Unfair Advantages? Now We're Getting Somewhere!

January 16, 2009 -- In today's Herald Tribune: Bipartisan Reform Vowed on Healthcare Daschle Calls the System Unsustainable some partisan hack named James Gelfand is quoted as saying, in regard to Obama's plan to reform health care:

"The public plan option is a terrible idea - one of our top concerns in the health reform debate..."
Well, ok, he's not just a hack, he's senior manager of health policy at the United States Chamber of Commerce. And he's a shill for the insurance industry, giving a thinly-disguised defense of entrenched interests. If he'd finished the sentence, it would have been, "It might put some of my clients out of business!"

The article goes on,

...the proposal is anathema to many insurers, employers and Republicans. They say the government plan would have unfair advantages, [emphasis mine] like the ability to impose lower fees, and could eventually attract so many customers that private insurers would be driven from the market.
Um, lower fees? Isn't that the point? Not for Mr. Gelfand.

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