People will flock to the government option, because it’s so bad?

http://patrick.net/forum/?p=16770

So let me see if I got the anti-reform argument right:

The government always does everything horribly. So government health insurance has got to be awful.

If the government offers you a public health insurance option, that will kill choice, because all the private insurers will go out of business.

And the private insurers will go out of business because people will voluntarily flock to the government option.

I’m missing something here. It’s awful, but everyone will choose it?

People just don't understand what a tremendous burden Health Insurance is on Business. If given an opportunity to eliminate this huge expense while not denying employees Health Care most business will do just that. It isn't that a Public Option will be all that much better or even cheaper but that it will have to take all those that lose their employee based Insurance. It is a legitimate argument except for the fact that there is no reason in Hell that employers should be responsible for employees Health Care. It is just not logical, yet the Government providing for the Health and Welfare of the Nation is extremely Logical and Right

this will be great - for those who believe in looking out for number one while stepping and crushing and killing others, not so much

This all started when businesses began offering health plans as a recruiting tool. That naturally increased the private insurance coverage during WW2 when wages were frozen, so most businesses began offering plans to compensate for not being able to increase wages.

Now, if there is a public option available, companies to return to the 'recruiting' paradigm, by offering premium plans to people they want to recruit, plans that would cost no more to the worker than the public option would cost, but would offer them better benefits, the difference in cost made up by the company. So for the lunchbox crowd, the public option would be available, saving the company money, while they offer premium plans to executives and choice recruits.

Talk about destroying incentive...

is that people will not pay for two plans. IF they are paying for a govt plan, what is the point in paying for a private plan?