'Public Plan' Eliminates Choice, Endangers Health
One expert says a public option is not the answer for the country's health care.
June 25, 2009— -- This week, President Obama lectured Americans who labored under the delusion that they liked their private health plans. When faced with the fact that, according to a recent New York Times/CBS News poll, 80 percent of people "are satisfied with the health insurance that they currently have," Obama said, "The only problem is that premiums have been doubling every nine years, going up three times faster than wages."
Problem? From 1997 to 2007, medical spending as a percent of disposable income on average, remained about the same according to the government's Bureau of Labor Statistics. True, people are paying more of the cost of their own care than they were five years ago. But then and now, a mosaic of Americans from every income, racial and ethnic group spending more on White Castle, Wii and cell phones then they do on health care.
Team Obama is flailing. Enraged that Americans are not in prostrate appreciation over the opportunity to fork over nearly $2 trillion and be herded into a Medicaid for the middle class, the president and his crew have harsh words for Americans who cling to their private plans.
And boy, does he believe we are stupid. He went on tell us that a public plan would not depend on any public subsidies. I guess he'll need a public option telethon, because $2 trillion doesn't count as a "public subsidy."
The "public option" proposal was supposed to be better at estimating and containing costs. But it came in over budget. In fact, government run health plans do not control costs; they just decide where to spend money when they expand. Medicare and Medicaid budgets are 10 times original predictions. Health care spending in every Western health care system with a public "option" has been growing faster since 2000 than it has in the United States.
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