Politico.com, April 14, 2009 by Carrie Budoff Brown
http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=A1326EE8-18FE-70B2-A854B64621F83AFE
The first and most obvious reason to have the public plan is to have a check on private insurers, a benchmark with which they have to compete…. The second most important area is cost control. Private insurers have been very passive in the face of rising prices. The third area I would emphasize is security. People in all parts of the country need to have the security of knowing they will have access to a backup plan that is available to them in the same terms in all parts of the country.