The Public Option: How to Expand Freedom, Increase Opportunity, and Promote Equality Hardcover – 26 July 2019

This book is a gem. In clear and attractive prose, it lays out and explains what US public options citizens are using and benefiting from today, how public options are available easily to all and must be affordable to all, and help the market players perform better. Take one example: everyone gets mail delivery and can walk into a post office and mail a letter for a very low price. When someone wants more, they can use DHL or UPS; free choice. Both systems operate, and the public wins. The authors explain how public options could go a long way to fix the educational system, the medical insurance system, and the no-retirement-savings problem. It works!

Ganesh Sitamaran and Anne Alstot deserve our thanks for taking the hysteria out of new public options by showing how thoroughly within the American tradition public options operate. The notion that the government should have little or no role in providing alternatives to purely market driven consumer products and services is counterproductive to the economy as well as to individuals. Bravo for their research-driven approach and thoughtfulness on a topic that has become a political football, misused by the right and therefore frequently misunderstood by the public, which stands to gain much by the provision of public options. For all who care about public policy, this is a must read!

A compelling and very timely examination of the roles of government and the private sector. First the authors explain the history of public options in America, why some worked extremely well, and why some failed. They then deep dive into Retirement, Higher Education, Banking, Childcare, and Healthcare. They persuasively argue the merits of innovative, high quality, low cost, government administered public options that could directly compete with the private sector to offer Americans more choices.