According to Gallup, while Americans favor some government involvement in health care, they do not want a government-run health care system. The left knows this. They understand that Americans would never sign on to health care reform that created a “single-payer” system where the government would run the entire health care sector. So instead, the left is trying to sell a government-run health insurance “option” (the “public option”) that they say would “compete” with private health insurance. But “competition” is not their goal. The “public option” would only serve as a Trojan Horse that the left could then turn into a single-payer health care system over a number of years by slowly forcing private health care managers out of existence. Don’t believe us? Then watch Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) admit as much earlier this year:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dT4mV3R7vu4&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
Schakowsky tells her Health Care for America Now audience: “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.”
Still don’t believe us? Then watch Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) admit as much just last week:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3BS4C9el98&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
Frank tells a member of Single Payer Action: “I think that if we get a good public option it could lead to single-payer and that is the best way to reach single-payer. Saying you’ll do nothing till you get single-payer is a sure way never to get it. … I think the best way we’re going to get single-payer, the only way, is to have a public option and demonstrate the strength of its power.”
Still don’t believe us? Then watch Washington Post reporter Ezra Klein admit as much at Netroots Nation last year:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FElipqE_Dl4&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
Klein tells his netroots audience: “They have a sneaky strategy, the point of which is to put in place something that over time the natural incentives within its own market will move it to single-payer.”
Still don’t believe us? Then watch Paul Krugman admit as much at a forum in New Jersey earlier this year:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7WNxrySFQA&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
Krugmans tells his audience: “[T]he only reason not to do [single-payer] is that politically it’s hard to do in one step…You’d have to convince people to completely give up the insurance they have, whereas something that lets people keep the insurance they have but then offers the option of a public plan, that may evolve into single-payer, but you can do it politically…”
All of these Obama allies support a “public option” because they believe it will eventually lead to a single-payer system. Conservatives are against the “public option” because, like everybody quoted above, we also believe that a “public option” will inevitably lead to single-payer health care. There is one person, however, who vehemently disagrees with everyone quoted above about the effect a public option would have on private health care. President Barack Obama told the AMA June 15th:
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.
But does President Obama even believe his own words here? Watch this video and decide for yourself:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-bY92mcOdk&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
