A public option will attract many people away from private insurance, this will force private insurers to raise their prices, and government by its nature can overpower the private insurers and will run everyone else out of business, leaving us with only public health care.
But there's a problem with this. First, lets assume people who DON'T have private health insurance can't afford it or at least don't think they can. So they may or may not go to the public option. Either way, the net effect on private insurers of them getting insurance from the government is minimal.
Now, if other people start to leave private health insurance for the public option and it causes the private health insurers' prices to rise for everyone else they insure (because they have less money coming in) -- it seems to me that the Republicans are saying prices can essentially go no where but up. I say this because, are they not the ones who preach how competition and free markets LOWER prices and makes everything more efficient? If a cheaper option doesn't force them to lower prices, what the hell will, a more expensive one?
Could there be some correlation between the fact that our health care here costs more than anywhere in the world and we are the only industrial country in the world without a public option of some kind? Just throwing crazy ideas out there... And why would the government's prices be so low when all we hear about government is how INEFFICIENT it is? It seems Republican's real faith in the market is rather thin to say the least -- but then free markets as we know, are to exist in reality, exclusively for the poor.
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