At Stern - Health Insurance Legislation with Congressman Anthony Weiner

With regards to what is undoubtedly the most heated debate in the country today, at a talk organized by the NYU Stern's newest club - the Government Business Association (GBA)- Congressman Anthony Weiner of New York's ninth congressional district deftly advocated and defended the public option plan for health insurance but approached any speculation regarding its success at the Senate with measured optimism, despite its recent victory at the House of Representatives on the weekend of November 9th.

Purported to be very high on President Obama's agenda since he took office last year, the health care reform debate has resulted in demonstrations, debates, discussions and angry town hall meetings all over the country. One of the issues at the forefront of this debate that has divided both the House and the Senate is the potential introduction of an affordable Medicare-like government backed health insurance plan for those who cannot afford other more expensive insurance plans. Concerns abound about the potential of increased government bureaucracy, rationing, bigger deficit, lower quality of service, crowding out the health insurance market and distortion of pricing mechanisms. At the event hosted by the GBA, a lively discussion forum demonstrated keen interest by voicing all of the above relevant concerns and questions.

In a spirited and effective defense of the public option plan Congressman Weiner emphasized that the health insurance market cannot be expected to conform to traditional market forces as by design, in most emergency and chronic health care situations a buyer's economic choice is rendered irrelevant - the irony of addressing the irrelevance of the market forces in this case to an audience of business school students did not go unnoticed by the articulate Congressman. He bitterly criticized private insurance providers for their refusal to provide services based on pre-existing conditions, their poor quality of service and their tendency to pocket disproportionate amounts of the profits. True to his reputation of being a tireless, diligent fact checker the Congressman showed an impressive handle on the facts, figures and numbers that he used to support his assertions about the effectiveness of Medicare, money spent on health care in the past, the surplus pocketed by care providers and insurance companies and potential cost savings of a government backed plan.

While it is unlikely that the audience was unimpressed by the Congressman's passion, faith and role in progressing the public option in health insurance to its current stage some expressed interesting alternate possibilities to the plan such as one that involved the government in its role as a regulator rather than as a market participant (as demonstrated in other industries such as utilities).

A protégé of Senator Charles Schumer, Rep. Weiner is a home grown New Yorker. He has been in the news quite often to support healthcare reform, most recently in an interview with MSNBC's Carlos Watson and CNBC anchor Maria Bartiromo who caused quite a stir by accusing Rep. Weiner of not being enrolled in the Medicare plan himself despite being such a strong advocate of it. My only guess is that she was woefully unaware (in a debate about healthcare) of the details of the Medicare plan which is only for people above the age of 65 - because suspecting the fit 44 year old Congressman, who was somewhat Obama-esque in his outstanding demonstration of oratory excellence and in his cool and intellectual manner, to be any older than his actual age is highly unlikely.