Patient Power

Public health plan: if it were a basketball game

Both the House and Senate care bills include a new government-run health plan.  (See the Wall Street Journal’s comparison.) In June I wrote the following:

Supporters of the “public insurance option,” that is, government-run insurance that competes with commercial insurers sense opposition: People realize it’s unfair competition. You know, like playing basketball against a team of players who also function as the referees.

Either my post inspired someone at the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest to make following video or (more likely) someone there thought of it independently:

• If government has a “public option” for cable TV
• Obama: “Public health plan” would “keep insurance companies honest”
• How insurance companies can gain credibility
• The “public plan” deception: Isn’t it about choice
• Tony Soprano and the “public plan”