And About the Public Plan

Gracie-Marie Turner
The Galen Institute
June 18, 2009

I am so tired of politicians saying they are enrolled in a government health plan. In actuality, they are in a plan offered by their employer (the government) that contracts with a number of private health plans to offer coverage through the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program. (It's no different from any other self-funded plan, except the premium payer is us the taxpayers)

Their employer happens to be the government but their choices are all private plans. The government doesn't run the private plans; it contracts with them. If members of Congress want to see what a real government-run health plan looks like, then they should try Medicaid or Medicare.

Running a health plan requires sophisticated skills that federal officials do not have. They know how to set prices, write and interpret regulations, and turn on computers to spew out checks.

But managing networks of doctors and negotiating contracts for benefits are not skill sets the government has. If members of Congress don't even know this, then how on earth can we expect them to have the skills to make good decisions about reorganizing the entire health sector?