Clyburn: We Should Compromise on Public Option

Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC)
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The influential House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) says Democrats should accept a compromise–perhaps temporarily–over the public option.

“We ought to set up some pilot programs regionally around the country,” Clyburn told McClatchy. “What you’re trying to do is find out what works and what doesn’t work.”

According to McClatchy, “After a four-year limited trial run, Clyburn said, the federal health-care coverage would be expanded only if it doesn’t drive up costs and prompt companies to stop providing private insurance, as Republican opponents have claimed a nationwide public option would do.”

The idea, which Clyburn has proposed to the White House, would serve as something of a compromise between a public option and a public option affixed to a trigger–to plant the seeds of a public option in regions around the country, but not take it nation-wide until a later date, if cost savings and coverage expansions went unrealized.

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