The Public Option

One of the big issues in the current health care reform discussions is the "public option": introducing a public provider to compete with private health insurers. Actuaries and others familiar with the insurance industry have seen this movie before, in health care and other lines of insurance -- with respect to both proposed and implemented public insurers.

Here are a couple of nice articles discussing the public option in an economic context:

(1) "The 'Public Plan' Would be the Only Plan," by Scott Harrington (professor at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania), Wall Street Journal, June 15, 2009.

(2) "The Pitfalls of the Public Option," by N. Gregory Mankiw (professor at Harvard University), New York Times, June 27, 2009.

- Rick