The Right Wing's Latest Argument Against Public Health Care -- We'd Like It Too Much

By Lindsay Beyerstein, The Media Consortium. Posted December 24, 2008.

Mark Hayes, a Republican health policy adviser to the Senate Finance Committee, said Republicans have concerns because the government plan might have access to price controls and other tools not available to private insurers. This could lead to lower premiums in the government plan, which would cause most consumers to migrate out of the private market, he said. "Over time, the effect the government option could have [is an] erosion in the private market, [making] other choices not available," Hayes said.

The consensus among progressives is clear, the public plan must prevail. In fact, many advocate going all the way to single-payer health insurance. Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee argues in the Progressive that Obama and Tom Daschle, Obama's pick for health and human services secretary, should opt for single-payer health insurance. Now is no time for piecemeal solutions:

Such a path would perpetuate the crisis and deal a cruel blow to the hopes of Americans for real reform. Those in Congress and liberal policy organizations who are embracing caution or promoting more insurance, not more care, are playing a risky game. It could jeopardize the health security of tens of millions of Americans and, in the process, fatally erode public support for the Obama administration.

Klein links to a candid post from the blog of the right-wing Cato Institute, wherein Michael F. Cannon argues that blocking Obama's health plan is the key to GOP survival. Why? Because, history shows that once people start getting good health care from the government at a price they can afford, they want to keep re-electing the politicians who make that possible. Cannon calls the phenomenon where people re-elect governments that give them good health care "becoming dependent on the government," we call it "voting our self-interest."

In other health care news, public-health advocates are not pleased about rumors that Obama may ask Mark Dybul to stay on as U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator for the first year of Obama's term. Dybul is responsible for implementing the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which funds AIDS prevention and treatment in 15 poor countries. The advocates say that Dybul, a medical doctor, is too focused on medical interventions and behavioral changes for individuals and not sufficiently concerned with broader public-health initiatives.

This post features links to the best independent, progressive reporting about health care. Visit healthcare.NewsLadder.net for a complete list of articles on health care, or follow us on Twitter. And for the best progressive reporting on critical economy and immigration issues, check out Economy.NewsLadder.net and Immigration.NewsLadder.net. This is a project of the Media Consortium, a network of 50 leading independent media outlets, and was created by NewsLadder.

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Lindsay Beyerstein is a New York writer blogging at majikthise.typepad.com

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