Parcel Delivery with a Public Option

by: tremayne

Tue Jun 23, 2009 at 13:52

President Obama made some strong statements in support of including a public option in the health care reform bill. He dodged the question of whether he would sign a bill that doesn't include one but his defense of it was unequivocal. Obama basically told the insurance industry: "if you can't compete, tough."

But the President's explanation of how private health insurance could possibly compete with a government-run plan was lacking.

During his back and forth with skeptical reporters I immediately thought of the U.S. Postal Service. Here's a government-run service that can deliver a paper document to any remote location you choose for 42 cents.  They can also deliver packages quickly and at a very competitive rate. Impressive.

But even with this efficiency the "public option" for package delivery has a number of healthy competitors. There's FedEx (started in 1971 as Federal Express), DHL (founded in 1969), UPS (founded in 1907) among others.

Somehow, despite the government-run program, these private delivery services have managed to survive by offering customers something they found worthy of their business.

As the President implied, a public option in health care will help keep insurance companies honest. If they can't compete with the government ("which can't run anything" Obama sarcastically stated) then the American people "deserve to know that."