7/21/09 - Obama Advocates for Public Option In Couric Interview

[TomCADem]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/07/21/eveningnews/main5178682_page2.shtml

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Katie Couric: What will happen if, say, my employer tried to do that?

President Obama: Well, essentially, the employer would be informed that certain people would not be eligible for this public option if they've already got health insurance through their employer. Or the employer would have to pay the equivalent of the insurance that he was already providing.

So there is going to be mechanisms that prevent people from just dumping folks into the public option. Where the public option becomes important is to make sure that the small business person, who just can't afford health care at all, when they go to what we call an exchange, a marketplace that has private insurers out there, but also a public option, he or she can choose which option works best for them.

And, by having that public option, we're putting pressure on the insurance companies to make sure that they are keeping costs as low as possible, and they're giving the highest quality for the best price. What's always interesting to me is folks say that government can't run things.

And I actually agree that the private sector does a whole lot of things better than government can. Well, if that's the case, then insurance companies should be able to compete effectively with a public option. As long as it's not being subsidized by the government. And I've already said I wouldn't support a public option if it was simply just a way to have taxpayers subsidize folks heavily.

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