At yesterday’s town hall health care forum in Portsmouth, N.H., President Barack Obama said we should not worry about private insurance companies competing against a government-run public plan because that’s what UPS and FedEx do and they are doing just fine. “Its the Post Office that’s always having problems,” he said.
Whew! That sure is comforting. I thought he was going to tell us the government-run public health care plan would be as consumer friendly and efficient as the DMV.
So how well does the Postal Service compete against UPS and FedEx? The Postal Service ended its third quarter June 30, 2009, with a net loss of $2.4 billion. Despite cost reductions against the fiscal 2009 plan of more than $6 billion and actions to grow revenue, the Postal Service (USPS) projects a net loss of more than $7 billion at fiscal year-end.
And who runs the Postal Service? Why, the GOVERNMENT does, of course! I’ve got an idea for Obama. Instead of spending up to $1.5 trillion, as the CBO estimates, to overhaul the health care plan of 85% of Americans just to cover the 15% who are uninsured for one reason or another, how about fixing the Postal Service first.
If Obama could do that, I would really be impressed.
Government health care run just like the Post Office
David Online 