President Barack Obama's weekend concession on a health care "government option" drew complaints from liberals and scarce interest from Republicans and other critics on Monday, a fresh sign of the daunting challenge in finding middle ground in an increasingly partisan political struggle.
The White House insisted there had been no shift in position, adding the president still favors a federal option for the sale of health insurance. "The bottom line is this: Nothing has changed," said a memo containing suggested answers for administration allies to use if asked about the issue.
But some supporters of health care overhaul sounded less than reassured.
"You really can't do health reform" without allowing the government to compete with private insurers, said Howard Dean, a former Democratic Party chairman. "Let's not say we're doing health reform without a public option," he added in a slap at the administration's latest move.
Now, let's take a minute to talk about something. Competition is the very life's blood of a free market economy. Unfortunately, the Government, as it's run by the Congress and White House has never believed in competition. The Government, being the government, has the ability to print money, raise interest rates, and effectively undercut any competition to get what it wants. Consider, for instance, Medicare, Medicaide, and Social Security.
Each program was originally to do something different than what it does now.
Social Security was never intended to be a retirement system. It was intended to be an insurance policy so that a widowed woman wouldn't starve to death after her husband died. Under the free market economy, that's called a life insurance policy, and people pay money to get coverage so that families are covered. Along comes the government and suddenly, it's not a life insurance policy, it's a retirement plan, funded by taxpayers, instead of the individual. 401(k)'s and pension funds give you more to live on, and don't draw in nearly as much as taxes do. However, with a retirement account, you only have what you put in, or wisely invested. Thanks to the government, now you don't have to pay in, everyone else pays in for you.
Medicare/Medicaide is just government funded Health Insurance, funded by money taken from the working middle class and given to people who either can't or won't go to work. Now, I don't mind taking care of people who are disabled and can't work. But, I draw the line at paying perfectly healthy people who don't want to work. Nor do I begrudge giving a really poor person some assistance to pay for a trip to the doctor, however, most people on medicare/medicaide, don't go visit the doctors, they run to the ER, where they can't be turned away.
On the average, a properly run HMO/PPO, health savings account can take care of any trip to the doctor or alternative medical specialist. Unfortunately, even here, the government won't compete. What they will do, because they've done it before, is undercut the price of their competitors policies, and they'll be able to do it with our money. What they have done up until now, is underpay for treatment. Where they used to pay 100%, now they pay about 45-50% of the bill. That is not competition, that's a monopoly, and that's what the congress and white house really want. They want to run it all.
