Warner: Driving Down Health Care Costs is the Key; No Mention of "Public Option"

Earlier today, Sen. Warner appeared on MSNBC's "Dr. Nancy" to discuss the debate surrounding health care reform. Based on what he said on the show, Warner's focus in the debate clearly continues to be "bending the cost curve down." In addition, Warner emphasizes that: 1) the Senate Finance Committee will have the advantage of knowing "where the hot buttons were" in the other bills; 2) it's good that Max Baucus took "the extra time to get this bill right;" 3) it's important that this be a "bipartisan bill" given that this is changing 1/6 of our economy, "the whole health care industry;" and 4) nobody should be bothered by allowing a legal resident who wants to use their own money to buy into insurance that would be offered on the exchange (Warner adds, "the system right now is already paying for illegal immigrants' health care if they access health care through the emergency rooms of the country").

Personally, I agree with Warner that it's crucially important to "bend the cost curve down." That's exactly why I agree with 73% of U.S. doctors who support adding a "public option" to the mix, as a means of putting competitive pressure on private insurance companies to lower costs and to provide better service than they currently do. What I fail to understand is how anyone, except for politicians overly concerned with what private insurance companies think, would be against adding more competition to the U.S. health care industry. What on earth could possibly be wrong with that is beyond me.