By Scott Keyes
Think Progress, March 30, 2012
According to one Republican attorney general in the lawsuit against the health care individual mandate, the problem with Obamacare is that itās not a government takeover of health care.
ThinkProgress spoke with Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell outside the Supreme Court on Wednesday. Caldwell opposes Obamacare and the individual mandate, but for a different reason than most of his fellow litigants: it props up the private health insurance industry. āInsurance companies are the absolute worst people to handle this kind of business,ā he declared. āI trust the government more than insurance companies.ā Caldwell went on to endorse the idea of a single-payer health care system, saying itād ābe a whole lot betterā than Obamacare:
KEYES: You donāt think the subsidies for low-income people are going to be helpful?
CALDWELL: No, no. The worst thing you can do is give it to an insurance company. I want to make my point. All insurance companies are controlled in their particular state. If you have a hurricane come up the east coast, the first one thatās going to leave you when they gotta pay too many claims is an insurance company. Insurance companies are the absolute worst people to handle this kind of business. I trust the government more than insurance companies. If the government wants to put forth a policy where they will pay for everything and you wonāt have to go through an insurance policy, thatād be a whole lot better.
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/03/30/454261/buddy-caldwell-private-insurance/
Comment:
By Don McCanne, MD
Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell, a Republican, who has joined the lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act, certainly understands the greatest flaw in the legislation. “The worst thing you can do is give it to an insurance company.” Leading to his conclusion, “If the government wants to put forth a policy where they will pay for everything and you wonāt have to go through an insurance policy, thatād be a whole lot better.”