WASHINGTON — When President Barack Obama abandoned a public insurance option to win moderate support for the Affordable Care Act in 2009, progressives were enraged.
A decade later, Joe Biden campaigned on making the public option a reality, but so far, he’s done little to get Congress to enact one. Instead of outrage, influential progressives seem to be OK watching the promise go unfilled, preferring to pursue universal health care through other means, like expanding Medicare eligibility.
Elected officials, health care activists and experts who spoke to NBC News said the issue has fallen off the national radar and will be difficult to revive without a major push by the White House.
Responding to the pandemic has consumed much of Biden’s attention in his first months in office. And beyond that, he has a long list of agenda items to get to first, including many that are popular with progressives.
“I don’t think there’s a dynamic where we see it at the center of a political fight again,” said Alex Lawson, the executive director of the left-leaning group Social Security Works.
‘A green light’
Democratic supporters in Congress say they have not abandoned the fight. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., who chair health care committees in their chambers, announced in a letter last month that they intend to craft a public option bill.
