David Morris on the Private/Public Question

Thanks to David Morris of the Institute for Local Self Reliance for his great op-ed in today's Star Tribune: Might Private, Not Public, Be the Dirty Word?

After pointing out that "private" derives from the Latin privare, meaning to reduce or tear apart (as in privateer and privation), Morris raises several examples of how the public sector can be more affordable for people or keep the private sector on its toes.

This is all related to the current debate about a "public option" in U.S. health care, of course. He writes:

In the 1960s, when Canada shifted to a single public health insurer from a system dominated by private companies, per capita health care costs in Canada were about the same as they were in the United States. Today, Canada's public health system delivers first-rate health care to all Canadians for far less than our private system costs to provide care for less than 80 percent of Americans.

In 2003, Congress added a "private option" to Medicare. Private insurers promised the efficiency of a private market would lower costs and improve care. In the only empirical case we have in this country of private health insurers competing with a "public option," the public won hands down. According to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, Medicare Advantage plans cost an average of 12 percent more than traditional Medicare to provide the same care, resulting in excess costs of $54 billion over five years and $149 billion over 10 years.

It's definitely worth a read.