Obama Plan Government Run Health

The Orange County Register
June 16, 2009 - 12:00AM
Here is a sampling of online reaction to the president's speech on health care to the American Medical Association on Monday:

Michael D. Tanner at Cato.org: In his speech, President Barack Obama repeatedly denied that he supports “socialized medicine” or “government-run” health care.

But what is important is not the terminology, but under the proposal supported by the president, government would control more and more of our health care decisions. Government would compel Americans to purchase health insurance, controlling its content, how much we pay, and the relationships among insurers, doctors, and patients. Government bureaucrats would determine whether Americans receive certain medical services.

There may be no better salesman than Barack Obama, but his product is deeply flawed. The so-called “Public Option,” or government-run plan, that Obama supports would slowly but inexorably lead to the destruction of the private insurance market and the imposition of a government-controlled single-payer system.

But the problems with Obamacare go well beyond the Public Option, which the AMA opposes. The mandates on businesses and individuals, taxpayer subsidies, insurance regulation, and government interference in private medical decisions pose serious threats to American businesses, taxpayers, and most importantly patients. That's bad medicine, no matter what you call it.

From Jim Geraghty at National Review Online: President Obama told the American Medical Association that he's “not advocating caps on malpractice awards, which I believe can be unfair to people who've been wrongfully harmed” but that he wants “a range of ideas.”

He's open to a range of ideas, as long as they do not impede the revenue streams of his political allies, like the trial lawyers.

From the Foundry blog at Heritage.org: President Barack Obama, [Monday]: “What are not legitimate concerns are those being put forward claiming a public option is somehow a Trojan horse for a single-payer system. … So, when you hear the naysayers claim that I'm trying to bring about government-run health care, know this – they are not telling the truth.”

Now [here is a transcript of a video montage of] then-candidate Barack Obama, UC Berkeley professor Jacob Hacker and Rep. Jan Schakowsky. D-Ill., talking about the virtues of the pubic plan:

Obama explicitly said [in 2003]: “I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer, universal health care plan.”

Hacker explicitly said [in July 2008]: “Someone once said to me this is a Trojan horse for single-payer, and I said, well, it's not a Trojan horse, right? It's just right there.”

Schakowsky explicitly said [in April 2009]: “And next to me was a guy from the insurance company who argued against the public health insurance option, saying it wouldn't let private insurance compete … that a public option will put the private insurance industry out of business and lead to single payer. My single-payer friends, he was right. The man was right.”

From Tevi Troy at National Review Online: Doctors won't like a “public plan,” because they, too, often lose money on current “public plan” patients – those in Medicare. A broad-range public plan for nonretirees over time will shrink the number of Americans in private coverage because some employers will stop offering plans, and more and more individuals will migrate towards the government plan. This is why not only doctors, but also some key Blue Dog Democrats, are opposed to the government plan.