...I'd love to see a public option to keep the private insurance companies honest, but I'm not holding my breath. I wonder if it isn't just a bargaining chip that Obama and the Democrats are prepared to give up on to get what they want. I'm beginning to think that health care reform is going to involve keeping the private insurers but treating them more like utilities. Everyone will be required to have insurance, rates and practices will be more strictly regulated, and excessive profits will be reigned in. It may not work as well as a single-payer system but it's probably the best we can hope for right now.
Why shouldn't the private insurers be treated like utilities? They take about 30 cents out of every health care dollar spent while Medicare only takes about 10. And what value do they provide for this? They get to cherry-pick their customers and leave the higher-risk patients for the government (translation: you and me) to cover. What a deal! That's like me betting on all the favorites in the NFL each week while you take all the underdogs--and I get odds! No wonder that business is a cash cow.
So why shouldn't health care be treated like a utility? Can you imagine if 47 million Americans were without heat, water, or electricity? Or access to public education or police and fire protection? That would be an outrage. It would be as if the U. S. was a developing country. I can just imagine how The Wall Street Journal would spin that: "You don't want the government to control..."
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