Today Karl Rove had a piece in the WSJ about how the Republicans must fight and win against a "public option." The link is Here, in all its glorious moranishness. But come below for a few excerpts and my more focused translation.
Rove began by talking about a conversation that he had with an unnamed R senator, and the dangers of the public option, and how that could never be undone, once passed (perhaps because it would work and people would like it - kinda like Social Security or Medicare?) we would become a European Welfare State (the horrors! the horrors!)
He then went on to list his five reasons why it shouldn't be allowed to happen. snippets from each - with my translation...
The first is it's unnecessary. Advocates say a government-run insurance program is needed to provide competition for private health insurance. But 1,300 companies sell health insurance plans. That's competition enough.
He actually goes on to use the Medicare drug benefit as an example of the wonderousness of the insurance industry.
My interpretation:
We have lots of broken parts, that's cool
He then moves on to talk about unfair competition:
Second, a public option will undercut private insurers and pass the tab to taxpayers and health providers just as it does in existing government-run programs.
He then goes on to talk about cost shifting and subsidies.
My translation:
Ignore the "forced subsidy" on employers, employees and hospitals created by uninsured patients - just look at the "forced subsidy" universal coverage would entail.
He then says ...
Third, government-run health insurance would crater the private insurance market, forcing most Americans onto the government plan. The Lewin Group estimates 70% of people with private insurance -- 120 million Americans -- will quickly lose what they now get from private companies and be forced onto the government-run rolls as businesses decide it is more cost-effective for them to drop coverage.
In other words ... (my translation)
Ignore the fact that we usually say "competition is good" and that "government can't do anything right" and would therefore be so inept that patients would flee that program for the warm fuzzy feel of private insurance companies - and instead pretend that the government will not only do it cheaper, but better as well.
Moving on, Rove brings up the cost bugaboo
Fourth, the public option is far too expensive. The cost of Medicare -- the purest form of a government-run "public choice" for seniors -- will start exceeding its payroll-tax "trust fund" in 2017.
He then complains about the cost of Medicare (?? - isn't that part of why we are trying to reform the system) and the dastardly results of ... something ... maybe lack of competition? (forgetting that moments ago he talked about how they were UNDERPAYING for services.)
My best translation of this (after all - the logic is difficult to follow) ...
Because we have underfunded Medicare - that's why the public option won't work.
And finally, we get to the fifth reason ...
Fifth, the public option puts government firmly in the middle of the relationship between patients and their doctors. If you think insurance companies are bad, imagine what happens when government is the insurance carrier, with little or no competition and no concern you'll change to another company.
Okay ... let's see ... here's my best shot...
Don't think about Medicare, Medicaid, TriCare and VA services and current objective satisfaction rates with same > ...> oh - and while you are doing that - go back to #3 - rinse and repeat.
He then closes with a litany of scares words, dog whistles and talking points - in no particular order ...
phony .... bait-and-switch ... radical ...Mr. Obama's real aim, ... is a single-payer, government-run health-care system. ... far-reaching reforms ... patients and their doctors in charge ... benefits of competition ... market forces ... ensure access
And his absolute last words ...
Defeating the public option should be a top priority for the GOP this year. Otherwise, our nation will be changed in damaging ways almost impossible to reverse.
That's the easiest to translate:
A Democratic majority for as far into the future as the mind can imagine