By GottaLaff
The idea to allow the federal government to compete with private insurance companies via a so-called “public option” has been “shelved” in Congress, U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson said Friday. [...]
“For the moment, the public option is shelved,” said Nelson, who gave an update on health-care reform to a group of Nebraska doctors in Omaha.
Nelson and Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman spoke at a convention of the Nebraska Medical Association in downtown Omaha.
Heineman warned that a health care proposal wending its way through the Senate Finance Committee with Democratic support could prove expensive to states. A Republican, Heineman said the bill includes “millions” in unfunded mandates that would require Nebraska to either raise taxes or slash its budget.
“We'll only have two choices. You're going to get higher taxes or we're going to cut the budget,” Heineman said. “Plain and simple.”
Nelson, who is considered a pivotal vote in the Senate, said he would not support any bill until it was in its final form and he knew all of its particulars. [...]
Nelson said the cooperative idea is something he could support, although he made no commitment. Nelson's opposition to the public option was greeted warmly by many of the doctors in the room. Several said they questioned how the government could propose running a health care program, when it couldn't adequately fund Medicare, its current health care program for senior citizens. [...]
One doctor, however, did support the public option.
Dr. Victoria Maclin tried to persuade Nelson that a public option was needed to help cover the uninsured and the underinsured. “It's going to provide access to those people who can't afford insurance,” said Maclin, a fertility specialist in Omaha.
Nelson argued that a public option would be the beginning of the end of private insurance, as more and more people migrated to the cheaper government insurance plan.
And that would be bad because....?
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