The public plan would have lower administrative costs than those private plans but would probably engage in less management of utilization by its enrollees and attract a less healthy pool of enrollees.

Why is this shocking? The narrative from the left has been that the mean ol insurance companies are not accepting pre-existing conditions because they are evil. Surprise, the reason why you do that is because people will take advantage of the system. If you accept pre-existing conditions without making people buy long term plans. The sick will just drop in and out of the system- thus ruining the benefit of having a group pool of money.

I am all for requiring accepting pre-existing conditions but then to make sure people still pay when they are healthy the contract should be a 2-3 year monthly plan.

A public option would be accountable not to stockholders but to voters, whose interests would align much better with public-option policyholders.

Does Noah really believe this? Is there one example of a huge entitlement where voters actually made a difference? Seriously, if anyone thinks the voters will have a say in the public option they are an idiot. Let me put it this way If you complained to Wal-mart and your Congressman about something- which would be more likely to address your concerns the quickest? The PO would be as accountable to voters as the DMV is accountable to voters, which would be close to zero.

Government health insurance plans, such as Medicare, have a track record of maintaining costs below those of private health insurers because they enjoy certain advantages of scale, are cheaper to administer, and don't have to deliver profits to shareholders.

This is laughable. Noah left out the fact that Medicare also pays only 20-50% of the bill. here is some medical math you Noah. A uninsured man goes to the emergency room and the hospital has to treat him by law. The bill is $100K. He qualifies for Medicaid and the government pays the hospital $40k. The hospital has to eat the rest. That is how Medicaid keeps costs low.

This is why few doctors accept Medicaid patients and why these patients use the ER. The ER has to see them if it is an emergency or not. Hospitals get screwed and need to make money so those who pay with cash or insurance get to pay a little extra even if the poor have Medicaid.

This is also why Reid tried to get the Dr fix bill passed. It was essentially a bribe to get doctors to accept lower payments on the front end in order to get cash in the back room. Of course the Drs didn't trust Congress so the deal flopped.

The dirty secret is that insurance companies don't make much profit (3-6%) and the cause of rising insurance rates is rising hospital and Dr costs. The PO will not control insurance costs because it doesn't address the root of the issue- medical costs. The way to get costs down is for the government to put price controls on the medical provider industry. That would be Dr, nurses, hospitals, drug co, medical devices, etc.

The PO is between a rock and a hard place. The PO can't be a better alternative than insurance companies without sucking tones of tax dollars and imposing draconian laws on the public.