by Bill Tierney
In the seemingly interminable debate about health care, much ado is made about “the public option.” Liberals believe that such an option will help drive costs down, and that it will enable individuals who otherwise might be denied health care to get it from the government. Conservatives believe that such an option would drive private providers out of business, is too costly, and is socialist. Because it’s socialist, service will be shabby, they claim.
Politicians of both persuasions point to other countries to bolster their argument and destroy the opposition’s. Canada has a public option, we hear, and it helps keep cost down; but Britain has a public option, too, and people have to wait for months to see a doctor, counters the opposition. Whoever disagrees with the portrait that the other has drawn, then shows why one or another country is not a good example.
It’s too bad we don’t have an example of a public option to examine in the United States. I wonder if there is a public option of some form of a public good where private companies also exist. Where might we find something akin to health care that we want to make available to everyone, but private companies also compete?
Hmmm………….
Public colleges and universities have existed for over a century. Right alongside them have been private colleges and universities. USC, UCLA and Cal State LA are miles from one another. Every city in the country has a similar example. Just because public institutions have existed has not meant that private institutions have been driven out of business. Many public colleges and universities have offered a superb education and done excellent research.
The public option in higher education has done exactly what the liberals say they want for health care; the public option has neither created havoc for private institutions nor has it been shabby, as the conservatives have charged. Cost has become a concern, but only recently, and that’s because we have an unacceptably low tax rate. If we have a public option in higher education and it has worked reasonably well for a century, then why not try the same in health care? Or at least stop saying that a public option means that private companies can’t compete, or that those who use the public option will get second-rate care.
