Here’s what jumped out at me when reading Mark Binker’s interview with Sen. Kay Hagan on health care reform:
Hagan worries that such a federally run insurer may prompt companies to drop their private plans, or prompt individuals to run to a cheaper alternative, and destabilize the insurance market.
And she said Monday that the idea of tying the reimbursements paid by such a public provider to the rates paid by Medicare or Medicaid — as suggested by the House — won’t work.
“If it’s tied to Medicare rates, that’s not going to get enough votes to pass,” Hagan said.
So does Hagan think it won’t work — as I do —- or does she think it just doesn’t have the votes to pass?
Sounds like the same ‘circular argument’ made by fellow Democrat Sen. Kent Conrad that Paul Krugman found so distasteful.
