http://blog.heritage.org/2009/08/03/still-not-convinced-the-public-option-is-a-trojan-horse-for-single-payer/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dT4mV3R7vu4&feature=player_embeddedSchakowsky tells her Health Care for America Now audience: “And next to me was a guy from the insurance company who argued against the public health insurance option, saying it wouldn’t let private insurance compete. That a public option will put the private insurance industry out of business and lead to single-payer. My single-payer friends, he was right. The man was right.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3BS4C9el98&feature=player_embeddedFrank tells a member of Single Payer Action: “I think that if we get a good public option it could lead to single-payer and that is the best way to reach single-payer. Saying you’ll do nothing till you get single-payer is a sure way never to get it. … I think the best way we’re going to get single-payer, the only way, is to have a public option and demonstrate the strength of its power.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FElipqE_Dl4&feature=player_embeddedKlein tells his netroots audience: “They have a sneaky strategy, the point of which is to put in place something that over time the natural incentives within its own market will move it to single-payer.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7WNxrySFQA&feature=player_embeddedKrugmans tells his audience: “[T]he only reason not to do [single-payer] is that politically it’s hard to do in one step…You’d have to convince people to completely give up the insurance they have, whereas something that lets people keep the insurance they have but then offers the option of a public plan, that may evolve into single-payer, but you can do it politically…
Krugman would know, he's an economist!
All of these Obama allies support a “public option” because they believe it will eventually lead to a single-payer system. Conservatives are against the “public option” because, like everybody quoted above, we also believe that a “public option” will inevitably lead to single-payer health care. There is one person, however, who vehemently disagrees with everyone quoted above about the effect a public option would have on private health care. President Barack Obama told the AMA June 15th:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-bY92mcOdk&feature=player_embeddedBut does President Obama even believe his own words here? Watch this video and decide for yourself:
