Jonathan Bernstein, Columnist

Democrats Seem Sort of Tepid About the Public Option

Look at the websites of the party's Senate candidates and search for "health care."

August 15, 2016 at 10:27 AM EDT

Jonathan Bernstein is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering politics. A former professor of political science at the University of Texas at San Antonio, he wrote A Plain Blog About Politics.

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Hillary Clinton supports adding a public option to the Affordable Care Act -- that is, a government-run insurance program to compete with private health insurance. She announced her support in July, and the public option was the only specific change to Obamacare that she mentioned in her economics speech last week.

This position makes a lot of practical sense, as the New Republic’s Brian Beutler has been pointing out.1471027720512 The Congressional Budget Office has scored a public option as deficit-reducing, which means Democrats wouldn’t have to raise taxes or cut spending to pay for it. A public option has also polled well. For example, back in December 2009 a CBS News/New York Times survey found 59 percent favored including a public option in Obamacare, with only 29 percent opposed.1471027634458

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