Column:
Public option is unhealthy
Published Oct. 23, 2009
On Tuesday, readers of The Maneater were presented with a column defending the public option as part of the health care debate. Today, I'm here to explain why the public option is a disaster waiting to blow up in our faces.
If a public option were to be introduced into the world of health care, it would, in theory, drive down costs of other companies by lowering rates. There is a fatal flaw to this argument though.
The people who would run this public option would have a lower price and would continue to lower prices to get customers. They would be able to lower prices much lower than companies could because as a government option funded by taxpayers, they don't need to make a profit.
How can profit-based companies compete with a public option that doesn't need to make a profit?
As the public option kept lowering prices, private companies would not be able to lower their prices as much, and eventually, the process would drive these private companies out of business. This is where we discover the dirty little secret of President Barack Obama's claim we can keep our health plans if we like it.
At first, yes, we could keep our plan if we liked it. But what happens when companies go out of business when the government drives prices down to the point they can't offer a competitive rate? Simple economics proves that companies couldn't sustain themselves in such a situation.
If the public option is introduced, it is only a matter of time before the government will have a monopoly on health care. Consider the problems we would then face. Obama compared the health care system and a public option to the U.S. Postal Service competing against FedEx, DHL or UPS.
Keep in mind just after making this comparison, the U.S. Postal Service was requesting bailouts from the government.
Despite the fallacies in the public option concept, some are still promoting the idea. Tuesday's article mentioned Chris Dodd. Perhaps his support of this unwanted plan helps explain why he is trailing in polls and why the wife of WWE Chief Executive Vince McMahon has tossed her hat in the ring for Dodd's Senate seat.
Dodd and other hard-line liberals are simply missing the point that Americans simply don't want a public option. A recent Rasmussen poll showed just 42 percent support the reform proposed while 54 percent oppose it. Only 36 percent of seniors support the plan.
According to the article on the Rasmussen Web site, "Support is highest among voters under 30, the age group least likely to use the nation's health care system."
The older you get, the more likely you are to require treatment, but this polls shows that the older you are, the less Americans like the public option.
Seeing how America feels, words said at the recent Residence Halls Association forum might be true after all: "Obamacare would be shoved down our throats."
If the extremists in Washington pushing this failure of a plan really will shove it down our throats, they will do it knowing it is without the approval of their constituents.
Here's hoping they come to their sense and legislate, as the American people would have them, by coming up with a new plan.
As a final side note, happy Homecoming to all of you. Wear your gold proudly on Saturday, and BEAT TEXAS!
Eric Hobbs is a senior at MU and is the vice chairman of the MU College Republicans. He can be reached at emhn75@mail.missouri.edu.
Comments (5)
6:40 p.m., Oct. 23, 2009
Max said:
Well Eric, as a student, I assume your health care coverage is provided by your parents or the school (at a cheaper rate), so feel free to shut the fuck up until you start paying your own goddamn health insurance premium.
1:12 a.m., Oct. 24, 2009
Sarah said:
It's working so well in other places, and our healthcare system is so flawed now. Being a women, getting raped, being too fat or thin as a one year old are all apparently pre-existing conditions. Reform is necessary, and I'm sorry you don't get that. This post is so classist.
6:12 p.m., Oct. 25, 2009
Daniel said:
You seem to miss the entire point of the public option. As it stands, we have a sytems that rewards private companies for NOT helping patients, rather than a system which rewards them for providing the best care. Not only that, because of their exemption from antitrust laws, the healthcare companies have monopolies in many areas. Yes, these are profit driven companies. They PROFIT by screwing people over. A public option serves as a safety net for an industry that continues to fail at providing adequate coverage for americans. Our infant mortality rate ranks in 44th best, just behind Cuba. Our life expectancy rank is 50, just ahead of Albania (source: CIA World Factbook online). The World Health Organization (WHO website) ranks our health care system at 37th, just behind Costa Rica and ahead of Slovenia. We are the richest country in the world. Our economy is 3x that of any other naation state. We "liberals" aren't asking for much. In a nation of number ones, it would be nice to have a health care system somewhere in the top 10. You offer the worst kind of hypocrisy--one based on lies and misinformation. Two weeks in a row you simply spew mindless unbased opions regarding health care reform. DO SOME RESEARCH! Just because you live in a spoiled bubble, doesn't mean everyone does. Too many Americans sick Americans need health care reform. You might not see it in your world, but I have. Pathetic that the Maneater publishes your garbage. One would expect better from such a great journalism school.
11:52 a.m., Oct. 27, 2009
Eric said:
I love how liberals go with the false assumption that conservatives are opposed to any sort of reform. We need some changes, but I believe that tweaks are needed, not an overhaul or public option. As for pre-existing conditions, that is one of the problems that needs to be addressed. But does adding a public option magically wipe out those pre-existing conditions?
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11:19 a.m., Oct. 23, 2009
Brandon said:
Calling anyone who pushes the public option an "extremist", especially in Washington, is a little extreme in itself. Seriously, Eric?? Stop being such a frickin dittohead. Don't drink the Limbaugh Kool-Aid. I think the real "extremists" are the ones referring to it with silly names like "Obamacare" or claiming it is a "government takeover" of our healthcare system. Economically your point makes some sense, but without evidence, it's just groundless theory. You Republicans cannot just argue against something because "theory tells us this will happen." Very rarely has any gov't 'public option' in an industry led to the collapse of practically the entire industry, so we don't know for sure. We'd need an actual study or studies to give us some proof what you are saying would happen.