Daschle, the point man for Obama's campaign to revamp the health care system, supports the concept of "a government-run insurance program modeled after Medicare." It would, he says, give consumers, especially the uninsured, an alternative to commercial insurance offered by companies like Aetna, Humana and WellPoint.
But the proposal is anathema to many insurers, employers and Republicans. They say the government plan would have unfair advantages, like the ability to impose lower fees, and could eventually attract so many customers that private insurers would be driven from the market. "The public plan option is a terrible idea — one of our top concerns in the health reform debate," said James Gelfand, senior manager of health policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Why would employers object to a public plan that would be better and cheaper for their workers?
- DCblogger's blog
- Login or register to post comments
- 1+[encrypted]+#b94+
Printer-friendly version
Front page
Comments
Why indeed
I understand why the insurance industry opposes what would clearly be a superior product, but I do not understand why the rest of the Chamber members go along with this. Ideology is a blinding force for much of the membership, I suspect. I recall an email from my industry group (to which I belong because it offers group liability insurance) encouraging its membership to lobby for an end to the estate tax. It was demonstrably false, and the membership is small business people. None of us are going to have multi-million dollar estates unless we buy the lucky Powerball ticket. Even granting the framing as a "death tax" there was just nothing to warrant people paid by my dues spending time on this. So I wrote a very strongly worded letter, and not only got no response, I ceased getting the political emails. I have little doubt that the activity continues, they just got me off the list. For a bunch of people who pride themselves on independence and a pragmatic, can-do spirit, our small business community is remarkably inattentive and easily lead.
Because the employers he's worried about
Are the insurance companies? It's horseshit, but I would say that's the bottom line he's worried about, not the majority of small businesses in this country.
My employer has 70 employees we provide health insurance to, and it is our largest vendor. It's absolutely ridiculous. Thankfully, we are trapped in our policy until July, so he can't throw it out, like he is doing with some other "unnecessary expenditures".
He who will not reason is a bigot; he who cannot is a fool; and he who dares not is a slave.
- Sir William Drummond
The right wing says
we can't have government health care because the for profit model can't compete? That is what is written there. Now there is a good starting point for the debate...