The Cons of a Public Health Insurance Option
The cons of a public option health insurance all relate to the professionals involved in healthcare. However, what affects the professionals eventually trickles down to affect patients, too.
Private health insurers complain that a public option, because it would cost so much less, and because it would have such massive negotiating power, would put them out of business. They would not be able to afford to sustain their levels of service, or keep paying their investors. Further, they raise the fear that eventually so many people would flock to the public option, that the United States would end up with a single payer system.
Providers are also concerned about a public option. That massive negotiating power would force costs lower for patients, but much of that lower cost would be borne by providers. Doctors fear they would be reimbursed at even lower rates than they are now.
Conservative healthcare reform watchdogs tells us that those lower reimbursements would mean more doctors and providers would reject patients who used any of the public option payers, including Medicare, Medicaid, TriCare, the VA and CHIP.
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