ABC’s Nightline up next in a minute with continued questions for the president.
Gibson: We didn’t get to the “public option” in the previous segment, so we’ll do that now. There are questions about whether or not a government run insurance plan is necessary. Republican critics say that current public programs SS, Medicare/Medicaid are already over-extended so we don’t need another government run program, especially in this economy. What do you say to them?
Obama: They’re e wrong. What we want to set up is an insurance market place where Americans will be able to compare plans, check out deductibles, etc. to see what’s best for them. (Including the same options that Congress gets.) One option will be government insurer that isn’t profit driven to keep costs low. The argument to that is that it will run other insurers out of business and that the free market can do it better; government can’t run anything. If that’s the case, nobody’s going to choose the public option. Opposition to the public option is not practical; it’s ideological.