The Health Care Freedom Coalition, which includes several dozen free market-based and medical organizations, issued a letter from several key groups regarding reform legislation currently proposed in Congress. The letter, directed to Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), indicated coalition and its member groups strongly oppose co-operatives as an alternative to the public option.
Brian McManus, who heads the Health Care Freedom Coalition, reiterates the argument of so many co-operatives critics: it is simply the same as the public option, complete with government intervention, a compromise of patient choice, lack of protections for doctors and ultimately, skyrocketed taxes and spending.
“The groups signed this letter because government co-ops are a distinction from the government public option, but not a difference,” McManus explained. “Once the government subsidies these co-ops, the health insurance marketplace will be altered and favor these government co-ops, ultimately herding Americans into the government co-op plans.”
Below is the text, including signees and their affiliate companies, of the statement released today:
September 14, 2009
Dear Senators Baucus and Grassley:
On behalf of the more than 60 members of the Health Care Freedom Coalition and other allies who in turn represent millions of grassroots activists, doctors, health care providers, and concerned citizens, we write to oppose the creation of a government-controlled health co-op as part of comprehensive health care reform.
The American people have decisively rejected the notion of a “public plan” that would unfairly compete with private sector health insurance companies. As a purely cosmetic fallback maneuver, the White House in recent days has said that an alternative path might be found in the idea of a “co-op” controlled by the government. This is a distinction without a difference.
· A public plan is a health insurance entity owned and controlled by the government—and so is a government co-op.
· A public plan would be subsidized both implicitly and explicitly by the government, creating an uneven playing field in any health insurance “competition”—and so would a government co-op.
· A public plan would be aided by crippling new regulations and bureaucratic health boards that would undermine free market health insurance delivery—and so would a government co-op.
· A public plan would require hundreds of billions annually in new taxes, spending, and debt—and so would a government co-op.
· A public plan would be designed in such a way that most Americans would be funneled into it over time—and so would a government co-op.
· A public plan would have to ration in order to contain out-of-control health care costs—and so would a government co-op.
· A public plan would involve the use of tax dollars to violate health care workers’ conscience rights and legal protections for the most vulnerable of Americans, including the unborn and the elderly—and so would a government co-op.
In short, a public plan and a government-run co-op are the same thing, with only a different name to separate them. The Obama Administration has not taken the public plan off the table, as they will be the first to tell you. What they won’t tell you is that they have merely changed its label.
Sincerely,
J. Bradley Jansen
Center for Financial Privacy and Human Rights
Thomas Henry, President
RealCare Insurance Marketing, Inc.
Susan Carlson
American Civil Rights Union
Richard A Matthews
DMCO
Karen Kerrigan
Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council
Wendy Wright
Concerned Women for America
Beverly Gossage
HSA Benefits Counseling
John Vellines
Health Savings Administrators
Mario Lopez
Hispanic Leadership Fund
Grover Norquist
Americans for Tax Reform
Merrill Matthews
Council for Affordable Health Insurance
Gary Aldrich
CNP Action, Inc.
Phyllis Schlafly
Eagle Forum
Tom McClusky
FRC Action
Dave Stewart
Webb and Greer 
Marjorie Dannenfelser
Susan B. Anthony List
Larry Cirignano
Catholic Activist
Steven Mosher
Population Research International
Chris Slattery
Expectant Mother Care – EMC FrontLine Pregnancy Centers
Thomas Glessner
National Institute of Family and Life Advocates
Mary Anne Hackett
Catholic Citizens of Illinois
Charles T. Kenny
The Right Brain People
David Stevens, MD
Christian Medical Association
Samuel E. Ericsson
Advocates International
Kristan Hawkins
Students for Life America
Ralph Weber
Route 3 Benefits
Mark Kellen
Association of American Physicians and Surgeons
Kerri Toloczko
Institute for Liberty
Dave Racer
FreeMarketHealthCare.com
Michelle Morin
Coalition for a Conservative Majority, Colorado Springs Chapter
Tim Phillips
Americans for Prosperity
Fred Eckel
Christian Pharmacists Fellowship International
Melanie Freimuth
Human Life Alliance
Ryan Ellis
American Shareholders’ Association
Karen Malec
Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer
Peggy Hartshorne
Heartbeat International
Lew Uhler
The National Tax Limitation Committee
Tom Schatz
Council for Citizens Against Government Waste
David Ridenour
The National Center for Public Policy Research
Amy Ridenour
Americans for the Preservation of Liberty
James Acklin
Healthcare Reform Collaboratory
Duane Parde
National Taxpayers Union
Jim Martin
60 Plus
Michael Ciamarra
Alabama Policy Institute
Kelsey Zahourek
Property Rights Alliance
Marie Bowen
Presbyterians Pro-Life
Jim Backlin
Christian Coalition
Jeffrey Mazzella
Center for Individual Freedom
Kevin Sampson
Health Benefits Associates
Dennis E. Whitfield
American Conservative Union
Sandra Fabry
Center for Fiscal Accountability
Colin Hanna
Let Freedom Ring
D. Paul Caprio
Family PAC-Illinois
Patrick Hughes
STOP-IT
Morton Blackwell
Conservative Leadership PAC
C. Preston Noell III
Tradition, Family, Property, Inc.
Andrea Lafferty
Traditional Values Coalition
