Glad I Didn't Write That

Washington Post Wiff of the day. Seems that Shailagh Murray and Paul Kane haven't been paying attention.

One gathered a group of centrist Democrats who have been opposed to a key plank of the legislation, and the other was with party liberals who have been the loudest proponents of that proposal, known as the "public option," a government-funded insurance program that has served as the biggest fault line in the debate so far.

Wrong !

The proposed public option would be funded by premia paid by consumers who choose the public option. The source of funds would be exactly the same for the public option and for private health insurance. The terrible problem is the amount of funds paid per policy holder would be lower.

The public option would will be publicly managed but privately funded. The idea is that the public sector is more efficient than the private sector and will be able to provide the same service at a lower price to the customers of the public option, who will be the people paying for it, since it will not be puplicly funded.

If this idea were absurd, because the private sector is clearly more efficient, then there wouldn't be such ferocious opposition to the public option.

Of course I don't really think that Shailagh Murray hasn't been paying attention. I think it's just that her brain refuses to accept the fact that everyone seems to agree that private insurance companies can't compete with the public sector. Private sector inefficient ... does not compute.