DALLAS - While most of the Affordable Care Act’s co-ops are bankrupt or close to it, President Obama and White House hopeful Hillary Clinton are renewing calls to expand Obamacare with a public option.
“Fifteen of the 23 original Obamacare co-ops—which were the liberals' fallback plan when they couldn't get a government-run ‘public option’—have closed their doors, at a whopping taxpayer cost of $1.5 billion,” said IPI resident scholar Dr. Merrill Matthews.
“Now liberals are demanding a public option once again, not because it would provide better coverage or be more financially stable—the co-ops proved that,” said Matthews.
“The left wants a public option because it will never be happy until the government controls the whole health care system—including what care patients can and can't have.”
On the campaign trail, presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton is likewise turning a blind eye to the co-ops’ stunning failures as she proposes people should join a government-run health plan similar to Medicare—or simply join Medicare.
“The U.S. already has a public option—Medicaid and Medicare. Both face huge financial and access challenges. As Medicare, Medicaid and other single-payer health care systems prove, in a public option, the government simply decrees what it will spend on health care. And like education and welfare and retirement funding, there is never enough money to meet all the needs," said Matthews.
“Mrs. Clinton, before you try to reform the entire health care system, you really should explain how you will reform Medicaid, because your public option will be little more than a vast Medicaid expansion," said Matthews.