Nothing can escape the Post's team of super-sleuth investigative reporters. President Obama has been going around the country telling people that he wants to create a public health insurance plan that they will have the option to buy into. And then he tells them that if they like their current plan, they can keep it. To most people, this statement presumably means that under President Obama's proposal, people will not be forced to buy into the public plan. Of course this statement is true. The plan as proposed by President Obama would not force anyone to buy into the public plan. However, the Post's super-sleuth reporters took matters a step further. As it reports in a major page 2 article today, the President's plan can change the dynamics of the insurance market. Some employers who currently offer coverage may decide not to, if they know their workers have the option to buy into a public plan. Or, they could change the plan they have. In either case, it would mean that people would not have the option to stay with the plan they have today. Of course, under the current system there is no guarantee that workers have the option to keep their current plan. Employers are dropping coverage all the time. Others switch plans; there is a whole industry of insurance brokers who support themselves by getting companies to switch plans. In addition, the insurers themselves can change their plans, so that good plans may become less attractive through time. In all of these cases, even under the current system people cannot be guaranteed the option to stay with their current plan. In short, President Obama made an absolutely true and meaningful statement in claiming that people would be able to keep their current plan, if they like it. His proposal would not force them to buy the public plan. However, if anyone thought that President Obama was pledging to freeze time and ensure that their health care plan would always stay the same, then the Post has performed a valuable service in correcting this misleading impression.
--Dean Baker
