I was listening to of all things (MSNBC’s The Ed Show), and I could only listen to it for a total of 3.5 seconds when this idiot started talking about a public option that does not have a policy say would be more palateable. Which got me thinking about my football days.

I played football for a Division 1-AA football team (AKA the Football Championship Subdivision, the one not many people don’t pay attention to), and if I could have been in the position where I could have refereed, and been a player, my penalty yards would have been greatly reduced, (I was an offensive lineman, and we always hold, it’s just a matter of getting caught), and I could have pretty much been an All-American.  But alas, in the game of football the referee, for the most part is neutral and calls the game both ways and here I am a lowly computer tech doing the working man thing.

This is analogous to the “public option”.  From what I can see this “option” is going to “compete” with private insurance companies. How is that going to work effectively, when the “public option” will have an unlimited capital pool from which to draw from then any other insurance company, so it would be fine for them to take about 5 years of solid losses, covering everything that the referee (federal govt, the owner of the public option), makes every other insurance company cover, so right there the insurance company, plays against a stacked deck, until they fold, then the “public option” becomes the only player in the game then we are in a “single payer”system.  Then somebody is going to find out that the first 5 years is not sustainable, and then we get the rationing and “economic decisions” of who gets treated or not.

Another thing about this deal is what happens if the private company’s (I know probably a long shot but hear me out), still have the ability to out perform the “public option” by maybe advertising that they can deliver services better than the “public option”, and then doing so.  Is the referee, still going to call the game down the middle, and let the “”public option” die.  No, they are going to change the rules so that the private insurance companies cannot market against the public option, therefore tilting the deck once again in their favor.

This whole healthcare thing as the Democrats are pushing is a raw deal for America as a whole, but for a country that thrived on competition and innovation, these proposals are going to kill it, and we will be under a “single payer” system, and personally, I don’t like my survival chances in that environment.