Being in the mortgage business, I had a thought yesterday that hopefully can be used to better sell the Public Option and that is to compare it to the VERY successful FHA program. You don't need to compare the U.S. Postal System to Fed Ex and UPS, etc. That is a rather lame comparison, IMHO.
Rather, FHA is the PERFECT comparison to the Public Option as it is a government insurance program that has competed with private mortgage insurance firms for decades. The private insurance companies (GE, Radian, MGIC and PMI, etc.) have been profitable insuring conventional loans competing against the FHA program.
As most of you know, the FHA program is available to all prosepective homebuyers provided they fit within the loan limit (which is comparable to conventional Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac limits now). FHA was created after the Depression to provide a safety net for lenders so if a homebuyer experiences trouble making their payment, the lender has insurance from the government which will cover for a portion of the loan loss that the lender incurs. The homebuyer actually pays the insurance as part of their mortgage payment so FHA is actually self funded.
I remember in many campaign speeches, candidate Obama talking about his Grampa returning from the War and buying a house with FHA financing. So progressive Democrats and the Obama Administration have a shining example in the form of government mortgage insurance for a home purchase. This is truly a form of a "public option" that has been extremely successful for homeowners and the goverment. In fact, for the entire history of FHA, from the 1930s up until the credit crisis in 2007, FHA has been fully 100% self-funded -never needing a government or taxpayer bailout of any form. Now again, in 2009, it is back to being very profitable.
I'm not sure anyone can straighten out the crazy Fox Channel fans and the Palinistas Death Campers, but perhaps there are many voters in the Blue Dog parts of the country who have an FHA loan. This easy comparison can help them see the light --- that it's not a big scary socialist concept if they or someone they know can get their health insurance in the future from the government in the same way that they bought their house using the FHA program.