Advocates of socialized medicine keep saying a “public option” is “simply a little competition for the greedy insurance companies.” Excuse me — what private insurance companies actually exist? The ones I know of are all regulated by the federal government and most state governments. Various health care providers have legislation passed to force insurance companies to provide this or that level of service in all of their plans — they call it “parity” — and this drives costs up. Government regulates insurance companies in countless other ways — and cost is passed on to the customer, with each new law that passes. The only way to stop this from happening is to reverse or eliminate all of the regulations and to let private insurance companies compete in a free and deregulated market. Of course, there is one other option: the “public” option, which amounts to nothing more than socialized medicine — single-payer government insurance for all. I’m sick of the debate being fought on terms of “keep the private sector” versus “have a public option compete with the private sector.” Earth to everyone: THERE IS NO PRIVATE SECTOR. That’s why health care and health insurance are such a mess, getting worse all the time. The solution is out there, and it’s the exact opposite of everything being proposed. The solution is freedom in medicine, freedom for the first time since modern medicine came on the scene.