Comment & Debate
Paul Krugman. “Keeping Them Honest”. New York Times. June 5, 2009: “let me offer Congress two pieces of advice: 1) Don’t trust the insurance industry. 2) Don’t trust the insurance industry. […] how can we have fundamental reform of what Mr. Obama calls a ‘broken system’ if the current players stay in place?”
Jacob Hacker. “The case for public plan”. The Institute for America’s Future: “public plan choice gives Americans the opportunity to choose for themselves how they value the strengths and weaknesses of a public, Medicare-like plan and competing private health plans.” As health policy expert Jeanne Lambrew puts the point, the question is not why nonelderly Americans without secure workplace coverage should have the same choice that seniors do: enrolling in a public or private plan. The question is: ‘Why should policymakers give private insurers the exclusive right to cover Americans? If private insurers can better meet our goals for the health system, why object to a level competition with public plans?'”