The other day, Obama said that his proposed public heath-care insurance option would compete with other health insurance providers the same way that the USPS competes with Fed-Ex and UPS. I know the government does not allow competition with the USPS in anything but delivering packages, but the USPS doesn’t drive Fed-Ex and UPS out of the market in this field.
I was hoping Lew Rockwell would address this in his article today, but he didn’t. I’d appreciate some ideas.
Some people can’t afford Fed-Ex or UPS all the time, sometimes the USPS is all some people can afford.
Likewise, the proposed healthcare system will not drive out the private companies, but it will give those who can’t afford private care a secure option.
Secondly, should there ever be a depression that drives Fed-Ex or UPS out of business, the USPS will take over until another company comes along. This applies just the same to healthcare.
haha, very funny. you almost had me for a second there!
Let’s cut the BS about competition here period. This is going to be a planned bureaucratic system , which private insurance companies are simply going to be allowed to be part off. Entrepreneurship will be either completely or almost entirely abolished from the system. All will behave according to fixed rules and guidelines and procedures that the planners will cook up for us.
Fed-Ex and UPS are at least still for profit entrepreneurial businesses. USPS is just sitting there copying everything Fed-Ex and UPS are bringing into the market. They still manage to take in more then they produce, which is why they are subsidized.
Healthcare is not going to be like mail. I don’t think the government mandates Fed-Ex to offer this or that service, and there is no subsidized mail delivery “insurance” or provider.
My point is this: how public health-care is going to “compete” with private insurance is a distraction from the real issues! People who ask such questions are completely misguided about the problems of the proposed obamacare.
It’s illegal to create a first-class mail business that competes with the Post Office.
FedEx and UPS deliver packages. They don’t deliver first-class mail.
Yes! but it is legal for the Post Office to compete with FedEx and UPS on delivering packages.
yeap, and the post office goes bankrupt doing it and the taxpayers are bailing them out… it costs something for the post office to go bankrupt - cost something to all U.S. taxpayers and buyers. And the Post Office does this without having their own planes either. They use (contract) Fed ex. or other commercial airplanes to deliver through the sky.
Yes its something people tend to forget. We pay for the post office even if we are so bold not to use it for an entire year. Right now I am paying some employee to deliver another individual’s mail that isn’t a friend or family member, all this while not utilizing the service myself right now.
So if not using a state service doesn’t make that service go away, then what will?
In other words, the public health insurance plan will be yet another tab picked up collectively that is horribly inefficient and wasteful.
Why should I be forced to pay for other people’s mail?
If the demand is high enough, there will quickly be a replacement even if somehow all the providers of a service go under.
When the state service becomes irrelevant due to the successes of private alternatives
The only time government provided services completely wipe out competition is when competition is outlawed, as far as I know. Historically speaking, from what I have learned, usually government provided goods and services are so poorly provided, that eventually the government makes it illegal to compete with the service or good. Amtrak, first-class mail, medicaid (as far as I know, the elderly are not allowed to choose different insurance), and airports come to mind.
With health care insurance, from what I understand, it would be setup such that there would be no incentive for businesses to offer any insurance other than government health insurance. In other words, it is not like USPS competing with FedEx and UPS. To be a valid comparison, it is like FedEx and UPS trying to compete with the USPS, if all the services of USPS were completely tax funded.
I would say a more valid analogy would be education. Even though public schools are 100% tax funded, there are still some private schools.
Key word being “forced”.
I think it will make health insurance even more expensive. The current public options have, why shouldn’t this one?
Many public services are expensive because of the rising demand due to a growing population AND the lack of funding from tax payer’s money. The flow of tax money has to be redirected, like away from policing third-world countries etc, has these services can gain more steam.