McConnell: I do not believe Obama’s healthcare claims

The Obama administration isn’t to be believed when they argue that a public plan in the healthcare reform bill will not force out private insurers, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) argued Monday.

“I do not believe them,” McConnell told CNN in a podcast aired Monday. “That is not what will happen.”

McConnell signaled that the only way to get bipartisan support for a healthcare reform package in the Senate would be to exclude a public option from the final bill. Some Senate Democrats would like to make a publicly-run plan available alongside existing private options.

“A good place to start if you want to address healthcare reform in a bipartisan manner is to get rid of the government option,” McConnell asserted. “So if we could just get off of the table the government effort to take over American healthcare — as it has increasingly done with banks, auto companies, insurance companies — that would be a step in the right direction.”

Senate Republicans maintained Monday afternoon that the plan should be correctly termed “government-run,” instead of a “public option.”

McConnell, like many other Republicans, has argued that the government would be able to undercut private insurers’ prices, making them increasingly dominant in the healthcare market.

The GOP has also been weary of the costs associated with extending a public option.

“It’s going to cost dramatically more money to take the current systems in Medicaid and Medicare and extend it to the entire population,” McConnell said.