize the depth of support among his constituents for a public plan option.

From Senator Grassley’s office I received an email with the Senator’s answers to some questions posed by the Des Moines Register Editorial Page. I don’t know if anything was ever published by the Register, so I will copy the relevant comments from Senator Grassley. I think he makes some reasonable points, and believe we should consider them thoughtfully, which I don’t have time to do right now! So I will let you ponder them yourself, and suggest you respond to Senator Grassley directly. I’ll weigh in later.

From the Des Moines Register Editorial Page: “A recent letter to President Obama on health care, which included your signature, expressed concern about government-run health programs. Do you see a place for any additional public programs in reform? Would you support, for example, a program similar to Medicare or an expansion of Medicare to cover more Americans?”

Senator Grassley’s answer: “America’s health care system needs reform, and Congress and the President have an opportunity this year to make important changes to increase access to affordable health care coverage and to drive down costs within the system that are unsustainable for individuals, families, employers, providers and taxpayers. I agree with President Obama’s campaign promise that ‘if you’ve got a health care plan you like, you can keep it.’ That is why I’m concerned about creating a public plan. The U.S. government is a proven unfair competitor because it always ends up running the market it [sic] which it competes. By having the government set lower payment rates to hospitals, doctors and other providers, a government-run public plan would drive up the cost of private health insurance by shifting as many as 118 million Americans from private coverage to the government-run plan. These costs shifts already happen in Medicare and Medicaid and, as a result, we know how they hurt doctors, hospitals and private providers. Providers end up being reimbursed at much lower rates by the public programs, and they have to try to make up the difference by charging patients with private insurance more. If a public plan option was created, the number of private payers would shrink and doctors would be left to charge more and more, be reimbursed less and less, or even stop seeing Medicare, Medicaid and public plan patients entirely. Employers would be forced to put workers on the government plan in order to avoid the higher cost of private insurance. Eventually, a public plan option would lead to a de-facto single-payer health care system because it would be the only viable option.”

Representative Bruce Braley e-mailed me the following statement: “Our healthcare system is broken and needs to be fixed, especially with so many families losing jobs because of the bad economy. I support efforts that will guarantee quality, affordable care for everyone. There should be a minimum standard for health insurance that meets families’ needs, from preventative care to care for serious illness.”

“One component of healthcare reform should be giving people the option to enroll in a public health insurance plan. This market-based approach will allow families to shop around for the health insurance plan that is best for them – whether it’s their current employer-based plan, a private insurance plan, or a public health insurance plan is up to them. Including a public health insurance plan in a healthcare reform plan will help increase competition among insurers, resulting in lower premiums and better insurance for the money.”

By the way, Bleeding Heartland has a great article on where our Iowa Congressional delegation stands on the public plan option.