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Summary

The concept of a “public option” entered the American lexicon in 2009, during the congressional debate over what became the Affordable Care Act (ACA). It suggested what many considered a radical idea: that government itself would offer a health-care coverage plan, thereby forcing private insurance providers to compete with a lower-cost alternative. Progressive groups rallied behind the notion that a public option could bring much-needed choice into the health-care marketplace without the political challenges of adopting a single-payer system. But opponents still lambasted the entire ACA as a “government takeover” and regarded the “public option” in particular as the epitome of socialism. Although that measure failed, the fact that the public option concept spurred such political controversy itself is deeply paradoxical because, in fact, public funding of social provision, as well as government intervention to support the broader market economy, has a long history in the United States – one that is far more expansive and broadly used today than many Americans realize.

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1 - More Than Meets the Eye

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1 - More Than Meets the Eye

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