conservative opposition to having a public option in health reform seems to be based on the argument that private insurance companies just can't compete with a public plan. underlying this concern is the notion that, if given a choice, most members of the public will choose the government run plan over the private plans. but that completely undermines the conservatives' usual argument that a public health insurer will lead to less efficiency and worse health outcomes. if that were really true, private plans would have no trouble cleaning the public plan's clock.
there's an interesting comparison between this issue and public school voucher programs. with school vouchers, conservatives want desperately for public schools to compete with private schools. i guess they really do believe their own hype about the shortcomings of public schools, but not about public health insurers.
