PBC Chairman Governor Howard Dean guest-blogged on Daily Kos earlier today.  Dkos editor MC Joan kicked off the conversation with a few questions for the Governor:

JM: You bust a number of reform myths in your book, and we see a bunch of them reemerging out of the report AHIP issued on Sunday. Which are the most pernicious?

HD:The whole report is pernicious.  This is a classic knock down special interest fight in Washington with the Congress caught in the middle between donors and voters. In a fight like that, which is simply about money, the truth is the first casualty.  The insurance industry takes the Fox News approach which is that you can get people to believe anything if it has a minimum of fact and is repeated often.  In my book, Howard Dean’s Prescription for Real Healthcare Reform, I devote a whole chapter to debunking the pernicious lies the Insurance industry repeats over and over again.

JM: AHIP has also started an ad campaign intending to scare seniors about what reform might do to their Medicare. What’s the best way to debunk this one?

HD: The best way, and only real way to debunk the Medicare myths is to use Medicare as at least part of the public option. If the Democrats want to escape 2010 reasonably unscathed they have to enroll some reasonable proportion of Americans in an insurance plan about five or six months before Election Day. Facts on the ground are the most effective way to attack misinformation.

The only way to allow people to enroll before election day is to use Medicare as the vehicle. Trying to start a new bureaucracy that fast would be a disaster from both a policy and a political point of view. I would allow people over 55 or 50, depending on the CBO score, to enroll in Medicare with an income appropriate premium. This could be part of the public option using an established system with high favorablity and familiarity that already pays over a billion claims a year. You would not have to use Medicare rates from a bureaucratic point of view (the Schumer public option). That kind of duality could be easily handled by the system. A difference in benefit package could not, so you would need to keep the Medicare benefit package.

Finally I have tried this out on a few of the leaders in the debate, and a few staff people. There is a group of folks in New York who care about this a lot who have come up with financial estimates which I have shared. I think this is a real possibility, because every one understands the politics of it, not just the policy end of it.

Head on over to Daily Kos to read the entire discussion between Dean and the community.  If you want to receive updates about last minute events like this one, follow PBC on Twitter or join our Facebook fan page.

Update - It has come to our attention that some of you have had trouble commenting. If that is the case, please try again now. If it still does not work, email your question to pbcsocial [at] gmail [dot] com. We will be sure that they are considered along with all the great comments already submitted below. –Mike Connery

If you had five minutes with Gov. Howard Dean, what would you ask him?

On September 24th, the the 92nd St. Y in New York City will host an event with Dr. Dean: Howard Dean’s Progressive Prognosis. At the event, Salon.com and New York Observer columnist Joe Conason will talk with Gov. Dean about the state of health care reform in America and the future of progressive politics in an Obama administration.

We want your help guiding that conversation.

Submit a question for Gov. Dean in the comments to this post. PBC staff will choose a number of questions from among the submissions. If Joe Conason uses your question during the discussion, PBC will send you a signed copy of Governor Dean’s new book, Howard Dean’s Prescription for Real Health Care Reform.

New York members of the PBC community can still buy tickets to the event and hear the discussion in person. Details below.

Howard Dean’s Progressive Prognosis

When: Thursday, September 24th; 8:15pm
Where: Lexington Avenue at 92nd St.
Price: $27 (Order here)