The Health Care Freedom Coalition–including Americans for Tax Reform and its affiliates–have signed a letter to Senators Baucus and Grassley, of the Senate Finance committee, explaining our position on heath care co-ops. The letter, signed by more than 50 groups, details how a health care co-op that is financed by the government, run by the government, and protected by the government is nothing more than the government option.
Former head of Health and Human Services, Michael O. Leavitt, Wharton Professor Scott Harrington, CATO institute senior fellow Michael D. Tanner, and even former DNC chariman Howard Dean have all agreed that health care co-ops are nothing less than political theatre, and will eventually result in the same government run healthcare plan that is the eventual goal of the Obama Administration. This letter will arrive at the senators desks as they are negotiating over health care reform in the senate.
The public option is designed to push the private insurance market out of business. As there is not enough political power to force the single payer option through the congress, the public option is the more subtle method. It seems clear, however, after months of heated townhalls, that the public option and the various masks it wears, such as a ‘health care co-op’ and the ‘public option trigger,’ are not politically viable either. The American people have rejected President Obama’s plan.