Reply #14: Thats peanuts [View All]

[Oregone]

$15 billion a year? Single-payer will save you $400 billion a year abouts.

:)

That said, of course it will save money on the people enrolled (simply due to overhead/rates). But if its only servicing 10 million people, and firewalling the rest out, it will not, under any circumstances, bring competition. Why? Because it will only have access to compete for a small sector of people (who may not be profitable to insure conventionally anyway), and the private market may opt to cede the market share in order to preserve their pricing model for the rest of the market. And it goes to follow, anyone who doesn't qualify to make it past the firewall simply wont see one iota of savings from its existence.

The "public option" may chalk itself up to be a political success, and important to the 10 million estimated to be covered by it, but for the hundreds of millions left in the cold without the option, it is insignificant in effect and savings.