August 15 - President Obama Explains and Defends The Public Option

[TomCADem]

Once again I am failing to find evidence that President Obama is not actively advocating for and defending a public option as suggested in numerous posts on this board. It seems that every public statement he has made has included a vigours defense in support of the public option.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-By-The-President-In-Town-Hall-On-Health-Care-Grand-Junction-Colorado/

###

So far, so good. The argument around public option is, should one of the choices -- not the only choice -- but one of the choices on that exchange be a public option? And the idea here would be that a government-run non-for-profit would have its own option that people could sign up for -- they wouldn't have to, but they could sign up for it -- and if it could keep its costs lower and provide a good-quality service and good benefits, then that would help keep the insurance companies honest -- (applause) -- because the idea being -- the idea being that as a non-for-profit, potentially with lower administrative costs, they could do a good job.

Now, the insurance companies have come back and said, well, that's not fair, because nobody can compete against the government. They have a legitimate point if, if what's being done is the government is either subsidizing that government plan -- essentially taking taxpayer money and saying, here, we'll just keep on spending money regardless of whether you run a good operation or not, then it's hard for insurance companies to compete against that. And by the way, it would be wildly expensive for taxpayers.

So I've already said a public option can only work if they have to collect premiums just like a private insurer and compete on a level playing field. That's point number one.

The second argument that's been made is the one that you just made, which is, if public option is reimbursing at Medicaid rates that are substantially lower than what private insurers have to negotiate for, then eventually, over time, private insurers might be run out of business. So that's the second argument.

Now, what's happened in the House bill, that as it's been modified, is they've actually said we're going to negotiate rates, they won't be Medicaid rates. So that actually solves the problem that you're addressing, because now this would be a negotiated process and prices would not be set just to Medicaid. All right?

Now, there's a third argument against the public option, and this is the one, really, that you've been hearing mostly about, and that is just this idea that we shouldn't have government involved at all, that government is part of the problem, not part of the solution, to quote Ronald Reagan. (Applause.) We've got some supporters of that view. And I guess the only -- look, I think you can have a legitimate position just saying you don't want to see more government involvement. I understand the argument. The only thing I would point out is, is that Medicare is a government program that works really well for our seniors and has protected people -- (applause) -- hold on one second, let's not start yelling.

It's true that it's expensive, but the truth is that actually the cost of Medicare inflation has actually gone up at a slower rate than private insurance. So it's not because it's mismanaged; it's because of what was referred to in the first question -- the whole health care system is out of whack and way too expensive. It's not government, per se. It has to do with the fact that the health care system itself, the delivery systems, are not working the way they should.

So if you just believe the government shouldn't be involved in anything, or shouldn't be involved in health care, period, then you're right that you can't support the kind of reform that we're proposing. The only thing I want to make sure of, though, is you've got to -- you make an honest argument, because nobody is talking about government takeover of health care. There's a difference between what we're proposing, which has some government involvement, versus this idea that somehow government is going to take over everything and get between your and doctor. That's not what we're proposing.

###