Public universities and healthcare

Lately, the Obamacrats have picked up the mantra of pointing out how public universities and private ones coexist in order to support their claim that a government healthcare plan could coexist with the private insurance industry. While it sounds good, this argument is actually a non starter.

Public universities and private ones are different products. Students get different educations depending on what school they select. Those attending private colleges (and paying for the privilege) believe that they are getting a better product than would be available from a state school.

Government run health care and private insurance do not provide different products. Both provide health care for the individual. What is different between the two plans is the price. According to the Obamacrats themselves, the government run plan will be a less expensive way to get healthcare equal to that available from the private plans. Any rational person will want to get equal healthcare for less cost. This will drain people out of the private insurance industry and into the government plan.

If the government plan could actually reduce the costs of care, it would be a major benefit to this country. Unfortunately, the government plan will not reduce costs; rather, it will subsidize its members costs through tax revenue and by running up the cost of those in private plans. It is just shifting the burden to the government, not reducing the cost. Once the government shifts this burden back to the people through increased fees and taxes (as it must), the total cost for health care will actually increase over the present as the waste and fraud prevalent in government programs and the inefficient financing methods take hold. Over the long term, the government plan will both destroy the private insurance industry and bankrupt the country.

One thing is clear: no one in the White House understands economics.