Yet Another Apt, Yet Telling Comparison on Obama's Public Option

Remember when Obama compared his public option to the success of the post office?

“UPS and FedEx are doing just fine. It’s the Post Office that’s always having problems.” — Barack Obama, Aug. 11, 2009

In Obama's "Platitudes-R-Us" Health Speech the other night, he made the following statement, comparing his health care proposals to the current relationship between public and private colleges.

They argue that these private companies can't fairly compete with the government. And they'd be right if taxpayers were subsidizing this public insurance option. But they won't be. I've insisted that like any private insurance company, the public insurance option would have to be self-sufficient and rely on the premiums it collects. But by avoiding some of the overhead that gets eaten up at private companies by profits and excessive administrative costs and executive salaries, it could provide a good deal for consumers, and would also keep pressure on private insurers to keep their policies affordable and treat their customers better, the same way public colleges and universities provide additional choice and competition to students without in any way inhibiting a vibrant system of private colleges and universities.

Consider the California State University system:

SAN FRANCISCO-One day after the CSU system announced an enrollment cut of 10,000 students next fall, the UC Board of Regents said it would be forced to limit UC undergraduate enrollment as well if they did not receive needed state funding.

-Nov 20, 2008

Saying they could not avoid a painful decision, University of California regents voted Wednesday to trim freshman enrollment for next fall by 2,300 students, or about 6%, as a response to reduced state funding during the worsening budget crisis.

-January 15, 2009

Under the CSU plan, no additional students will be accepted this winter and spring and the hope is to cut fall 2010 enrollment by 40,000, Cal State Chancellor Charles Reed said Thursday. Also, employees would be furloughed two days per month and student fees would be increased 20 percent this fall.

-July 16, 2009

UC President Mark Yudof is recommending a 15 percent increase in in-state undergraduate fees that would take effect next spring, and another 15 percent increase on top of that beginning in fall 2010.

The governing Board of Regents will hear details of the proposal - which also includes graduate-level fee increases of 15 percent - at its meeting Wednesday, but won't vote until November.

If approved, the undergraduate fee increases would be the eighth and ninth in seven years, and would send the price of a year at UC above the $10,000 mark for the first time next fall.

-Sept. 11, 2009

Sounds like UC is rationing education at ever increasing costs. But that could never happen with health care, could it? Commander Foot in Mouth strikes again!

Cross posted at Say Anything