Good video illustrating how “competition” would work if the insurance market included a government-run public option:
Health Care BS
Public Plan BS —
Category Archives: Public Plan BS
IF YOU CAN FIND A DOCTOR YOU CAN KEEP HIM
Rarely mentioned in the interminable debate over the “public option” is the effect it will have on the availability of primary care. The following cartoon by Lisa Benson brilliantly illustrates what actual patients will experience once they are herded onto to the public plan:
No matter how many lies the Dems tell, the public plan will pay Medicare rates. The […]
WILL ELECTIONS KILL OBAMACARE?
That Obamacare was a factor in Tuesday’s Democrat drubbing is rendered blindingly obvious by the announcement, from Democrats whose internal polls surely told them what was coming, that Obamacare won’t pass this year.
Which means it may not ever pass. This contingency is precisely what Obama and congressional Dems wanted to avoid last summer when they kept pushing for […]
DOES THE PUBLIC REALLY WANT THE PUBLIC OPTION?
George Neumayr thinks not. His evidence? If the support were really there for the PO, the Dems wouldn’t keep rebranding it:
That Obama and the Democrats have had to resort to a range of gimmicks and semantic somersaults in this debate contradicts their claim of widespread support for the public option.
So, why do polls seem to […]
NANCY NIXES MEDICARE RATES & ACCESS
First, the (sorta) good news: One of the deadliest features of the “public option” was the likelihood that it would pay according to the Medicare rate schedule.
Because Medicare payment rates don’t even cover costs (and I mean costs, not charges), that would mean the bankruptcy of half the community hospitals in the U.S.
It would appear, […]
THE PUBLIC OPTION AND THE PRISONER’S DILEMMA
The prisoner’s dilemma is essentially a situation in which the incentives for the individual are in conflict with those of the collective. Sullivan demonstrates that the “opt-out” public option presents precisely such a dilemma:
The argument against new entitlements requires a macro-level perspective. You have to argue that although a measure may help an individual get […]
SENATE PO DEAD, HOUSE PO SICK
It would appear that the public option is moribund (again) in the Senate. Joe Lieberman says he’s going to filibuster the thing:
I can’t see a way in which I could vote for cloture on any bill that contained a creation of a government-operated-run insurance company.
And Joe apparently isn’t going it alone. Unpleaseant growling is also emanating […]
THE PUBLIC PLANE
Good video, from the Independence Institute, using NPR’s airline metaphor to show that the public plan is not an “option”:
[HT WeStandFirm]
“CHOICE” UNDER GOVT HEALTH CARE
One promise that the President consistently makes is that Americans will have “choice” when his brand of health reform is enacted. Well, I guess that depends on what the meaning of “choice” is.
It apparently doesn’t mean that seniors can spend their own money for their own health insurance without losing their Social Security benefits. Per […]
THE UNDEAD PUBLIC OPTION
The other day, I wrote that the death of the public option would require a stake through the heart and a full magazine of silver bullets. Like most truly bad ideas, this one won’t be easy to kill.
Thus, the White House still holds out hope that, despite apparently mortal wounds received last week in the Senate Finance Committee, the thing can […]