4
3
2
(Yeah, yeah, I know..."what about smokers and over-eaters." Hey, give me a break. I can't fix everything in a single column.)
The public option will destroy private health insurance
Last year the health insurance biz pocketed $12 billion in profits. They're not going anywhere. And here's a big reason why.
We Baby Boomers are just now seeing our body-odometers turn 250,000 miles. Our parts are starting to wear out. (Trust me on this you youngsters.) Prostates swell to the size kiwi fruit, hemorrhoids deserve their own athletic supporters, the old ticker misses beats, and the plumbing... don't even ask.
We Baby Boomers are going to be worth trillions upon trillions of bucks to the insurance industry over the next thirty years or so, and they're not about to cede all that gold to some government option.
What they will do is what all capitalist enterprises always do when conditions change "" adapt. They will find ways to compete with the public option. And if history is any gauge, the private sector usually does pretty damn well when it's main competitor is a public entity.
But the insurance industry claims that a public option would be non-competitive, and would destroy the private insurance system. (Before they made that claim they should have asked themselves if any of us would care, in the first place.) But what they really mean is that they want to talk about competitiveness, not actually have to compete against a worthy and capable opponent. To which I say, tough nuggies, assholes. You brought it on yourselves. You fouled your own nest. You killed your own golden goose in search of platinum eggs.
So, either compete or retreat. Either way is just fine with us.
Despite their threats of mass suicide, private insurance companies will compete. And they will compete hard against the public option. They will compete on service, which will result in better service "" for both public and private plans. They will compete by charging more for plans that cover "boutique" treatments and services the public plan doesn't cover "" and probably shouldn't anyway.
And they will suddenly "discover" ways to insurance some of those 50 million folks they once refused to cover who might now be attracted to an affordable public plan. They will do so by offering all kinds of "ala carte" and budget plans they now swear they just can't do.
