Logic on the Public Option!

Leave it to the President to perfectly articulate the lunacy that has been the debate over the public option on health care reform:

QUESTION: Wouldn’t [the public option] drive private insurance out of business?

OBAMA: Why would it drive private insurance out of business? If private insurers say that the marketplace provides the best quality health care; if they tell us that they’re offering a good deal, then why is it that the government, which they say can’t run anything, suddenly is going to drive them out of business? That’s not logical.

This has been puzzling me for a while - there are only two possibilities here:

1. Government is worse at running health care than the private sector. In this case, even if there is a public option, no one will choose it (certainly not in substantial numbers) because it will offer worse care for the money than the private options. Of course, conservatives have been arguing for decades now that government would be terrible at running health care. If they really believe that, though, why are so many Republican members of Congress so worked up about the public option? It's not like vast numbers of people are going to leave their private insurance for lesser, more expensive coverage.
   
2. Government is better at running health care than the private sector. In this case, people are going to want the best care they can afford and sure, it's possible they flock to the public option and the government drives some or all private insurance providers out of business. But if the private insurers are providing crappier care for the money, isn't eliminating them, as a matter of public policy, the outcome we're looking for? It's the free market at work!
   

I'll leave it to Paul Krugman to explain why these supposed free marketers are really opposed to the public option, and to Nate Silver to show why the debate in Congress has gotten so muddled despite strong public support for the public option.

But I would encourage all of you that if you have a senator or representative who does not support the public option or hasn't decided yet, please contact them and let them know that you want them to support it.*

* Unless you don't support the public option yourself, in which case fuck you.