cos: (Default)
[personal profile] cos
Last night, I submitted this as a letter to the editor to USA Today:
    For decades, private for-profit insurance companies have been spreading fear about "government run health insurance". Despite the fact that people on Medicare - run by the government - are more satisfied with their insurance than people on private insurance, the private insurance companies have been telling us that national health care wouldn't work, because the government can't run a good insurance system, and we're all better off with private insurance. Obama's plan puts their claims to the test, and it's time to put up or shut up.

    Obama proposes a compromise between a national single payer system, and the private insurance we have now: he wants to put a public health insurance option in the same market as private companies, to let people choose and see what works better.

    Insurance companies' complaints about "unfair competition" are a smokescreen. They want to mislead us into a conversation about how to be fair to insurance companies, while they continue being unfair to the American people.

    What the for-profit insurance companies are really saying is that they fear the government can run a better health insurance - that satisfies people more, and leaves us healthier, at a lower cost. They may be right. Congress owes it to us to create a public option so we can try it and find out. Stop worrying about the health of the insurance companies, and care for the health of the American people for a change.
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Date: 2009-09-10 15:31 (UTC)

From: [identity profile] alandd.livejournal.com
The private health insurance "ecosystem" is one of the best examples of where unregulated capitalism goes against the public good.

That's a buzzword compliant restating and expansion of what fenicedautun said about them being public companies - they are responsible to their shareholders, not their customers. That is generally considered appropriate in the context of capitalism, but the other important part of capitalism - a free market for competition - is less evident.
Date: 2009-09-11 19:49 (UTC)

From: [identity profile] awfief.livejournal.com
Except that the government-provided health care insurance option isn't regulating anything. It's just throwing another hat into the ring.

(there are provisions in the health care reform plan that *are* regulating things, but those are unrelated to the health insurance option itself)

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