Quote:
Originally Posted by kennyc
And this is exactly the problem. It needs to all be on a level playing field with a public option to control the costs.
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A public option will not control the costs. It will eliminate the competition.
That's the reason that there's an unrelated business tax in the Internal Revenue Code - to keep nontaxed entities (charitable foundations, for example) from competing unfairly with entities that have the additional expense of paying taxes. The "public option" will not be paying the taxes that private insurance will have to pay, and will have a terrific advantage to, at least for a while, undersell the insurance companies till they go out of business.
Furthermore, government does NOT control costs. It increases costs. Anything that the government subsidizes winds up either costing more or being rationed.