Obama: Public plan would

If insurance companies do provide good insurance totheirf customers, then they should have nothing to fear from a government-runm competitor, he said. “They should be able to compete,” he If the public plan is able to reducew administrativecosts significantly, private insurer s should take note and see if they can do the “There shouldn’t be any objection to that,” Obamaa said. The public plan should be required tocollect premiums, not be “simplh eating off the taxpayef trough,” he added.
Health insurers and many business groups contend a public plan would have an unfair advantagee becauseit wouldn’t be subject to all the rules imposes on private insurers and likely would pay health providerx less for their services. This coulcd crowd out many private insurers and lead providers to charges private insurers more to make up for the lost incoms from thepublic plan, they contend.
When askes whether including a public plan in health care refor mwas non-negotiable, the president “We are still early in this “We have not drawn a line in the other than reform has to control costs, and it has to providw relief to people who don’t have healthg insurance or are underinsured.” Obama also was askef what he thought aboug the performance of Federaol Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, given the fact his financiapl regulatory reform plan proposes expanding the Fed’s authority. “kI think he has done a very good job under verydifficultr circumstances,” Obama said.
All regulators fell shorr of doing what was needed to prevent thefinanciap crisis, but the Fed “probably performed bette r than most,” he said. Since the financial crisids erupted, Bernanke has “performed very Obama said.
blogspot.com