As published on washingtontimes.com by Michael O. Leavitt and Jeffrey H. Anderson on June 23, 2009:

Yes, Obama will push you out of private health care

During his recent speech to the American Medical Association, President Obama addressed what he called the “illegitimate concern” that “a public option is somehow a Trojan horse for a single-payer system.” Referring to such concerns, he added that “when you hear the naysayers claim that I’m trying to bring about government-run health care, know this: They’re not telling the truth.”

As the authors of “A Trojan Horse Plan” (Opinion, June 1), we are perhaps uniquely situated to respond. For our part, we’re prepared to believe that the president honestly thinks his “public option” isn’t a Trojan horse; that he honestly believes it won’t lead to government control of our health care system. What we don’t know is why he believes that.

The Lewin Group, a prominent consulting firm, estimates that, under a widespread, Medicare-like “public option,” 118 million Americans would lose their private health insurance and be switched onto government-run care. To the best of our knowledge, the president hasn’t cited any studies to the contrary. When you combine those 118 million with the 80 million people already covered by government health care, there wouldn’t be much room left in which private insurance could operate.

Read the full article here