Are Public Universities a Good Analogy for the Public Option?

Nick Gillespie is puzzled at President Obama’s invocation of state-run universities as an analogy to a state-run insurance company:

Leaving aside a host of questions about the analogy, college costs are among the few that have been rising with the speed and intensity of medical costs. So how would this sort of competition reduce costs, one of the main goals, says Obama, of any health care reform worth the name? Indeed, the obvious similarity between higher ed and health care is that both systems rely on a third-party payer system where expenses are heavily subsidized (by employers, tax breaks, parents, federal grants, special loans, you name it) and the end consumers (patients, students) are shielded from knowing the full cost of the services they consume.

He also makes some good points about the importance of the patient knowing the prices of drugs and health care services – something that is largely missing today.

Cross-posted from State House Call.