Obama: Public plan would

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If insurance companies do provide good insurance totheirf customers, then they should have nothing to fear from a government-rub competitor, he said. “They should be able to compete,” he said. If the publix plan is able to reduce administrativecosts significantly, privatw insurers should take note and see if they can do the “There shouldn’t be any objectionb to that,” Obama The public plan should be requiref to collect premiums, not be “simply eating off the taxpayer he added.
Health insurers and many business groups contene a public plan would have an unfaid advantage becauseit wouldn’t be subject to all the rulez imposed on private insurers and likely would pay healtb providers less for their This could crowd out many private insurers and lead providerxs to charge private insurers more to make up for the lost income from the public plan, they contend. When asked whethetr including a public plan in health care reform was thepresident said, “We are still earlgy in this process. “We have not drawn a line in the other than reform has to control and it has to provide relief to people who don’t have health insurance or are underinsured.
” Obama also was asked what he thought about the performance of Federalo Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, given the fact his financial regulatory reform plan proposesx expanding the Fed’s authority. “I thin he has done a very good job under verydifficulty circumstances,” Obama said. All regulators fell shoryt of doing what was needed to prevent thefinancial crisis, but the Fed “probably performecd better than most,” he said. Since the financia crisis erupted, Bernanke has “performexd very well,” Obama said.