Health Reform and the "Public Plan" option

The political energy in Washington has centered on two issues of late:

1. Whether there should be a "public plan" option (think Medicare fee for service) along side private insurance companies
2. Whether employers that offer health insurance should be able to deduct those costs as business expenses (a 35% tax subsidy if the company is making money). If so, should the deduction be capped in some way?

Number 2 -- that's important, and maybe I'll figure it out. (I'm not betting on it.)

Number 1- I don't have to figure it out. Victor Fuchs, the dean of health economists, figured it out for me in this week's New England Journal of Medicine. Here's the free link to his article in NEJM. Bottom line: public-schmublic...it's not going to matter that much. It's no panacea for the problems we've got, and it won't kill private insurance. The latter I'm not so sure about. The former -- based on all we know about how ineffective Medicare has been these past 50+ years in controlling costs or assuring quality -- is a slam dunk.