Obama’s Public Option
President Obama’s attempts to quasi-nationalize America’s health insurance industry is based upon providing people with a “Public Option” that will directly compete with America’s current private, semi-free market health insurance providers – whether those providers are the evil insurance giants or individual Americans’ employers.
But why is this the focus of his plan?
What possible valid reason or necessity could there be for the creation of a fully government ran health insurance agency? What does Obama and his Liberals gain by pushing this Public Option? What would America gain by having it?
A Few Facts About The Public Option
- President Obama’s Public Offering would only be available via the Health Insurance Exchange that President Obama wants to create.
- President Obama’s Public Offering would have to abide by exactly the same restrictions as any private health insurance plan that was offered on the proposed Health Insurance Exchange.
- President Obama’s Public Offering would have three tiers of coverage: Basic, Enhanced, and Premium; it may or may not have a fourth level of coverage designated as Premium-Plus.
- President Obama’s Public Offering may or may not be directly administered by the government. Provisions are in place to allow them to contract a 3rd-party administrator such as USHealth, Aetna, or WellPoint to administer all or part of the Public Offering.
- President Obama’s Public Offering utilizes the same “cost sharing” and federal subsidies as any private health insurance plan that was offered on the proposed Health Insurance Exchange.
The Public Option put forth by President Obama and his Liberals would be identical in every way, shape, and form except for one critical point – the Public Offering doesn’t have to generate a profit.
Indeed, much like a number of other government programs over the decades, ObamaCare’s Public Option could actually run at a net loss but hide that fact by using support from other government agencies with their own budgets. This sort of budget gimmickry is currently done by Medicare and Medicaid to disguise their true costs and insolvency. Fully 50% of the administrative overhead of Medicare and and Medicaid is provided by other state and federal agencies and therefor not reported as expenditures by Medicare or Medicaid.
The Secretary of Health and Human Services shall provide for the offering of an Exchange-participating health benefits plan (in this division referred to as the “public health insurance option”) that ensures choice, competition, and stability of affordable, high quality coverage throughout the United States.
I find it hard to believe that President Obama and his Liberals’ Public Health Insurance Option is meant to provide “choice” or “competition.” There not much in the way of competition when one player doesn’t have to realize any profits and can hide losses, whereas the other players cannot do so, and that will inevitably lead to a commensurate loss of choice when the other players pull out of the game.
I can understand, given the facts above, what President Obama and his Liberals gain by implementing a Public Option; they maintain the support of their Left-Wing base and they gain greater power over we, the People. Can someone tell me what Americans gain though?
Tags: America | Capitalism | Freedom | Healthcare | Insurance | Leftists | Obama | Politics | Socialism | Tyranny
September 3rd, 2009 at 6:21 pm
This man we call our president, is a disease without a cure. It is taking over and it slowly is creeping until it kills us all.
October 7th, 2009 at 9:21 am
[…] the Leftists only a Public Option will save […]