Public Options vs. Private Options

Posted on 10/06/2009 at 8:56 am by Bob Cesca

Michele Bachmann is very confused. On one hand, a public health insurance plan would be so awesome that it would put private insurance companies out of business. Well, okay. As long as the privates are behaving like WellPoint and CIGNA, they deserve it. On the other hand, Bachmann says that government is incapable of running student loans because…

“…government can’t compete with private industry — they’re not as innovative, they’re not as quick on their feet, they’re not as cheap, they’re not as high quality.”

And yet they’ll put private insurance companies out of business. Uh-huh.

The reason why 65 percent of Americans support a public insurance option is that we mostly understand that government services are less expensive. Americans like things that are less expensive.

At the same time, private and public options can, in fact, coexist. When I was in New York a couple weeks ago, I took a cab from Penn Station to the West Village. Cost: $8 for a private transportation service (not counting tip). For the ride back to Penn Station, I hopped on the subway. Cost: $2.25, public transportation. The public option was cheaper and faster. But there are still more than 13,000 cabs in Manhattan.

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  • eve

    Michelle Bachman — She’s not innovative, not quick on her feet, and definitely not high quality.

  • eve

    I get so tired of people saying government management of anything is inferior to private industry management. Government is run by people and sometimes they screw up or are corrupt. Just like in private industry. Remember Enron, WorldCom, New Coke, the Edsel, or Betamax?I’ll take the US Army over Blackwater any day.

  • roxsteady

    Great points Bob and Eve! I’m so sick of these Republican idiots slamming government. I always think that if they all feel this way they should just find another job. If you or I publically slammed our employers we’d be fired in a nano second. It seems to me that what they’re really saying is that government works just fine for them but, there is nothing they can do for us. Bachmann is in desparate need of a labotomy! I hope she gets her crazy ass thrown out of office. She’s a complete embarrassment for the Republicans and that is really saying something for this party of no nothings. I can’t wait for that clown Inhofe to make his appearance in Copenhagen in December for the climate change summit. I hope he gets the first question from one of the scientists and they embarrass his stupid ass even further. What the hell is he doing even going? He’s a total wingnut.

  • Rogect8

    >>>there are still more than 13,000 cabs in Manhattan.But only one of them pays YOU!….anybody?

  • roxsteady

    Republicans are brain dead. Can’t we just pull the plug on them?

  • Eric

    “…there are still more than 13,000 cabs in Manhattan.But only one of them pays YOU!”Cash Cab!! Great show – my kid and I watch it sometimes; very educational.Has anybody yet to refer to Michele Bachmann as a ‘Stepford Republican’? That occurred to me after reading Rox’s suggestion that she should get a lobotomy. I thought – ‘actually, it’s like she’s already had one’, and that led to the ‘Stepford Republican’ idea…On topic – it seems like at least 90% of the needed health care in this country falls into the ‘subway’ category. Nothing fancy needed, just good old nut and bolts doctoring.

  • Canadian Simon

    Don’t confuse Bachmann with facts and figures…

  • http://www.windonwater.net QueenTiye

    Bob took the subway! :) BTW – did you at anytime take the subway from Grand Central station? A couple of weeks ago I was riding the UP escalator and glanced up at a guy that was coming down the DOWN escalator – and I thought – hey, that guy looks a little like Bob Cesca! And, that was before I knew you were in town.Anyway – the neatest thing about the subway is that that same 2.25 gets you all over the city, all day long, as long as you want, so long as you don’t exit the system. You could traverse almost the entire city for the same fare. I grumble every time they hike the fares for the subway… but only a little bit…OH! One more thing. The subway system (and the Metro-North system) started out as private companies. They were taken over and expanded by the public Metropolitan Transit Authority. Maybe that’s the solution to this public/private thing – simply nationalize some of the health care providers – especially the ones that are “too big to fail” … (I’m mostly kidding about that)QT