President Obama took the gloves off yesterday over the health care reform issue of a government run public coverage option.  During a press conference held at the White House, Obama sharply rebuked the contradictory criticisms of the public option plan coming from Republicans/The Health Industry Lobby (it’s hard to tell the two apart), saying  “If private insurers say that the marketplace provides the best quality health care … then why is it that the government, which they say can’t run anything, suddenly is going to drive them out of business?”

As reported here, the overwhelming majority of Americans want a public health care option to compete with private insurers in the marketplace, ensuring care standards stay high and costs don’t continue to spiral out of control.  “The public plan, I think, is an important tool to discipline insurance companies”, the President said.  If there was ever an industry to discipline, it is the private health insurance companies of the United States who have made our system the most expensive in the world, both overall and per capita, while putting 30% of health care costs in their own pockets.The public option should not even be considered an option.  It is a necessity if we are going to get a hold of a sector of our economy which is out of control and destroying the financial solvency of both other industries and individuals.  Insurance companies should consider themselves lucky they’re not being done away with altogether, especially given the poor job they’ve done of servicing the nation’s health care needs.

LINKS:

AP (Yahoo!): Obama takes on insurers over gov’t plan

NY Daily News: President Obama mocks private insurance companies; promises new health plan will not break the bank

WaPo: Health Care: We Fear What We Want