Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Farmers Union Makes Case for Public Option

NY Times reports

In a news conference on Tuesday aimed at pressuring swing-vote senators, leaders of the National Farmers Union, which represents about 250,000 farm and ranch families, stressed the importance of major health care


John Hansen, the president of the Nebraska chapter of the Farmers Union, noted that the state had succeeded in lowering its utility costs through the use of publicly sponsored generation of electricity, including wind power, to make a case for government-run health insurance.

“The public option in Nebraska for electric generation has served us extremely well,” he said, “and yet we villainize a similar kind of public option when it comes to health care.” Mr. Hansen said that 69 percent of health insurance policies in the state were written by just two private insurers and that the public plan — a government-run insurance option — was needed to increase competition.

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