Healthcare Reform

Smarter people than I (yes, they exist) will say that any plan passed even without a public option is still great, and later on we can go for the public option again. They're probably right, but I can't shake the thought that with no real public option that means there's still no "real" competition for the insurance companies, and all we're doing is giving an industry who has been smart enough to figure out a way to have made billions of dollars by granting themselves the right to refuse the very services they have been paid to provide whenever they wish even more time to figure out a way to beat down any chance for a pubic option in the future as well. Especially when it's the only fight they'll have to focus on at that point. So far they've shown themselves very capable of staving off any real competition while keeping themselves fat and happy; I don't see how that will possibly change anytime even remotely soon. But I do feel like the longer we wait, the better their chances are.