Politics

Doc Dot Com: Debating Health Care Reform

By Prerana Swami

July 23, 2009 / 4:33 PM EDT / CBS News

With the battle for health care reform continuing in Congress, CBS News Medical Correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook sat down with two industry experts to weigh the pros and cons of the reform on this week's episode of "Doc Dot Com," CBSNews.com's Web-only show on medical issues.

President Obama offered a "nice sound bite" in an interview with LaPook last week, BenefitMall's Executive Director Robert Shlossburg said. But Shlossburg added that a government-run insurance option would put private insurance carriers "at a disadvantage."

"The bottom line is when you put this all together, it is very, very difficult for a private carrier, dollarwise, to compete with a plan that is much, much cheaper," Shlossburg said.

Wendell Potter, former head of PR for Cigna and senior fellow at the Center for Media and Democracy, disagreed. He said that the public plan meant more competition, though the profits of private carriers may be reduced.

Potter, Schlossburg, and LaPook also talked about health care television campaigns and the ways reform could improve. The full episode can be found above.

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