OBAMA…following in the footsteps of the “Teflon-coated presidency” of Ronald Reagan
Obamacare’s “public plan” is built on a Medicare myth
Hot Air
When Pres. Obama did his hour-long pitch for a government takeover of the US healthcare system on ABCNews, he offered a standard defense of a government-run insurance plan:
The concern, [Charlie] Gibson articulated, is that such a plan wouldn’t be offered on a level playing field.
The president rebuffed that, arguing that “we can set up a public option where they’re collecting premiums just like any private insurer and doctors can collect rates,” but because the public plan will have lower administrative costs “we can keep them [private insurance companies] honest.”
However, the same day Pres. Obama said that, the Heritage Foundation issued a report by Robert A. Book, Ph.D., showing that:
[O]n a per-person basis Medicare’s administrative costs are actually higher than those of private insurance-this despite the fact that private insurance companies do incur several categories of costs that do not apply to Medicare.
Pointing this out is sufficiently dangerous to the Left that New York Times columnist Paul Krugman attacked Book’s study – or, more accurately, attacked the Heritage Foundation, as ad hominem is twice as good coming from someone who used to advise Enron. Unfortunately for Krugman, the NYT allows comments, thus allowing Book to embarrass Krugman on his own site.
In short, Medicare – our already-existing government-run health insurer – does not have lower adminsitrative costs. That myth is based on fuzzy math, the program’s own laxity, and the fact that it gets to hide its costs elsewhere in the federal budget. Indeed, that last factor is the sort of unfair competition that is essential to the government-run plan envisioned by the Left. Pres. Obama claims he wants to keep private insurers honest, but he’s not being honest himself.
What’s remarkable about this administration is its ability to perfect a “Teflon-coated presidency” as coined in 1983 by Patricia Schroeder, a then Democratic Congresswoman from Colorado, who complained about the very same thing with respect to Ronald Reagan. Well if it’s good enough for Reagan … it’s good enough for Obama.
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