The Public Health Plan “Trojan Horse”

Marguerite Bowling / April 23, 2009

Former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary and Utah Gov. Michael Leavitt warned yesterday that a public health insurance option in any comprehensive health reform would be the “Trojan horse” that would force Americans into a single-payer health system.

Proponents for a public health insurance plan, which has been suggested to be modeled after Medicare, employ “a real clever use of language,” using words like “choice” and “competition” when discussing the plan, Leavitt said in a conference call — one of his first commentaries since leaving the federal health agency that runs Medicare, Medicaid and other public health programs. “But it shouldn’t be called a public option; it should be called a government option,” he said. (more…)