The insurance industry, abetted by Republicans, is waging all-out war against the idea of a public insurance alternative.
"Unfair competition," they cry.
But that doesn't square with the "GOP gospel" that competition is a hallmark of free-market economics.
Worse yet, it flies in the face of conservative mythology which holds that private enterprise is always more efficient than the bumbling private sector.
If so, what's private insurance got to fear from a little public competition?
Truth is, the private insurance industry has been a bust at controlling costs, which have risen at something like three times the inflation rate. Without competition from a public insurance option, chances of slowing the cost rise are dim.
Actually, the insurance companies are playing a classic double game. While pouring money into a campaign to stop a public option, they're pressing just as hard for an individual mandate that, without competition from a public option, would send millions more premium payers their way.