Kay Bailey Speaks Out Against Co-ops!

Kay Bailey Hutchinson has just responded to an email that I sent regarding the Administration's attempt to establish a single payer health insurance system (controlled by the Fed) in the United States. The response was what you and I would expect from a politician.

However, Congressman Hutchinson did point out a "stealth" approach that apparently the Obama gang is going to try instead of the "In Your Face, ram it through" approach introduced earlier. Instead of the out-of-favor terminology of Government plan or Single Payer plan, the term, "co-op" is being floated as the system of the future. Here's what Ms. Hutchinson had to say about co-ops-

After hearing from constituents over the last several months, some members of Congress have now learned that using the term “government plan” elicits a strong negative response from voters, so they have now latched onto a new way to describe the same thing: a co-op. Texans should not be confused by this new packaging of the same idea. The co-op is a back door to a government takeover of our health care. The co-op would be started with federal funds, and it remains unclear whether taxpayer dollars would be used if the co-ops began to fail. The Administration has tried to bail out the banking, housing, and auto industry; would these co-ops be next?

Ms. Hutchinson has been doing her homework, at least in the case of co-ops. The State of Texas has tried them as a panacea for an absence of insurance companies willing to take on people that the company's underwriters say are bad risks and are uninsurable. Unfortunately, in practice , potential healthy prospects continue to avoid the co-op or "pool" as the claims experience tends to be bad and rate increases a regular feature, guaranteeing that a co-op will be a loser. At that time, I believe that Obama may claim the "mandate of the public" to "take over the co-op system" and make it work! With patience, anything is possible.