Even an incremental approach with public support would cost PC.
Susannah Luthi 20, Susannah Luthi reported for POLITICO in D.C., where she wrote about health care industry lobbying in Congress as well as health care litigation in federal courts, 11/07/2020, Politico, “Forget Medicare for All — even a public option will still be tough to pass,” https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/07/joe-biden-policies-health-care-433626, RMazhankou
But Biden’s more incremental approach still will face opposition from Republicans and powerful health care lobbies, which have spent the past two years preparing a furious assault against further expansion of government coverage if Democrats took back control of Washington. Republicans certainly won’t support a public option, and Democrats’ narrow majorities in both congressional chambers leave Biden with little room for error.
A strong public option was stripped out of Obamacare because moderates saw it as toxic. While centrist Democrats now back the idea and polls show strong public support for it, Democratic leaders in Congress could be wary of getting bogged down in another health care fight when they will be facing other priorities, like battling the pandemic and providing more economic relief. And even if Biden gets through a version of the public option, the health care industry could still water it down through negotiations — as was the case in Washington state when it created the nation’s first public option two years ago.
“The public option is very popular, and I think there’s a broad consensus across the party to do a public option — but what does it mean?” said Whitney Brennan, a communication strategist for Firehouse Strategies who worked for moderate Democratic lawmakers during Obamacare’s drafting. “The devil is in the details, and how it’s structured is where the fight is.”