That would still kill off those older plans by slow strangulation, so the claim that you could keep your previous plan is pretty damn weak, if said plan is non-conforming. But you would still be free to buy individual conforming plans from private carriers. Of course, THOSE plans would have to compete against the taxpayer-subsidized public plan, which would lead to more slow strangulation of private plans….

The overall claim that the scheme of the current House bill would lead to choking off most private plans and eventually lead to single-payer appears valid to me. The Swiss and Danes have reasonably well-functioning systems that do NOT include a “public plan” but DO include standard base criteria for all plans AND mandatory purchase, with plans competing for customers and low-income subsidization, and they seem to do OK.

HA! Its so interesting that you would point out that individual choice for health insurance is important for Americans, because as it turns out, the current House bill bans individual private insurance. From Investors Business Daily:

Under the Orwellian header of “Protecting The Choice To Keep Current Coverage,” the “Limitation On New Enrollment” section of the bill clearly states:

“Except as provided in this paragraph, the individual health insurance issuer offering such coverage does not enroll any individual in such coverage if the first effective date of coverage is on or after the first day” of the year the legislation becomes law.

So we can all keep our coverage, just as promised — with, of course, exceptions: Those who currently have private individual coverage won’t be able to change it. Nor will those who leave a company to work for themselves be free to buy individual plans from private carriers.

Lets hope this bill goes down in flames. The solution to the health care crisis is individual private insurance. The first thing we need to do is decouple insurance from employment.

“Provides consumers with a choice of plans through a health insurance exchange.” That’s a biggie, because while consumers are offered choices, they’re still picking between private and public.

They will be picking for a while, until their employer dumps their private plan to cut costs, or until the premiums on private insurance skyrocket as more and more people leave private insurance join the taxpayer-subsidized plan.

Eventually, the only people who will be able to afford to choose between public and private will be the rich, and they of course will always choose the superior private care. The quality gap between the rich and poor will increase in this country and it will all be the fault of people who support this bill.