It is true that Barack Obama did not speak the words “public option” during his election campaign, which is one reason many of us have been surprised by the president’s obsession all year with trying to enact government-controlled health care.
But Obama now has told The Washington Post, “I never campaigned on the public option,” and the claim is driving “the Left” insane. Because Obama’s written campaign material certainly urged a “public health insurance option.”
His old BarackObama.com site still includes this promise:
“Specifically, the Obama plan will: (1) establish a new public insurance program available to Americans who neither qualify for Medicaid or SCHIP nor have access to insurance through their employers, as well as to small businesses that want to offer insurance to their employees.”No real loss. Nevertheless, I doubt many people would be looking at this paragraph had the “public option” not become such a bone of contention all year, and had Obama been clearer, earlier this year about whether it was central to his health plan.
As things are, the health-care bill already is too expensive and sloppily constructed. A “public option” probably would not have helped, because it would have erased competition, not improved it.
But here we are. Everyone’s mad.
Frank Warner
Comments