Howard Dean Challenges Obama's Flexibility on Health Care Overhaul

As opposition voices from Republicans and angry citizens at town hall meetings continued to grow louder, President Obama and leading members of his administration have started to back pedal from the idea that a government-run insurance operation is necessary to reform health care. Instead, Obama's staff has moved to the possibility of co-operative insurance providers that operate as non-profit organizations with help from the government. These types of organizations would provide competition for private insurers, while not giving any direct operational control to the federal government.

In response to Obama's political posturing and give-and-take with Republicans, Howard Dean has stepped forward to voice his opinion that a government-run insurance option is essential to reforming health care in this country. Dean argued that without it, the government would essentially just be subsidizing the already bloated and openly corrupt health insurance industry.

The problem Obama and Dean are facing is that there are too many "easy" points to attack the idea of a government-run insurance model. Especially when lawmakers are trying to enact this massive piece of legislation over a very brief time frame. The majority of the American public simply doesn't have enough information to adequately assess the proposals that are on the table. Those who favor them probably don't know why they do - and those who don't will point to a few widely accepted fallacies about the plans.

There are existing models of state-run health care around the world that work. Something akin to those models, with a high-end private option for those that wish to pay for it, would seem to be the best case scenario. Yes, insurance companies would suffer and die. Yes, there would be some growing pains. But ultimately, tax dollars would be spent on something that is actually of value to citizens.