Q: Do you support the bill creating a state-provided public option in health insurance coverage?
Lamont: The taxpayers end up on the hook for everything where we’re told it is going to pay for itself, then it never quite pays for itself and who ends up picking up the tab? So, I really worry that with this (proposed) pubic option it is the taxpayers who are going to end up picking up a lot of that risk. I’m not going to allow that to happen. If Anthem or Cigna want to manage this and take the investment risk, take the health risk, just like they do now in some sort of preferred network, that doesn’t upset me — that might be a good thing.
And the other thing, is you have to have a level playing field. The public option would play by one set of rules…everyone else would play by a different set of rules. I think those two things (exposing taxpayers to risk and an uneven playing field) would be deal breakers for me.
Lamont: ‘I don’t think we need any new taxes right now’: The Day, May 16, 2021