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Speaking to a local business crowd on Tuesday, U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., said private insurance companies could not compete with a government-sponsored insurance option or member-run co-ops. DeMint is touring the state to promote his ideas about health care reform, which include tax credits and allowing private insurance companies to compete across state lines.
By Ashley Fletcher Frampton
aframpton@scbiznews.com
Published Aug. 19, 2009
Creating a public option for health insurance will destroy the nation’s health care system, Sen. Jim DeMint told the Rotary Club of Charleston on Tuesday.
DeMint, R-S.C., who is traveling the state to discuss health care during Congress’s recess, blasted reform plans supported by President Barack Obama and some Democrats in Congress. He said a government-run plan will drive all private insurance companies out of business because they won’t be able to compete.
DeMint said private insurance companies also would fail if the government creates member-run health insurance co-ops. The co-op concept is one alternative to a government-run or public option, and under some proposals co-ops would receive government money to get started.
Obama has argued that private companies can compete with government enterprises. He has pointed to UPS and FedEx, competitors of the U.S. Postal Service, as examples.
The president has said that people who are pleased with their private health insurance policies can keep them under his reform plan.
DeMint has garnered media attention for saying in July that if Republicans defeat Obama’s health care reform plan, it would equate to a “Waterloo” and would “break him.” The senator did not back away from those sentiments on Tuesday.
“The president is on a rampage with an agenda that has surprised everyone,” DeMint said.
Stopping the momentum on health care is the only way to make the president work with Republicans on future policies, he said. If the president and congressional leaders are able to achieve health care reform quickly, DeMint said they would move on to cap and trade policies for energy emissions.
Supporters of those policies don’t really care about health care access or clean energy, DeMint said.
“This is about the belief that government can manage the economy,” he said.
DeMint said he believes all Americans should have health insurance they can afford. He described his alternative proposal for accomplishing that, which includes giving tax credits to people who do not have or choose not to participate in employer-based group health insurance. Annual tax credits would be $2,000 for individuals and $5,000 for families.
He also would allow people to buy insurance policies from companies based in any state, increasing competition among plans, he said.
He pointed to New York, which has more mandates for insurance companies than South Carolina, and said South Carolina insurance companies should be allowed to sell policies in New York.
“What that will mean is that New York will have better policies,” DeMint said.
Opponents of that idea argue that it would create a race to the bottom in coverage, DeMint said. But he dismissed that opposition, saying it’s based on the belief that “people are too stupid to make their own decisions.”
DeMint also wants to reduce health care costs by limiting frivolous malpractice lawsuits against doctors and hospitals. Read more about DeMint’s health care reform proposals here.
Tuesday’s Rotary Club lunch crowd displayed none of the hostility over health care reform that some members of Congress have faced in local meetings around the country this month.
DeMint today moves on to Myrtle Beach to promote his ideas about health care reform. He is visiting 12 cities around the state as part of a “South Carolina on the Move” tour.
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