President Obama insists that if you like the health care you have now, you can keep it under the nationalized health insurance system the Democrat Congress is pushing. What he isn’t admitting is that he’s talking to employers, not employees. He’s really saying that employers can keep the health plans they currently offer if they want to. He certainly is not saying that employees will be able to keep any healthcare plan that their employers don’t want to continue to fund. Now comes word that the Switch to Public Option attracts Pelosi-backed businesses
Three companies in which House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and her husband are heavily invested say they might switch their employees to a government-run Public Option plan if President Obama’s health care reform passes Congress.
The Public Option is a proposed government-run insurance company that Obama, Pelosi, and most Democrats want to create as part of health care reform. It would receive a large start-up investment from taxpayers and likely pay low Medicare rates to doctors and hospitals, allowing it to undercut private insurers with low premiums. A Lewin Group study found that as many as 131 million Americans would move or be shifted involuntarily into such a plan if it is offered, possibly killing off the private health insurance industry.
Obama has promised repeatedly that Americans will be able keep their present health insurance if they want to, and a Pew poll found that 89 percent of insured Americans are happy with their existing coverage. But most health insurance plans are selected by employers, not employees, so the latter will have very little say if Obama’s plan prompts employers to change it.
The Examiner contacted three businesses in which the Pelosis are heavily invested, according to her congressional disclosure forms. All three said that they would certainly consider switching employees to the Public Option plan, and in some cases would probably do so, provided that it is cheaper and offers roughly comparable coverage on paper.
Obama and Pelosi really need to talk more. He’s probably unhappy with her for letting the cat out of the bag before the closing seam is sewed shut.
July 18th, 2009 9:22 pm
This is a good point- I didn’t think about the fact that employees could only keep a plan if an employer was dumb enough to still offer it