Obama's "public option" plan was a grand attempt to sweep away all private opposition by making it more affordable for private businesses to dump all their employees on the taxpayer. His new "co-op" plan follows the Fannie Mae model for undermining public confidence in private health care. It allows the government to subsidize "co-ops" while promoting government care standards --subsidies and standards that will no doubt be overly generous in order to draw new clients.
At the same time, Obama's plan will continue to promote requirements that private insurers cover all applicants, no matter how sick, no matter how bad their pre-existing conditions. Insurers who currently do not make payments to stage-4 cancer patients applying for care will now need to make those payments. Healthy insurance beneficiaries will bear the brunt in increased deductibles. Higher cost and worse care will result for private health care clients.
Even worse, the "co-op" myth will provide Obama the cover he seeks to utterly swamp the private system. When private insurer care drops in quality -- a drop necessitated by new regulations -- Obama will declare their care insufficient. More and more Americans will opt for the new "co-ops," just as more and more Americans opted for Fannie Mae mortgages.
And sooner or later, when "co-ops" go bankrupt, government will step in to save the day with total nationalization.
President Obama is a determined man. And he is determined to have single-payer, nationalized health care by hook or by crook. The "public option" was by hook. The "co-op" plan is by crook. There's only one question left: Will Americans recognize this new swindle for what it is?