GOP Attorney General Suing Over Obamacare Supports Single-Payer: ‘I Trust The Government More’

[ProSense]

GOP Attorney General Suing Over Obamacare Supports Single-Payer: ‘I Trust The Government More’

By Scott Keyes

WASHINGTON, DC — According to one Republican attorney general in the lawsuit against the health care individual mandate, the problem with Obamacare is that it’s not a government takeover of health care.

ThinkProgress spoke with Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell outside the Supreme Court on Wednesday. Caldwell opposes Obamacare and the individual mandate, but for a different reason than most of his fellow litigants: it props up the private health insurance industry. “Insurance companies are the absolute worst people to handle this kind of business,” he declared. “I trust the government more than insurance companies.” Caldwell went on to endorse the idea of a single-payer health care system, saying it’d “be a whole lot better” than Obamacare:

KEYES: You don’t think the subsidies for low-income people are going to be helpful?

CALDWELL: No, no. The worst thing you can do is give it to an insurance company. I want to make my point. All insurance companies are controlled in their particular state. If you have a hurricane come up the east coast, the first one that’s going to leave you when they gotta pay too many claims is an insurance company. Insurance companies are the absolute worst people to handle this kind of business. I trust the government more than insurance companies. If the government wants to put forth a policy where they will pay for everything and you won’t have to go through an insurance policy, that’d be a whole lot better.

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http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/03/30/454261/buddy-caldwell-private-insurance/

[Enrique]

1. Buddy Caldwell is right n/t

[ProSense]

2. Yes, he is.

He would be more convincing if LA was pursuing a single payer law similar to CA, VT and other states.

I do know that LA is one of the few states that has not moved to establish an exchange.

He should convince the Governor of the state to pursue a plan.

[CAPHAVOC]

3. Great idea

I wish Florida would do that. But then you see all the uninsured sick would head to Florida. It needs to be National in scope

[ProSense]

4. Right

"I wish Florida would do that. But then you see all the uninsured sick would head to Florida."

...uninsured Texans are flocking to Massachusetts and Vermont.

You know, I want the country to move to single payer, but can we skip bogus and simplistic arguments?

[ProSense]

5. Kick!

Democrats should be able to use this.

"I trust the government more than insurance companies."