Florida's Public Option For Homeowners

A national public option in health insurance would work out in much the same way:

"Unlike private companies, when the government can't cover its costs, it does not go out of business; it just finds ways to tax someone else. So it is for Citizens. Unlike real businesses, Citizens' financial shortfalls are made up by charging "assessments" to all of the remaining homeowners, auto, boat, motorcycle and business insurance policies - including policies of competing private insurance. The bottom line is that well-managed and financially solvent private companies cannot compete against state-sanctioned and subsidized operations.

It means a slow death of the private insurance market, but a painful and costly one for consumers. As Citizens grows and charges the customers of private insurers for its financial misdeeds, more customers leave for Citizens, which pushes private insurers out of the market and increases the market share of Citizens.

It's an endless cycle. It's the public option. But the scheme will soon leave Citizens fewer privately served citizens to level its assessments upon and leave Citizens as the state's high-cost monopoly...More from TBO.com

The notion that government can fairly and efficiently compete with the private sector in any business is as preposterous as allowing a home sports team provide its own referees, change the rules at any time and take points away from the opposition when they fall behind.