Last summer, Krugman said that Obama's plan was a path to single payer.

[hedgehog]

"Best of all, the Obama plan contains the same feature that makes the Edwards plan superior to, say, the Schwarzenegger proposal in California: it lets people choose between private plans and buying into a Medicare-type plan offered by the government.

Since Medicare has much lower overhead costs than private insurers, this competition would force the insurance industry to cut costs — making our health-care system more efficient. And if private insurers couldn’t or wouldn’t cut costs enough, the system would evolve into Medicare for all, which is actually the best solution. "

http://select.nytimes.com/2007/06/04/opinion/04krugman.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin


When I read Obama's plan, it looked to me like everyone would end up on Medicare (single payer) unless the insurance companies got so efficient and got costs down so much that you couldn't tell the difference.

[Ian David]

1. HMOs will become THAT efficient the day we are deluged with anally expelled avian-simians. n/t

[BeyondGeography]

2. But that was before Obama got political and pointed out flaws in Krugman's preferred plans

The academic doesn't like to see his white papers get dirty with the real-world business of trying to win elections.