It's amusing to hear insurance company supporters assert that private health plans will go out of business if they have to compete against a public health insurance plan option. They claim that the government will set the rules to favor the public health insurance plan, creating an unlevel playing field that will eventually eliminate private health plans. Is it a realistic fear? A look at real world experience with the Medicare program tells us that government has done just the opposite: it has favored the private plans that contract with Medicare.

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