Republicans oppose health care co-op as well
a.k.a. Republicans are not as stupid as Obama thinks they are:
WASHINGTON -- The number two Senate Republican said Tuesday replacing a public health care option with a nonprofit private cooperative wouldn't win any more Republican support, saying they are essentially the same thing.
Sen. Jon Kyl (R., Ariz.), said Republican objections were more fundamental than simply changing the name of a new national entity to compete with private medical insurers.
"It's [the same thing] by another name, it is a trojan horse," Mr. Kyl said, speaking on a conference call with reporters.
Mr. Kyl said even if the idea of a public option and that of a medical review for older people by their doctor were dropped altogether from the proposed reforms, he doubted whether many Republicans would support Democrats' efforts to introduce sweeping health-care reforms.
He's absolutely right. The public plan wasn't a "trojan horse" for the single-payer system because it was so obvious right from the start. Well, the health care co-op is a trojan horse because it isn't so obvious from the get-go—namely, the name is different—but many of the details would be similar to the public "option", which means it has to lead to single-payer system, maybe just not as quickly.
I am glad to see that Republicans are also tackling the right issue:
He said he believed any health-care reform should start with a move to tackle medical malpractice, arguing that billions of dollars could be saved in health-care costs each year if doctors didn't have to practice "defensive medicine."
Mr. Kyl said small employers should be allowed to join together to give them more muscle when negotiating terms with health insurers, and that health insurance should be permitted to be sold across state lines like other forms of insurance.
These are small adjustments that we can make that won't face popular opposition (especially if you don't count trial lawyers, their lobbyists, and their congressmen as "people") and will improve our great system significantly.
There's a plan that fixes what is broken, unlike the ones out there proposing to fix what ain't.