Public option

Last night from the White House, ABC News aired a townhall-type meeting entitled "Questions for the President: Prescription for America." It was intended to be a forum for doctors, patients and health care experts to ask President Obama challenging questions on his health care proposals.

Dr. Orrin Devinsky led off the questioning by asking the President if he would sacrifice the health of his own family by putting them in a government plan, the so-called "public option". He responded, “If it’s my family member, it’s my wife, if it’s my children, if it’s my grandmother, I always want them to get the very best care. But here’s the problem that we have in our current health care system, is that there is a whole bunch of care that’s being provided that every study, every bit of evidence that we have indicates may not be making us healthier.” It sounds like he has little confidence in the current private health care system. Note that he did not explicitly answer whether he and his family would ever live under such a public plan.

I contend that the answer lies not in his words, or lack thereof, but in his actions. Consider where he and his wife decided to send their two girls. Do they attend a D.C. public school? Nope. They attend Sidwell Friends, a private school. Here's a little more background on that issue from a 11/21/08 NYT story...

The Obama family had considered two other private institutions, Georgetown Day School and Maret School, for their girls, Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7. But Sidwell has long been described by some as the Harvard of Washington’s private schools. Its tuition runs as high as $29,442 a year.
“A number of great schools were considered,” said Katie McCormick Lelyveld, a spokeswoman for Mrs. Obama. “In the end, the Obamas selected the school that was the best fit for what their daughters need right now.” Mayor Adrian M. Fenty of Washington strongly lobbied the Obamas to consider a public school, but that was apparently never an option.

What was wrong with the education "public option", a.k.a. public schools, Mr. President? One Forbes survey conducted two years ago ranked D.C.'s public schools 95th out of 97 school districts in terms of "bang for the buck". That may be one reason it was never an option for the Obama's, but is it even an option for the lower to middle class population? Hasn't this "public option" been forced on lower to middle class people who can't afford both the property taxes paying for those often underperforming public schools and the tuition at often excelling private schools? (See a previous blog on DCOSP.)

Who really believes that the President will subject himself and his family to the health care "public option"? Who really believes that this "public option" will always be an option for us? Who believes that this "public option" will always provide quality service?

He and the elites do; I don't.