This is a thing of beauty – Republican Congressman Paul Ryan schooling two MSNBC hosts about ObamaCare. It’s not just that they’re ignorant, it’s that they’re proudly ignorant. If you want to skip ahead to minute 03:28, it really gets good when Katrina Vanden Heuvel joins the discussion to demonstrate her complete ignorance.
Katrina Vanden Heuvel: You have good government-plan health care. Why shouldnt all Americans have what you have?
Congressman Paul Ryan: I have good private-sector healthcare. We do not have a public option. The federal employee plan lists a number of private plans to choose from to select and my employer, the taxpayer, pays for a portion of these private plans. There is no public plan option in the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program. You are mistaken on that point. My Patients Choice Act that I’ve introduced with Congressman Nunes, Senators Burr and Coburn actually proposes just what youre suggesting: give people the ability, in State-based exchanges, to have a plan just like what we have here in Congress. A private health care plan that’s actuarially equivalent to what we in Congress have. We actually had a vote in the House Ways and Means Committee on an amendment I offered with Congressman Dean Heller which said, “Let’s put members of Congress in this public health care plan so that we can experience the same thing we want to impose on the rest of the country.” You know what? That amendment failed on nearly a party-line vote.
Katrina Vanden Heuvel: Competition is at the heart of America. To deny Americans competition by denying them the option of a public plan seems to me to be un-American.
Congressman Paul Ryan: What’s weird about that line right there, Katrina, is that I know you and others are very much in favor of a single-payer plan, which is obviously to deny competition and have the government run it all. What’s concerning about this debate with me is that you’re using capitalist rhetoric to try and move a plan that is inherently anti-market. The problem is that the facts tell us this: A public plan option quickly becomes a government-run monopoly. The actuaries are telling us is that in a few short years, the public plan option displaces the private sector, employers dump their employees on the public plan and then they have no choices but the public plan. And so, let’s not try to sell a government-run plan using free market rhetoric. Let’s have an honest debate about what this bill is all about.
Honest debate on MSNBC? Get serious, Congressman Paul Ryan.
This post was last modified on April 24, 2010
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The so-called free market health care system has priced itself out of existence. Not only is uninsured health care unaffordable outright, but the insurance under any auspice is too. When we have folks from three or four different economic and political ideologies argueing in the defense of private insurance versus public, I'd think someone would get the message that we're no longer talking about free market principles, but whether the unaffordability should be socialized through profitized or humanized payment plans. That's why Conservatives like Ryan don't "get it." They're fighting for profits - not health care.
The problem is it is regulated (CPT payment codes) - if we do away with the standardization of procedure cost, then we'll see competition AND prices will fall. Such a system will require cross state competition for insurance providers.
But you're still focusing on balancing a Ponzi scheme (insurance) to make health care affordable. Get rid of insurance and let the free market work.
I said right from the beginning, put it in the bill that Congress is going to be on the same plan that they force on us, and we have something to talk about. Otherwise, NO DEAL.
katrina, as with most liberals is simply "uneducated". What she doesn't seem to get is that the only reason someone of her lowly stature even has a job is BECAUSE of free market principals..... What a moron....
These people (liberals) have no concept of reality...and no concept of economics, on any level.
BITCH SLAP - the most dangerous person on this earth , is one with inteligence and common sence . Mike Pence and Paul Ryan for republican presidential and vice presidential candidates for 2012
I shall continue to pimp for New Jersey Goveror Chris Christie. I'm just saying...
She is not ugly but she is damn stupid... The guy is not ugly either, not sure where he stands though, he actually let the guy talk and he wasn't necessarily asking stupid questions for what I heard.
What a horrid phrase: bitch slaps, so full of awful connotations.
Language. When will they get it that it reinforces concepts?
I can't even read this article because of that headline.
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Reinforces concepts? You're so weak-minded...
what i cannot believe ran right under everyone's radar is that his plan to make a government healthcare plan = to what lawmakers have, or better yet, what they create was shot down....and even here no one is talking about it.
you want to see a good health care plan that cost effective AND provides at least adequate care - make the lawmakers participants in the plan and carry a representational cost.
Whether you're at either end of the extreme on this issue - i think free healthcare that is equal to the high quality and outstanding customer service of the DMV is as bad as no health care at all.
The federal government subsidizes Ryan's family health care with about $9,200. He co-pays about $4,300 a year for a grand total of $13,500. Ryan clearly states that his plan (Patients Choice) will give everyone the same coverage as he gets, but for less. Ryan's PC plan expects families to pay for $13,500 worth of insurance with a $5,700 TAX CREDIT subsidy. At the same time, Ryan’s PC plan relieves employers from the duty of sponsoring a health care plan. How? Because that is how the tax credit is paid for – his plan shifts the tax incentive from the employer to the employee. No more group leverage, you’re on your own. For everyone except himself – the government employee.
Next time you talk with Ryan, ask him if his employer (us!) will be relived of subsidizing his personal family health care plan like his plan does for everyone else.
Ryan forgets that the government plays a role in the free markets whether he likes it or not. He works for the people - not private health care insurers.
Yawn. The point is the Gov. shouldn't be involved at all. I pay for my own healthcare and it's expensive and really good. So there.
Paul Ryan is my new hero.
I like Paul Ryan, but have a look into New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. That guy is pissing every lefty in NJ off, they hate the guy, & that is why I want Christie to run for President. He get's it, & you can tell how good he is by who hates him.
Where is the public outcry when MSNBC "lefties" hit the airwaves? Congressman Paul Ryan's articulate argument against the "Obama Health Care Plan" is clear and on target....so called Republicans like Grassley, and Olympia Snow, should get out of the way and let guys like Ryan lead the charge!