http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090306/ap_on_go_co/health_care_overhaulA recent analysis by the Commonwealth Fund, a nonprofit group that sponsors health care research, is giving supporters of a public plan some ammunition.
The study estimated costs and coverage under a hypothetical health reform plan similar to what Obama proposed in the campaign. It found that a public plan like Medicare could reduce projected health care costs by about $2 trillion over an 11-year period. Premiums in the public plan would be at least 20 percent lower, partly because of reduced administrative costs. Within a decade or so, some 105 million people would be in the public plan, compared with about 107 million with private insurance.
This is great. The public plan will cost 20% less, so people will ditch private insurance and go public. Since the gov already funds half our healthcare, by 2020 or so it'll make up 75% of healthcare billing, making true single payer easier to establish. And that is why private insurers and republicans oppose it. They know the private insurers can't compete with a well run public plan and it'll eventually take everything over. Fine by me.
Commonwealth fund is the group that designed (from what I know) the idea behind Obama's plan. Here is the report the Obama plan will largely be based on.
http://www.commonwealthfund.org/Content/Publications/Fund-Reports/2009/Feb/The-Path-to-a-High-Performance-US-Health-System.aspx