And by “get to keep your health care” they mean “don’t get to change your health care” (UPDATE: OK, not quite)

The House Democrats have unveiled their new health care bill, and it took the good folks at Investor’s Business Daily less than 2% into the document to find a jaw-dropper:

 It didn’t take long to run into an “uh-oh” moment when reading the House’s “health care for all Americans” bill. Right there on Page 16 is a provision making individual private medical insurance illegal.

. . .

The provision would indeed outlaw individual private coverage. Under the Orwellian header of “Protecting The Choice To Keep Current Coverage,” the “Limitation On New Enrollment” section of the bill clearly states:

“Except as provided in this paragraph, the individual health insurance issuer offering such coverage does not enroll any individual in such coverage if the first effective date of coverage is on or after the first day” of the year the legislation becomes law.

So we can all keep our coverage, just as promised — with, of course, exceptions: Those who currently have private individual coverage won’t be able to change it. Nor will those who leave a company to work for themselves be free to buy individual plans from private carriers.

In other words, you don’t “get” to keep your private coverage, you have to keep it – or end up in the government-run plan.

Remember this the next time someone insists Dems just want the government-run health option to “compete” with the private sector: if the private sector is banned from getting any new customers, it’s not competition; it’s a government takeover.

That’s reason enough to shoot this down.

UPDATE: Glenn Reynolds hears differently from a reader (via TQ):

Investor’s Business Daily did not continue to read the bill to page 19. “Individual health insurance coverage that is not grandfathered health insurance coverage under subsection (a) may only be offered on or after the first day of Y1 as an Exchange-participating health benefits plan. ” It does not outlaw individual private coverage – you can still buy the plan on the Exchange where they will compete with the public option, not be replaced by it. The advantage of the Exchange, is that the coverage no longer has one of the problems of individual coverage – skyrocketing premiums should you become ill.

So perhaps it’s not so cut and dried, but if private health insurance can no longer adjust its premiums to meet the realities of the insured, it won’t last very long.