Weiner Challenges Reps. To Give Up Their Public Medicare Plans

New York Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner has a new plan of attack against members of Congress not supporting a public health insurance option. His office released a study showing that 151 members of Congress "currently receive government-funded; government-administered single payer health care--Medicare."

Of those 151 members, 55 are Republicans that strongly oppose the public option as a means of access to health care for Americans. Weiner has seized on this study to point out that these members are "steadfastly opposed," to the same type of health care that they themselves have access to.

WEINER:  We went, just out of curiosity, looked at how many members of Congress get the public option. And I know a lot of people have said, “Well under the new bill, how many of you members of Congress would choose the public option?”

Well there already is one; it’s called Medicare. And we found 55 Republicans and 151 members of Congress are on Medicare right now. So they’re already getting the same type of public option that we’d like people who are without insurance to be able to get. And I guess the purpose of this list was to kind of point out some of the hypocrisy of this debate.

Weiner suggests that those who vote against a public option should get their own public option taken away. We agree, but would like to take it a step further.

We propose that those in Congress who vote against the public option as a means of controlling costs and increasing access to Americans be stripped of their Medicare coverage immediately after the vote. These members of Congress will then be prohibited from wearing a winter coat, or any outerwear at all between the months of November and February and will be required to sleep on cots in elementary school lavatories.

Subsequently, all members who vote against a public option will be required to pass under a ladder upon entering the Capitol while opening an umbrella and the Rotunda will be stocked with black cats. This should provide them with the same type of luck that American taxpayers have been getting access to for years.

Thankfully the public option is alive and well, with an opt-out version of the plan appearing to be the most probable result. This version would allow states to opt-out of the public plan after a predetermined period of time. This would allow states to experiment with the plan and determine its' effectiveness before rescinding their participation.

In order to compare states that adopt the plan, and those that don't, South Carolina would be an excellent starting point for an opt-out.