Biden Echoes Obama: ‘If You Have Private Insurance, You Want to Keep it, You Can Keep It’

(CNSNews.com) – Does this sound familiar? Democrat Joe Biden, campaigning in Tampa, Florida on Thursday, said under his health care plan, “if you have private insurance, you want to keep it, you can keep it.”

That echoes what President Barack Obama said about the Affordable Care Act in 2009: “If you like your doctor, you’ll be able to keep your doctor; if you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health care plan.”

But what Obama said wasn’t true.

And as the Heritage Foundation has explained, the public option advocated by Biden means the eventual end of private insurance: “Don’t be fooled. In the end, a public option will be no different than so-called Medicare for All. It would just materialize on the installment plan.”

Here’s what Biden said on Thursday:

Donald Trump thinks healthcare is a privilege. I think it’s a right of every American.

If you all get out and vote, we’ll not only restore Obamacare, we’re going to strengthen it and build on it. The Biden plan’s going to make sure, if you have private insurance, you want to keep it, you can keep it.

But you also have an option under my plan, you have a Medicare-like option, a public option. We are going to create subsidies for lower premiums and deductibles, out-of-pocket spending. We are going to–and we are going to reduce prescription drug prices, the experts acknowledge, by 60 percent.

Folks. We’re going to make sure we keep preconditions and protections for people with those conditions.

Biden warns that President Trump is trying “destroy the Affordable Care Act,” which Democrats see as a stepping stone to a single-payer system, with the federal government setting the rules and the rates.

Trump says that’s true, he does want to get rid of the ACA: “My Administration has been committed to restoring choice and control to the American patient,” Trump said in a September 2020 executive order outlining his “America-First Healthcare Plan.”

The executive order says, “The ACA was flawed from its inception and should be struck down. However, access to health insurance despite underlying health conditions should be maintained, even if the Supreme Court invalidates the unconstitutional, and largely harmful, ACA.”

In addition to maintaining coverage for preexisting conditions, Trump wants to give states more flexibility to “move away from the ACA’s rigid structure.” He would increase the availability of association health plans for small businesses to lower costs and allow insurance sales across state lines.

He is pushing for transparency in insurance pricing and medical billing, with the goal of increasing competition and lowering prices.

He wants to expand health savings accounts and telehealth services.

Democrats talk about building on the ACA with an expanded “public option.”

But as the Heritage Foundation noted:

Given the underlying economic and political dynamics of these public option proposals, the results are predictable: a collapse of choice and competition in the health insurance markets, more costs shifted onto taxpayers and providers, and the erosion and elimination of private health care alternatives for patients and their families.

In the end, Americans should not be surprised by the consequences of a public option that leads to a single-payer, government-run health care system. And they should look to other government-run health care schemes, such as Britain or Canada, to see the results—longer wait times, fewer providers, and less access to innovative treatments.