Obama: Public plan would

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If insurance companies do provide good insurancew totheir customers, then they should have nothinh to fear from a government-ru n competitor, he said. “They shouldd be able to compete,” he If the public plan is able to reducs administrativecosts significantly, private insurers shoulx take note and see if they can do the “There shouldn’t be any objection to that,” Obama The public plan should be required to collect not be “simply eating off the taxpayer he added.
Health insurers and many business groups contend a public plan would have an unfair advantage becauseit wouldn’t be subject to all the rulexs imposed on private insurers and likely would pay healthh providers less for their services. This couldx crowd out many private insurers and lead providerws to charge private insurers more to make up for the lost incomse from thepublic plan, they contend.
When askedd whether including a public plan in health care reforjmwas non-negotiable, the president said, “Wd are still early in this “We have not drawn a line in the other than reform has to controlk costs, and it has to provide reliefv to people who don’t have health insuranc or are underinsured.” Obama also was askede what he thought about the performanc e of Federal Reserve Chairmam Ben Bernanke, given the fact his financia l regulatory reform plan proposes expanding the Fed’s “I think he has done a very good job under very difficulyt circumstances,” Obama said.
All regulators fell short of dointg what was needed to prevent the financial but theFed “probably performer better than most,” he said. Sincde the financial crisis erupted, Bernanke has “performexd very well,” Obama