I did not hear anything of new of substance last night than what I heard Obama preach all summer in his “town” halls, TV info-commercials and other cameo appearances.

I thought it was funny that he got a big, sarcastic laugh from the entire congress when he said there would be “details to iron out”. What I wanted to hear was either the public option was off the table or real substantive details in defense of a public option. This I did not hear.

Obama said that his plan would reduce hundreds of billions of dollars of waste in Medicare. The details of the House plan show that it will cut $500 billion in reimbursement payments to Medicaid service providers which will force hospitals and doctors to find their own ways to “streamline” their operations. This is where the rationing argument comes in. The President did nothing to shine a light on this last night.

Obama stated that his plan will not require you to change your doctor or your insurance plan if you have coverage. The details of the House and Senate plans show that it will be cheaper for companies (which already provide employee insurance) to pay the fine for not insuring their employees than it would be to provide coverage directly to their employees. What will stop employers from dropping their health insurance plans over time and push their employees directly into the public option? The CBO said that 10 million people could lose their employer provided health insurance. The President did nothing to shine a light on this last night.

Obama stated that in most states, there are only 5 or 6 insurance companies to choose from. This was to hammer his desire to provide greater choice via a public option. However, he mentioned nothing about removing state boarders so that everyone in the U.S. could have access to the 1300 insurance companies across the country. Why can’t state boarders be removed? I do not buy the critics’ reason that removing state boarders is too big and complex. Like healthcare reform is not…

Obama made an analogy of the public and private university system in support of a public health option. I thought that this was a poor analogy. University tuitions have grown exponentially over the years. Even, though private universities are much more expensive than public universities, more and more students are finding it difficult to pay for either option. As a result, many students end up in major debt to obtain a college education. In addition, many public universities are being forced to cut classes in this bad economic environment. Is this what we want our healthcare system to look like? Where mostly the rich are able to afford private insurance and the rest being only able to afford the public option?

Finally, Obama did nothing to calm our fears of rising taxes. He said he will not sign a bill that will add to the deficit, however, what if the bill includes potential tax increases for not only the “rich” (aka $250k +), but the group below that I and many other worried Americans belong in. This is the upper middle class who earn between $100k and $250k. Many opponents of a public option argue that no large, government run program (like Social Security and Medicare) falls in-line with their projected budget. Social Security and Medicare, as the President stated are the two biggest expenses on the Federal Deficit. Both Medicare and SS grew to many times their projected expense budgets. What will happen if the public option follows suit?

I think everyone, including me, agrees that health care needs to be reformed. However, I do not believe a public option is needed in the reform package. I support all of the consumer protections and industry rules that the President stated last night. He said that the public option is only a small part of reform. If that is true, then why can’t it be dropped and replace the P.O. with the removal of state boundaries to reduce insurance costs?

Irir

Related Posts:

• The problem with the public option is that our government cannot run any program successfully.
• Costs versus Efficiency by Greg Mankiw
• WHY is the USA going BANKRUPT? AND NOW HERE COMES HEALTHCARE!
• Moderation will go a long way here:
• Americans have been dumbed down by ideology.

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